The city of Tokyo has a lot to offer for visitors, with its exciting attractions, traditional monuments, natural sites, and of course its delicious food. As tourists can enter Japan again, it is a great time to discover all that its capital has to offer.
Parisians were lucky to get a glimpse of what they can expect during a trip to Tokyo, as the Metropolitan Government organised a promotional campaign in the French capital on November 16th and 17th. Over these two days, guests were invited to roundtables, conferences, and cultural experiences introducing the best activities and advice for future trips.
Participants were not only local citizens but also members of the media, travel agents, and tourism professionals, to whom the brand new Do Tokyo! promotion campaign was introduced.
Calligraphy and sushi at the Invalides
The first day of events took place in the Invalides area of Paris, starting with meetings around stands set up by the Japanese tourism industry. The goal was to promote travel packages, especially to French travel agents.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government then presented its recent efforts to welcome visitors. And the city has a lot of new experiences to offer. In fact, a series of guides was recently published with many suggestions of things to do while you are visiting.
As an ancient city, tradition is of course at the heart of Tokyo’s experiences. A programme of traditional culture and arts activities was published to showcase some of the most beautiful and interesting events happening this year.
One of these traditional arts is calligraphy. This ancient skill, prominent in Japanese culture was introduced to Parisian audiences on the 16th, as participants were able to try their hand at writing katakana or kanji characters with the assistance of a master calligrapher.
Of course, we cannot talk about Tokyo without also mentioning its wonderful food. To attract more visitors, the city has recently published a guide of the best vegan and vegetarian restaurants around town. Each location is carefully categorised, with recommendations per area and advice on how to get there.
For more traditional meals, a sushi presentation was organised in the Paris event. A conference held by Matsunozushi Yoshi Tezuka introduced the sushi culture to its participants and allowed them to try their hand at crafting their own sushi.
Arts and crafts at the Forum des Halles
The second day of the event was also highly interactive, with two locations set up on a square of the Forum des Halles shopping area. From morning to evening, it offered food, arts, and movie experiences.
At the first location, 7 companies were able to show some cultural exhibitions including Japanese meals like curry or beef bowls, calligraphy stands and Daruma paintings. A tea ceremony was also performed to amazed participants.
The audience was also offered the projection of a video produced by TokyoTokyo and, for the young ones, giant colouring books were available.
For the movie buffs, the second location at the Forum des images was the opportunity to watch films that showcase the beauty and excitement of Tokyo. Highlights of this projection included “Hokusai” by Hajime Hashimoto, “Rendez-vous à Tokyo” by Daigo Matsui, and two short films produced by French creator Cyprien: «Minori» and «Fujisan». More information was also given about how those films were made and why Tokyo was such an interesting topic.
A Green and Resilient Global city to visit
The events of those two days therefore showed the efforts made to keep this modern yet traditional city attractive to visitors. This is also possible through the Metropolitan Government’s actions to keep Tokyo green and resilient for all. Two documents are a good illustration of those efforts.
One of Tokyo’s goals is to remain a global city turned towards the future. And that future will be green, as shown in their Tokyo Environmental Master Plan, of which you can read the Digest Version here. This Plan sets out targets and details an important vision for 2050, which can also be consulted in the latest Zero Emission Tokyo Strategy.