Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Waling Tour on March 31st. We really enjoyed spending joyful time with more than 50 guests from all over the world.
As the Inui Street in the Imperial Palace is open to the public from March 24 to April 1, the East Garden was also crowded with many people. Inui Street is open twice a year, the season of cherry blossoms and colored leaves. This time, we divided our guests into 5 groups. Nice weather, beautiful cherry blossoms and cheerful guests made us really happy.
In the course of our tour, I talked about a famous incident in 1701 at the Pine Corridor in the Edo Castle. It is a kind of revenge story by 47 lordless Samurai for their master who was forced to do “Harakiri (a form of ritual suicide that was practiced by samurais who committed serious crimes)”, which was extremely unfair to their master. In the end, 47 samurai were also sentenced to “Harakiri” by the government after they achieved their revenge, but they are praising as heroes even today. Why? Because Japanese people value a sense of loyalty to the Master. If you have a chance to visit “Hachi”, a famous statue of a dog in Shibuya. Hachi is also loved by Japanese people because of his loyalty to the master. Both of the stories were made not only into Japanese movies, but also Hollywood, so if you are interested in them, please check Hollywood films “47 RONIN” starring Keanu Reeves and “HACHI” by Richard Gere.
Posted by Akiko. T