Sakura season: Asakusa and Ueno Park Tour on March 24, 2024

Many thanks for joining our tours at Asakusa and Ueno Park on March 24, 2024. We welcomed 52 guests from the US, Canada, Italy, Australia, Spain, India, Turkey, UK, France, Ireland, Argentina, and, Germany. It was a tremendous opportunity for us to meet wonderful guests from many countries and share interesting conversations. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached so that you can remember the fun times we had during the tour.

<Asakusa>

Cherry blossom season is coming, and many tourists are visiting Asakusa. We divided our guests into several small groups. This is because Nakamise Street, which leads to Sensoji Temple, is very crowded and it is difficult to guide a large number of guests. TFWT’s biggest feature is that we tour in small groups like this, and our top priority is to ensure that our guests have fun.

<Ueno Park>

Ueno Park has over 50 varieties of cherry trees. 80% of them are Somei Yoshino trees. Cherry blossoms often fall about a week after full bloom. Traditionally, the best time in Ueno Park was from late March to early April, but recently it is getting earlier each year due to climate change.

During the Edo period, Ueno became famous as a cherry blossom attraction because cherry trees were planted within the grounds of Toei-zan Kan’ei-ji, the family temple of the Tokugawa shoguns. It is said that younger cherry trees were brought from Yoshinoyama in Nara and planted on the temple grounds. The custom of Hanami, or cherry blossom viewing, began in the Edo period, and Ueno flourished as a Hanami spot. However, due to concerns about disturbing the ancestors of the Tokugawa family from the noise of people enjoying Hanami, the 8th shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, planted cherry trees in various locations to disperse the Hanami Festival.

The combined tour with Asakusa in the morning and Ueno Park in the afternoon is not mandated, but it is just our recommendation. You can choose either of the tours as you wish.

Once again, thank you for choosing Tokyo Free Walking Tour during your precious time in Tokyo. In case you happen to be back in Tokyo, please join another one of our tours. Your feedback is important and helpful to us. If you enjoyed our tour, please consider posting a review on TripAdvisor/Facebook, etc. Your comments will help contribute to higher-quality tours.

For more information about our tour, please visit our website at https://tfwt.jp/top/asakusa/, https://tfwt.jp/top/ueno/, https://www.facebook.com/TokyoFWT or Tokyo Free Walking Tour at https://www.tripadvisor.jp/ .

(Posted by Yutaka)