Tour Report on the East Garden of the Imperial Palace, 29 July 2023

Many thanks to the guests who joined the tour on the extremely hot day. The temperature reached the record high of that date. At Tokyo Station square, where we meet, water was sprinkled on the ground.

We hosted 12 guests from USA, Belgium, Germany, Austria and U.K. We hope all of you enjoyed and shared interesting conversations with us during the tour. As promised, group photos and snapshots are attached to remember the fun times we had. 

Although it was very hot, luckily wind blew constantly so we could endure the heat and humidity during the tour.

You might wonder how Japanese in the old days spent summer days in such hot and humid weather without air-conditioning. We happened to see one of the items of traditional cooling methods, a wind chime, so called “Furin” in the tour course. There was an exhibition of numerous wind chimes.

Wind chimes ring sounds that make people feel cool by hearing them. But that is in fact phycological effect. How did they physically feel cool?

The above photo is a typical summer dessert in Japan so called “Kakigoori”, shaved ice with a flavor on top. But you might wonder if making ice was possible when there was no freezers like modern time. How they did was keep the ice created in winter in a basement and took it out summertime and then transport it to the consumers. The ice was heavy and melting quickly so it was a very risky task costing lives of transporters. Only the aristocrats and rich merchants could afford such cooling dessert in those days.

Kakigori is a very traditional summer item so you should try while staying in Japan. It is a different taste of ice cream.

Since we are in the hottest period of the year, no tours will be held next few weeks.

So we’ll see guests a few weeks later when the earth gets cooled down, hopefully.

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(Posted by Masa)