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Tour report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku Tour on Aug. 20th, 2023

On behalf of our guides, I just wanted to send a few words of gratitude. Thank you forjoining our tour at Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on Aug 20th. We welcomed 8 guestsfrom Bulgaria, Italy, USA, Spain and Philippines. It was right after the “Obon” Holiday in Japan and still very hot and humid. I hope all of you enjoyed the fresh forest bathe in Meiji Shrine and the bright city area.We’ve posted group photos and snapshots so that you can look back on the fun times we had. During the tour, we talked about happy numbers in Japan and in each country. In Japan, there are special days other than numbers. One of them is called “Rokuyo”, which literally means six days. It is a calendar of Chinese origin, and a day is represented by six patterns of auspicious signs. Although we usually don’t think about it, we sometimes choose a specific date for important events such as the founding of a company, weddings, and funerals. Today is a day named “Taian” that is said to be auspicious for all things. In fact, there were eight weddings at Meiji Jingu. We wish our guests a lucky day too. We always […]

A break in the rainy season (TSUYU) : Tour report of Meiji Shrine and Harajuku Tour on July 2nd, 2023

On behalf of our guides, I just wanted to send a few words of gratitude. Thank you forjoining our tour at Meiji Shrine and Harajuku on July 2nd. We welcomed 35 guests from USA, Canada, India, Israel, Australia, Spain, Turkey and Denmark. The group was divided into five teams. I hope all of you enjoyed our tour in the wonderful weather, which is a break in the rainy season. We’ve posted group photos and snapshots so that you can look back on the fun times we had. (Team A) (Team B) (Team C) (Team D) (Team E) Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, who are enshrined in Meiji Shrine, left a lot of traditional  31-syllable Japanese poems. We can find some poems in the precinct. For instance, there is a panel which displays 2 poems during our tour.In addition, some of their poems are listed in Paper Oracle or “Omikuji” in Japanese. Omikuji usually indicates good or bad fortune, but the one in Meiji Shrine shows the poems written by both of them and tell us the guideline for humanity and morality. For instance, the left gold one written by Empress Shoken says,おこたりて 磨かざりせば 光ある玉も瓦に ひとしからまし(If just neglected, And never polished to […]

Enjoy Matsuri Festivals in Tokyo : Tour report of Asakusa and Ueno Park on May 28th

Thank you so much for joining our tours at Asakusa in the morning and Ueno Park in the afternoon on May 28th. We welcomed 26 guests in total from USA, Canada, Israel, Australia, Netherland, Argentina and Columbia. We hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. (Ueno Park) (Asakusa AM A Group) (Asakusa AM Group B) (Asakusa AM Group C) (Asakusa AM Group D) (Asakusa PM) Last week, Asakusa was in the heat of the Sanja Matsuri Festival. It is the festival of Asakusa Shrine and is held once a year for three days around the third Saturday in May. About 100 Mikoshi (portable shrines) in the town and 3 Mikoshi from Asakusa Shrine were carried around by the people of the town. The enthusiasm and joy of the people carrying the Mikoshi was even moving. You can enjoy a lot of Matsuri Festivals in Tokyo especially from Apr to Aug. For instance, there was a festival of Gojo Tenjin Shrine located in Ueno Park on this day. Let us support you to find out Matruri when you come […]

Tour report of Asakusa on Apr. 9th

Thank you for choosing our tour at Asakusa in the morning and the afternoon on April 9th. We welcomed 61 guests from USA, India, Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Australia, Spain, Israel, Argentina and Cyprus. I hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. (AM, Group A) (AM, Group B) (AM, Group C) (AM, Group D) (AM, GroupE) (PM, Group A) (PM, Group B) (PM, Group C) (PM, Group D) During our tour, we encountered the traditional sacred dance called Egret Dance. The origin of the dance is in Kyoto for more than a thousand years ago to drive away the epidemic. At Senso-ji Temple, this dance was recorded in a picture scroll in the 17th century, and was restored in 1968 based on it. This day was one of the three days in one year when the dance is performed in Asakusa. By the way, one of our guests told that she found our tour on Chat GPT. I was not familiar with Chat GPT, but I went home and asked about this Egret Dance. I was so surprised […]