• A 4 hour morning tour around Akasaka. Akasaka is a district in Tokyo that has cultivated a culture symbolized by embassies and high-class eateries. While it currently has such an image as the “city of business,” where major corporate headquarters are gathered, you can feel the history of the city in the core hamlet of “Karyukai,” located in the small circle of the shopping streets around Akasaka Station where rows of food shops are lined up. In the Edo era, samurai residences and machiya spread, and around the former Akasaka where the samurai residence were, there are embassies and guest houses of great note. You soon know that there is something special about this area.

This guest house (a bit of a misnomer – it should be thought of as more of a palatial hotel) was the first Western style grand building in Japan, built by the then crown prince, later the Taisho Emperor, with stylistic reference to France’s Versailles. Total construction cost was the equivalent to over 100 billion yen in today’s money. Construction took about ten years, and it used the latest in building chic and decoration technology. It is now used as a facility to host state guests such as foreign kings or presidents, and it is also used as a stage for summit talks and dinner parties.