The saga of the Tokyo trip contines. You can read more about the context of the trip in the previous posts, but you don't have to. The tour had a number of different sights to see, but the final day was a free day, so we went to walk around the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Palace feels like a giant city park. There is an outer wall surrounding the entire thing, and then it's divided up into a number of different sections. There is an inner section that has visitation restrictions. We were not clear about what the rules about visiting that section were, it looked like there was a first-come-first-serve tour policy, but then there were signs that say there there are no tours on Friday and that's when we were there.
The Palace is quite popular with people, in the same way that city parks in the US are. People go jogging, take walks, eat lunch, and paint. I never saw any of the finished work of the people painting, but if they were painting pictures of the palace, I would like to see those. I like architectural paintings, but if I had to guess, they were painting pictures of the trees.
Around the palace, there is a lake. Historically, it was probably a moat to defend the palace, but now it's just a lake around the park. It's pretty bad ass for a city park, but probably not that effective as a defensive fortification now. Not that it has to be, I don't think the emperor does anything to run the government, but traditionally, if you controlled the emperor, you controlled the nation (or parts of it).
Along with the moat, you need ways to get over the moat, and so there are bridges in various places. There are guards in guard shacks on most of the bridges. I'm not sure what the uniforms mean, but I think there are two types of guards here, the Tokyo City Police and the Imperial Family Agency, or whatever it's called, that performs security for the imperial family. I know that they are supposed to be on the same side and everyone wants everyone else to be safe, but I like to imagine that there is a lot of drama and jurisdictional fighting between them. Maybe that's just an American thing.
Along with walls and moats and bridges, there are also guard towers. These would all be equally ineffective at defending the palace from modern attacks, but I like how they kept them around for historical reasons. I have no idea if they continue to use the buildings for some other functions, like storage, or dormatories, or bathrooms for the guards, but they are still there, looking imposing.
Like all good city parks, there are walking paths to walk on and benches to sit on. This area had a lot of people in it when we walked through. It was lunch time, and close to the edge of the palace grounds area, so I can imagine that it's popular with people who want to get out of their offices to eat lunch during the day. We were in Tokyo when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, so that added to the beauty of the park. I have only been to a couple of places during cherry blossom season and they are all beautiful, so it seems like it's hard to find a bad place to see them.
Cherry blossoms come in a variety of colors. I don't actually know that this is a cherry blossom tree, it might be a plum blossom tree. I don't know how to tell the difference. I think they flower at different times, so I think this is a cherry blossom tree, but I don't know for sure. They are called "sakura" in Japanese, and it's the most common name for romantic interest female characters in anime, or so it seems.
The palace is in the middle of the city, so you can see the buildings around from inside. It's near the parliment building, which I assume has symbolic meaning. Again, I don't know the function of the imperial family in the government, but I imagine there is a reason they are close to each other.
There is a building nearby called the National Theatre. It's probably exactly what it says on the tin. We didn't go in, and I'm not sure how much I would get out of a production there. I don't know very much Japanese, so it seems like it would be a waste on me, but I wouldn't turn down the opportunity if it were given to me. I enjoyed the show that I went to at another much smaller theatre, but part of that was in English, and it was all musical and interpretive.
Here is a picture of a statue near the palace. I have no idea what it is, but I like the old traditional statue with the modern building in the background.
That's the imperial palace. I highly recommend it if you are in Tokyo and need to do something for half a day. You will do a lot of walking, so get ready for that. Look into the details of when you can go into the palace. I think there are different rules for different areas in the palace, but we got in to one section without any checks or special tours or timing or anything, so there is always something to see.
SarisonZero lives and works in Japan. He finished memorizing Hiragana and Katakana today, and is starting on Kanji.