Welcoming 6 guests from the two countries, Australia and Mexico, we had the tour to Asakusa Temple and Asakusa Shrines. As the Nakamise Street, which is the approach to the temple’s main hall, is always crowded, 6 people were the decent size as a group. Thanks to the sunny weather, we had the good tour of one and a half hour, regardless of the cold wind. The tours of Tokyo Free Walking Tour are the best choice for their group size, free talking and questions and answers during the tours. Customers can ask any questions without hesitation.
December is the season of preparing the new year greeting cards in Japan. But in recent years, the increasing number of people are stop sending new year greeting cards, or Nenga-jo in Japanese. Stop sending Nenga-jo is called “Nenga-jo Jimai”, literally meaning “Nenga-jo closing”. Sending the new year greeting cards is one of the Japanese traditions. This tradition seems to have started before 10th century. It is like sending Christmas cards especially in the countries of Christianity but Nenga-jo is not related with Buddhism or Shintoism. There seems to be many reasons for the tendency of Nenga-jo closing. One of the big and clear reasons is the spread of SNS, some of which are personal message tools with your close friends. People do not need to send special message cards to close friends and families as long as they communicate on daily basis. The trend starts among young people and now spread among even seniors. The gradual increase of the price of post card is another reason. Above all, there seems to be the change of mind of Japanese people about the social relationships. Why don’t you talk about this topic with some Japanese you meet during your stay in Japan?
(Posted by Marky)