Tour Report on September 10th ,2016

Thank you for joining our Tokyo Free Walking Tour.
We welcomed around sixty guests on Sep. 10th tour and split them into five groups.
This is because we are mutually able to make a tour for two hours.

Our tour started at Tokyo station and via modern commercial district we went into the compound of old Edo castle, where it’s now called “East Gardens of the Imperial Place”.

At the start of the tour, the weather was not so perfect and occasionally the sky was exceedingly covered with scattered clouds.
However, as temperature was constantly around 30 degrees it’s really humid.

It is usual that once the tour is set up, most of the participants started talkatively sharing different kinds of topics like foods, fashions, history or other interesting matters.

It’s our motto that we provide visitors with a lot of opportunities to be knowledgeable about Japan in hopes of keeping good memories even after returning to their countries.
For this reason, our guides are willing to share Japanese culture with the guests.
For instance, some of the participants occasionally ask about Japanese style drinking bars called “Izakaya”. So I’ll introduce this interesting place as follows.

 What’s “Izakaya”? 

An “Izakaya” is a kind of drinking pub, which serves not only alcohol but tasteful dishes.
Once you open an Izayaka door, an employee of Izakaya warmly welcomes you and escort you to a vacant table.

Right after carrying some food to you, a server asks your order.
This food is called “Otoshi”, which means a welcome dish like these pictures and normally, it is automatically charged in your bill. I think some foreigners will be confused with this system.

                                                                              “Otoshi”
On the other hand, the number of these drinking restaurants have been steadily growing for a decade because they have successfully caught young women’s’ dietary interests.
For instance, these drinking establishments serve low calorie foods to meet young girls’ needs of a proper calorie intake.
On your Japanese trip, I strongly recommend that you visit these types of Japanese public drinking houses.

                                                                                                                                                                   By Arac