TOUR REPORT ON APRIL 24TH, 2018 (WEEKDAY TOUR) EAST GARDENS OF IMPERIAL PALACE

Thank you very much for joining our weekday tour to the Imperial Palace East Gardens on April 24^th. We welcomed 11 guests from Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy and USA.

We divided our guests into 3 groups. It was cloudy but it was a good day to walk around the gardens. We hope all of you enjoyed the tour.

We could see a lot of flowers in the gardens, such as wisterias, azaleas, and iris japonicas. We also enjoyed seeing new green leaves.

Cherry blossom season has ended in most parts of Japan, but you still have a great chance to see beautiful cherry blossoms in the north of Japan such as Tohoku and Hokkaido.

One of the best places to view wisterias is the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi Prefecture, about 2 hours from Tokyo. There are various colors of wisteria to be seen, such as pink, purple, blue, and white. Now they are in full bloom and so gorgeous! One large wisteria tree is 150 years old and its branches are supported to create a huge umbrella of blue flowers. There is also a long white wisteria tunnel that visitors walk through enjoying the beauty of the flowers from below.

We thank you all again, and we hope you have wonderful memories in Japan!

(posted by Kaori)