Holiday cycling with my daughter Akane

Hello, I’m Masa. One of the Tokyo Great Cycling Tour staff.

Look at this photo. Isn’t it nice ?!!  It is very nice weather today, so I went cycling with my 1-year-old sweet daughter Akane using iBert  which is also used in our cycling tour.

 It seems she likes cycling very much. Keep smilig when I pedal. Maybe it made her so excited, on the way back to my house, she fell complete asleep on iBert.  Sleeping Akane is also very very pretty…  Please do not tell I’m a doting father, I originally am a very strict traditional Japanese father !

( @Ochiai, Shinjuku-ku near my house    Sunny,  27C )

Masa

Today’s tour

Finally we had nice weather on Saturday ! Even during rainy season there is an irregular intervals.

We were 10 people including 3 staffs. Today a few people also joined, who will write about us on their website. For such a small tour group like us, those interview from websites, newspapers, magazine etc… give us great support of promotion. Thanks to all, so far we had some media coverage

Today, it was lucky enough that we came accross to see big festival (called ‘Tsukiji Lion Festival’ ) which is held once every 3 years. Summer to Autumn is the season for festival (MATSURI), we can see many MATSURI ,　big and small, here and there in Tokyo. MATSURI will be held in temple, shrine or park in town , one of  pleasures of MATSURI is to stoll around eating snacks which are sold at food stalls. 

 ( Sunny 27C  @Tsukiji Market)

Rainy season has begun…

Here in Japan, we have rainy season (TSUYU or BAIU) same as other East Asian countries, and this wet season usually lasts for about one month. During these days, it rains almost everyday and sometime it rains hard and sometime just drizzling but steadily.

Rainy season makes me blue as I can not go out for cycling, or for other outdoor activities. (Actually we had to cancel the cycling tour two weeks in a row). I know rainy season is important for farm products especially for rice crops, but still depressing in rainy days…

Something more than this is now is good chance to watch beautiful Hydrangea flower bloom here and there in Tokyo. Many of famous viewing spots for Hydrangea are in temple or shrine. June and July is their best season. We, Japanese even think Hydrangea is more beautiful in rain than in sunshine.

It does not rain all the time even in rainy season, sometime we have nice weather and we go for the tour, so, please do not just give up for the cycling tour ! Just give us inquiry through our website.

The island in Tokyo

Hi! I’m Haruna, one of the guides of TGCT.

I love cycling and often take a trip with my bike. I went Hachijyojima last week before.

Hachijyojima is a small, semitropic island which locates 290km southward Tokyo, but actually it’s a part of Tokyo Metropolis.

It takes only 50 min. flight from Haneda airport. So, during holidays, the island is alive with lots of divers who live in Kanto area.

I enjoyed diving too. You may see not only rare fish but also seaturtles and dolphins there!

Not only diving, there are other fascinates such as fishing, hiking, Onsen(hot spring), fresh fish and so on.
Hachijyojima isn’t a famous resort,  but I think it’s worth visiting.

By the way, we’ll have 2 guests this weekend. I hope it’ll be a fine day!

Tokyo – Cloudless day after Typhoon

Yesterday Typhoon No.3 hit Tokyo and it made flight and train schedule irregular. A lot of people are affected to some degree. But that Typhoon cleared the air, so today it is clear up and very nice weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<Sunny, 24C, At Hibiya Park>

Hibiya park, very near from our office, and so I sometime visit there for relaxing same as many business person working near this area. This park is the first Western style park in Tokyo, and originally was the premises of Daimyo (Feudal Lord) in Edo period. Now we can see many flowers through the seasons. On our bike tour, we visit here just before to Imperial Palace. It seems they will hold Beer Festival, named Oktober Fest from this Friday 23rd May till 1st Jun (opening hour 11:00-21:00). It is still May but ‘Oktober’ Fest, ummm interesting. But OK, no problem. Let’s go for a beer.

 

Today’s tour

Sunny, 23C  at Sumida River terrace.

We are heading for Tsukuda-jima Island where was settled by fishermen from Osaka in Edo period. The first Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu gave special fishing rights to them.  Today maybe we can smell of Tsukudani -their local speciality, small fish, shrimp or seaweed boiling with soysauce and sugar.

Even Tokyoite feel sense of nostaligia here in Tsukuda-jima Island….

 

Nice to see you ! Hajimemashite

I’m Yukiko. I am operating guided cycling tour in Tokyo, Japan. We (actually we are group of 4 people) started this tour in November 2006. Since then, although we have never put any advertisement, maybe thanks to Google, we have dear guests and the number is gradually increasing. (But still not so many… That’s why our tour is very cozy !!?)

 

 

 

 

<Young leaves of Ginko tree- a tree of Tokyo. Our tour service is also still young … but vital !? >

  

Recently one of our participants said ‘Hey, Yukiko, if you want to have more participants, better write Blog. It helps your website better placement in search results’ Actually before him, I have a few times to be said the same thing. So I decided to write this Blog. I hope this Blog can help people who have an interest visiting Tokyo near future.  But please do not expect too much ! Maybe our Blog is ‘ could be read always happily and could be sometimes useful’  

  < Today’s Tokyo  Sunny, 23C >