Good Friday, everyone!
Here is a collection of shots I took while visiting the Imperial Palace Gardens in the centre of Tokyo.
We walked from the hotel to the gardens since it wasn't too far away from where we were staying, in the district of Ginza. It took us around 20 minutes or so.
As soon as we approached the Palace, we saw a large field with incredibly beautiful trees. These perfectly trimmed trees were located just outside the murals of the gardens and separated the old world from the new modern world. Just across the street, huge buildings were standing tall!
However, when you were facing the opposite side, you could easily picture yourself in a rural and mostly deserted area. How cool! 😎
These trees were planted right up to one of the main gates of the structure.
This was the first gate we passed by... and it was closed. It looks like this part of the grounds is off limits for regular folks and tourists. It must be reserved for the Imperial family. 🤔
We had to keep on walking for a while to reach the pleb's gate. From that point, the landscape changed a bit. Instead of a field of trees, there was a lake separating the residential area from the Imperial Gardens.
I found it a bit strange that the waters were really shallow. After all, these types of things were usually set up to defend the palaces from outside invaders... and they are a lot more effective when they are deep, with muddy waters and full of alligators. 🐊
Here, we had a very shallow body of water that even a 5 year old could easy pass. What's the catch? Maybe there were traps in the water? 🤔
We kept going in search for the main entrance. Boy, I think it took us more time to get from the edge of the garden to the entrance as it did from the hotel to that point! 😅
Eventually we reach one of the corners of the lake... and turned left, following the rest of the crowd - which was obviously looking for the same thing as ourselves.
To the right, another field of trees appeared... just like the one we had saw earlier on. There were already a lot of skyscrapers behind them... and more were being constructed.
At a distance, we could already see the main gate...
We decided to take a few more shots of the area before heading to the place. And we weren't alone, of course others had the same idea! 😊
There were a few bridges which got our attention, since they were so well designed and were a perfect match for the scenery. There was obviously some thought when designing these bridges.
Here's another bridge. As you can see, the waters here are a lot deeper. It wasn't as easy to cross this section, for sure.
After a last shot... we headed back to the main gate.
As we got closer we saw a little weird cabin with a pipe coming out of it. This pipe must be used to fill up fire trucks or something like that. 🤔
Right after that, we saw some artists sitting on their little benches. They were enjoying the good weather while making paintings of the palace. 🤗
They were pretty focused on their works and couldn't care less if I was taking a photo of them or not. No one complained so I assumed they were ok with it.
Here I snuck over the shoulder of a lady to get a glimpse of her work. She was quite talented, the painting was coming out beautifully. 🤩
Here is the object of their paintings...
This looked like the main palace. We were told it wasn't possible to be visited since only the Imperial family has permission to enter. That was a bit disappointing to hear, frankly. 😑
The building was beautiful from the outside and I bet it was pretty cool inside, as well.
Before you get to the main entrance, there was a security team frisking everyone who carried bags. They suspected everyone, including young women dressed in pink and with fluffy backpacks! 😆
Only after that checkpoint you could go and buy your ticket to access the grounds.
We saw a few joggers heading inside without buying tickets... maybe there's an exception for the locals.
Inside it wasn't very crowded. There were a few tourists but plenty of space to move around and appreciate the surroundings.
Looking behind, I could see that yet another skyscraper was being built. These Japanese can't stop growing their cities. Eh eh! 😂
That's when I saw a group of ladies in their cute traditional dresses. They were just behind us... So I waited a bit for them, so I could catch a better photo. 😉
And here's that photo, which I had already published in my previous post, 3 days ago... I think it came out pretty well:
Unfortunately, the sun was not in a good spot to take a photo of the main building... this was the best I could do under the conditions. 😐
There was another building ahead... a very strange one.
This is a bizarre looking structure. I can't even decide if I find it cute or horrible. 🤣🤣🤣
I had no idea of what this building was. Judging by its looks, I was assuming it was some kind of religious temple... but I was totally off. It's a music hall!!!
Yep, this is called Tōkagakudō (桃華楽堂) which means Peach Blossom Music Hall and it was constructed in the 1960's. I think the architect must have been drunk that day! 😅
Our visit was coming to an end. There was not much else to see in this area. The rest of the buildings were inaccessible to tourists, so we just wandered through the gardens a bit more.
We were still in Winter, so many trees were still leafless. This lady was appreciating a small tree which seemed to think it was already Spring. 😊
This place must be absolutely stunning in the Spring and Summer...
I hope you enjoyed this article and my photos. Leave me a comment down below, s'il vous plaît. 😊
| Location | Tokyo - Japan |
| Camera | Canon IXUS 210 |
| Photos | 32 (Edited with GIMP) |