Tokyo Metropolitan Government Shows Off Tokyo

[Mulboyne]

Tokyo Tour Guide Services By Sightseeing - We will convey the charm of Tokyo

Tokyo Metropolitan government will begin to offer guided tour services by Tokyo sightseeing volunteers from January 11th, 2005 so that travelers from overseas may relish the charm of Tokyo more. We will start with five main sightseeing routes in Tokyo that start from Shinjuku.
Each route offers different types of attractions such as shrines and streets, exploring the basement of a department store (which is famous for gourmet food stalls), and taking a walk in nature-rich Musashino, escaping from the roar of the big city. We are sure that you will find your own favorite spot!
Tokyo sightseeing volunteers will take you on a guided tour with their hospitality.
1. Streets of Shinjyuku and Basement of Department Store
2. 30 Minutes From Shinjyuku; Journey to Enjoy History and Nature
3. Exploring the Streets of Harajyuku and its Shrine
4. Route to Savor the Atmosphere of Edo
5. Japanese Streets and an Oasis in the Heart of the City

FG Thread: Ueno Starts Volunteer Guides for FGs

[dimwit]

Tokyo Metropolitan government will begin to offer guided tour services by Tokyo sightseeing volunteers from January 11th, 2005 so that travelers from overseas may relish the charm of Tokyo more.

1. Streets of Shinjyuku and Basement of Department Store
2. 30 Minutes From Shinjyuku; Journey to Enjoy History and Nature
3. Exploring the Streets of Harajyuku and its Shrine
4. Route to Savor the Atmosphere of Edo
5. Japanese Streets and an Oasis in the Heart of the City

Sounds like a great tour for agoraphobics. I love going into department store basements so I can get the wonderful cultural experience of being elbowed in the groin by some obiisan.

[kamome]

Yes, the basement of a department store really is a window on the Japanese soul.

[Mulboyne]

I've just noticed that FGs are invited to become volunteer guides
Tokyo Tourism Volunteers Wanted. Would you like to show Tokyo's charm to guests from other countries?

Starting on December 16, 2004, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs will run an announcement for Tourism Volunteers on its website "Tokyo Tourism info."

The "Tokyo Tourism info" website can be found at http://www.kanko.metro.tokyo.jp

From this website, download an application to register as a Tokyo Tourism Volunteer. After filling in the necessary information, attach copies of any certificates verifying your foreign language ability (number 3 of section 2-Requirements-above), and then please forward your application either by post, fax or hand carry it to the Tokyo Tourist Information Center Metropolitan Government Headquarters.

Foreign nationals must meet the following criteria for the Japanese language:
A) The standard for Japanese shall be equivalent to the following:
Japanese Language Proficiency Test - 2nd Grade or higher
B) Other Useful Experience
Those who have not passed a proficiency exam for Japanese, but who have a good command of the Japanese language and are able to communicate with tourists and others from foreign countries.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Volunteers bring a personal touch to Tokyo tours
"I was interested in seeing a part of Tokyo that tourists usually don't go to," said Simon Richmond, an Australia-based freelance writer. The volunteer guide service offers tours in seven languages on 10 routes. They cover everything from such well-known tourist attractions as Harajuku, where teenagers gather to see and be seen, to the back alleys, green parks and historical sites of suburban Kokubunji in the west. Richmond chose Kokubunji, where his guides were Akira Iwaizumi and Keiko Yamamoto..."I think I got to see a very good contrast to big city Tokyo," Richmond said.
...As of March 2004, about 1,700 bilingual and multilingual residents of the capital were registered with the metropolitan government, although not all of them provide guided tours. They include retirees, foreigners who have been living in Tokyo for a long time and younger Japanese who may have lived overseas as children or accompanied their spouses during foreign assignments.

[Captain Japan]

Japan's organised bid for tourists
Sydney Morning Herald

Get your passport stamped, collect your suitcase and snap up the new incentive to visit Japan - a free Palm organiser.

The devices, programmed with maps, a navigation system, an electronic tour guide, language help and doubling as a telephone, are being lent to tourists arriving in Tokyo until the end of March. Last year the city of Kyoto gave out mobile phones.

The scheme is part of a drive to lure foreign tourists and ignite a sector that is surprisingly dormant for a country that last year launched 16 million travellers on the rest of the world.

The free personal digital assistants (PDAs) make up a "unique system", according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and could become a permanent lure if this trial is a success with telecommunications companies (tourists can apply for one by emailing e-navi@e-airport.jp).

In the fickle and competitive world of international tourism, the PDA is just one trick in a new campaign called Yokoso Japan - translated as Welcome Japan - devised to correct one of the more glaring imbalances in the country's trade performance....the rest...

[Captain Japan]

Yes, the basement of a department store really is a window on the Japanese soul.

Sampling Japan's culinary underground
San Jose Mercury News

We were late for our audience with Rio Hiraiwa, the Depachika Queen.

My guide, Tokyo blogger Mari Kanazawa, hastily propelled me through Tokyo's crowded sidewalks toward the entrance of Mitsukoshi, an upscale department store in the affluent Ginza district. Rio, a self-assured young woman in an eggplant-colored pantsuit, greeted us with a polite but impatient smile.

Rio, who earned her royal title on a popular Japanese television show, had agreed to take us on a tour of Mitsukoshi's famed basement food hall, where shoppers can buy everything from an inconsequential bean-paste bun to a $500 bottle of Chateau Margaux.

The amazing array of foodstuffs that can be found here and in the basements of other department stores is called depachika, and it is an enduring craze in Japan, with Web sites, magazines and newspaper columns devoted to the most popular tidbits.

These over-the-top gourmet emporiums put America's food courts to shame. Where else can you buy okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake), slow-roasted pork shoulder, Joseph Schmidt chocolates, Viennese pastries, fresh oysters and $100 muskmelons under one roof?

Free samples and a chance to experience Japanese popular culture make this an ideal -- and frugal -- afternoon for travelers in major cities such as Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. The depachika phenomenon is also a lesson in hard-nosed capitalism writ small: the department stores compete fiercely with each other for the most prestigious food purveyors around the world, and managers may replace vendors who don't move enough product within months or even weeks....the rest...

[Kuang_Grade]