By Y.H.

On August 26, in the afternoon,12 of us got together at the Hamamatsu-Cho Bus Terminal.

It was a sultry day but we were full of expectation and happy with yellow stickers on our chests. Our English guide was a middle-aged Japanese lady. She was so small that it was difficult to find her when she was surrounded by big foreign tourists. The tour started at 13:40 and she led us to our first destination; the observation floor of the World Trade Center Building.

It was fun to look down Hama and Shiba Royal Gardens and detached Japanese archery court. I was surprised to see many buildings are in process of construction.

Then we got into that famous Hato Bus and moved to the next destination; the open space in front of the Imperial Palace (皇居前広場).

Being happier with complementary bags and fans provided by the tour, we listened to our guide’s explanation on the way. But her visual aids (A4 size paper) was old fashioned and her explanation was not so interesting. I wonder how much information other foreign tourists got.

All I could know was some buildings and The Imperial Palace are very beautiful and important.

Maybe it was my problem since I couldn’t understand where to get into the bus after the short walk. I saw one of our members asked her about the boarding place in Japanese. Our guide said the words “photo session” many times but there was no photographer. We managed to take some photos by ourselves which are very nice.

The next destination was Asakusa.

Since it was Saturday and Samba Carnival was being held, the traffic was very congested. The bus was delayed a bit so we had only 45 minutes to go.

We managed to cross the extremely busy street following instructions of festival staff. Large volume of Samba music and huge crowds almost crushed us, but fortunately we had TM Suwa who is originally from Asakusa. Six of us (all ladies) succeeded to visit Senso-Ji Temple and enjoyed looking at Nakamise Shops. It was very hard to walk around as a group in that huge crowd so each of us tried hard not to be left alone. We needed to go back to the riverport by 16:15 for the boat cruise (隅田川遊覧船) .

Our guide told us repeatedly that the boat would leave for Hamamatu-Cho at 16:25. Never be late. We arrived at the closest intersection to the port at 16:10. But an unexpected event happened. When we tried to cross the street, the Carnival Parade was in the climax and Samba dancers and music bands have been coming one after another. Because of the strict traffic control, we couldn’t cross the intersection at all and we waited for the parade break in vain over 20 minutes!!

I was afraid that we couldn’t make it in time and looked at my watch many times.
With the help of TM M.K. and TM Y.W. who kindly came to find us, we used the subway passage and arrived at the port 20~30 minutes late?? (I was too upset to remember the exact time but surely we missed the boat!! )

It was so kind of other members who were waiting for us patiently.
Without their help and kind consideration, maybe we had been waiting another 20 minutes!! The guide must have been surprised to know that all Japanese participants missed the meeting time.
We felt sorry to harm the good reputation of Japanese who are famous for being very punctual.

We were permitted to ride the next boat and arrived at the port near Hamamatsu-Cho where no bus was waiting for us. TM M.K. kindly caught a taxi for exhausted lady members. Taxi group and the other members who walked to the Bus Terminal got together 20 minutes later and could get the belongings which were left on the bus during Asakusa sightseeing.

Tokyo Afternoon Bus Tour ended around 18:30??

I walked a lot and sweated a lot, but after all I enjoyed the tour very much and learned many new things.

Samba dancers were beautiful and evening breeze on the boat was comfortable. Taxi cost us only \570 (fare starts at \410!).

As a conclusion, we all enjoyed the tour very much as well as the time walking, chatting and eating together.

I’d like to express my sincere appreciation to TM M.K., the organizer, and other members who made the day very special one.

Thank you very much.
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