Tour Report on 23 April 2016

Thank you for joining us. On that day we welcomed 55 guests from Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Austria, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, USA, Lithuania, India, Russia, and Norway. We divided into 6 groups.

The weather was cloudy at the beginning but turned sunny in later time. In the East Garden, spring flowers after Sakura, such as azaleas and wisteria are appearing.

In this tour, we are always worried that if the flat turf in the East Garden, where the feudal lord, Tokugawa Shoguns’ castle existed disappoints the guests.

The wooden castle buildings were all burnt down. Only stone bases and a stone warehouse are architectual remains.

If you are interested in imagining what the castle as a whole looked like, there is a 3 dimensional miniture recreation exhibit at EDO-TOKYO Museum near Ryogoku Station in Tokyo.

But that may not satisfy your expectation. So we advise you to see real castles in existence, which are similar to the castle we need to imagine. There are two places we recommend. One is Nijo-Castle in Kyoto.

That was actually a second house of the Tokugawa Shogun. When he visited Kyoto to meet with Emperor, the castle was used. That is similar to Honmaru area, where reception, administration, Shogun’s private rooms, his wives’ rooms and servants’ rooms were contained.

The other one is Matsumoto Castle in Matsumoto-city, Nagano Prefecture. It is 3 hour bus or train ride from Tokyo. It was built in 17th century. 5 story tower on a stone base. It is a magnificient view. You can enter the castle and then learn that the tower was never used as office or residence. Inside was ladder-like stairs. Not very convenient to live.

As we explained to the guests, the tower was used as symbol of power, observatory and sometimes evacuation from enenmy’s invasion. When invadors came, a ladder was taken to upstair and the ceiling was sealed. The feudal lord and his retainers had stayed until their ally force came to rescue them.

Why not visit these places before or after joining our guide tour?

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