East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Tour Report on 16 April 2016

East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

Thank you for joining us. On that day we welcomed 56 people from USA, Australia, Singapore, Phillipines, Israel, Poland, Canada, Spain, Mexico, Malaysia, UK, Ireland, Korea, Taiwan, Belgium, and France. We divided into 5 groups.

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The main Sakura season, which the most popular cherryblossoms with pale white-pink petals called Someiyoshino were in full bloom was over but one can still enjoy other specie of Sakura, called Satozakura. It was a very good day for viewing it.

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CIMG0003The petals of the flowers are bigger and the color is more pink.CIMG7926

Along with Sakura, the guests could enjoy getting along with kimono guides and wearing kimono.

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Speaking of kimono, what one can easily come up with is Geisha. Geisha literally means “Artist” or “Entertainers.” In Tokyo Mukojima, Asakusa, Shinbashi, Kagurazaka are the famous spots. They dance, sing and pour sake to their guests in a party room. The below photo was taken in Mukojima.

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A woman on the left in pink kimono is younger Geisha and apprentice, called Maiko or Hangyoku, the other is the pro Geisha. They not only have good skills of dancing or singing but art of conversation.

Geisha is not only an occupation for women but men. Male Geisha is called Taiko-mochi or Hokan. The below photo is one of them.

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They are more like a comedian rather than escort. What they usually do is make guests laugh by doing some funny talk and trick shows.

But they wear kimono and play music, sing, dance, and pour sake to guests like female Geisha do as well.

Such entertaiment might be too expensive for ordinary citizens to join.

But in this tour, we, the guides become Geisha for you. It is free and easy to join. Sorry, we cannot perform dancing or music plays like pro Geisha but we can provide good guiding, art of conversation and friendly atmosphere. Please come and join us.

We have a regular tour every Saturday and have weekday/Sunday tours irregularly.Please check the calendar on our website, Facebook and TripAdvisor.