[Tokyo Fall 2008] The Imperial Palace - part 3

The Imperial Palace officer guided us back near the "pine cone" area and had us wait by the trees.


Then we saw them.


And them.

And more horses and guards went by.


And a ceremony was performed.

Awesome.

[Tokyo Fall 2008] The Imperial Palace - part 2

The officer guided us through a couple large gates (while instructing us to push "17 ando 18" on the English voice guide.

And then we saw this:



The officer quickly told us what the building was, but we really had no clue...

And then we saw a huge group of people, and an official Imperial Palace tour guide. Apparently the whole group was waiting for us!? We were a little embarrassed, but the people smiled and said hi. *blush*

Off we went with the group to see the whole Imperial Palace ground.


I think some government officials actually work in here.


The whole Imperial Palace ground was divided into different sections with huge stone walls and trees.

OK, so I don't really remember everything I heard on the English audio or from the tour guide, but I did enjoy the beautiful scenery and the people!


I love these rain guides.


The "Pine Cone." I believe the Royal family meets people on the belcony.


Looking toward the "outside."


A place the visitors couldn't get too closed to. We looked at it on a bridge.


Big lamps on the bridge. They were huge!


I wonder if anyone lives in there.


Whoever is in there should have a great view of the city.

I wonder if the members of the Royal Family are the only people who can go into these awesome buildings.

[Tokyo Fall 2008] The Imperial Palace - Part 1

About a month before we took off to Tokyo I applied to the Imperial Palace and requested a tour through here.

We followed the instructions and applied for the tour at 1:30pm that day. (Two tours available that day: 10am and 1:30pm. I knew well I woulnd't make the 10am tour.)


Took train to the Otemacho Station.

There were a LOT of exits at Otemacho Station... Actually there were a LOT of exits for the Imperial Palace... We picked one that seems the closes to the Imperial Palace entrnce, and off we went.

We estimated the time we needed and saw the outside of the Imperial Palace not long after we stepped out of the train station.

But we couldn't find the Kikyomon Gate, which was the gate we had to meet the tour guide. We asked a few business people that walked by, and no one knew where exactly it was.

It was past 1:30 and we almost gave up. The Imperal Palace ground was huge! We then walked along the outskirt of the Palace ground... and finally saw this:



We ran and ran toward the gate. A police officer waved and greeted us. We pulled out the tour permit that we printed out, along with our passports, to show another officer (while apologizing for arriving late.) She immediately got on the phone with somebody, and then instructed us to wait for a little bit.


We waited by this gate. The officer didn't say much more. I was afraid they wouldn't even let us in since we were late.

After a few minutes another officer walked toward us from the other side of the gate. He greeted us and the other officers. The other officers said a lot of things to him (that I had no clue what about) and then "introduced" us to him. He took over the permits, handed us a couple of headphone radio sets, and gestured to us to follow him!


We were so grateful when he guided us through the gate and a couple of heavy metal doors into the Imperial palace ground.