Mel's Travel blog: Japan Day 3

The first thing we did today was take a walk to the Imperial Palace grounds. We had booked the tour of the Imperial Palace grounds and the gate we needed to be at was about 2km walk from our hotel. You never actually get to go inside the Palace which is the residence of the Emperor of Japan and his family but get to see the grounds and the East Gardens.

The tour of the grounds needs to be booked. It is free and they run 2 tours daily at 10am and 1:30pm on most days. It is an easy walking tour that runs for about 1 1/2 hrs. They limit the amount of people allowed in the grounds so you can only go in with a proper certificate of permission. Tickets are booked online and the tickets for the following month are available from the first day of the month before. We knew we were going in June so I just had to pick a date and time and I booked the tickets on the 1st of May.

So we arrived at the proper gate just before 10am and showed our letter to the guards. We were then escorted up to a reception hall where other visitors gathered. There are free lockers to put your belongings and we picked up headsets too. The tour is in Japanese but they provide free headsets for the tour in English. As the guide walks around, he tells the group what number for the English translation and you can listen to the same explanation he is giving in Japanese.
After watching a short video with English subtitles, we set off on our tour.

The Imperial Palace and grounds occupy the main quarters of the former Edo Castle which housed the Tokugawa Shoguns in the Edo Period. After the last Shogun, ruling power was handed back to parliament and the Emperor of Japan.

The second stop on the tour was this Mt. Fuji-view keep (Fujimi-yagura). It was a watch tower and one of the oldest remnants of the old Edo Castle. The keep is about 15m high and was designed so that it would look the same no matter which side you looked at it from.

Fujimi-yagura - Mt. Fuji view keep

We also walked along Kyuden Totei Plaza which is located in front of Chowaden Hall of the Imperial Palace. Chowaden Hall is where the Emperor receives special guests and dignitaries. On New Year's Day and the Emperor's birthday, the Emperor and Empress and members of the Imperial family stand on a balcony at the side of Chowaden Hall. Members of the public are allowed to gather in the plaza to see the Imperial family and hear the Emperor deliver an address.

Dignitary entrance and the side view of Chowaden Hall

We pretended we were people gathered to see the Imperial family

After the tour, the group returns to the first hall and we returned our headsets. We were given the option to visit the East Gardens as well. You need to have a ticket to visit this too. We picked up a token which was our entry ticket which was to be returned on the way out. We took a quick look around the grounds. They really are well kept and beautiful. You could see this as a place where you come to just sit and read a book and relax for a bit.

The obligatory Japanese peace sign photo infront of a traditional building in the East Gardens

After our quick survey of the East Gardens, we grabbed a quick lunch on the way to Ueno.

Ueno is also built on the old Edo grounds. Today it is a vibrant parkland with lots of attractions. Ueno station is a large interchange. If you walk out the Park exit then you find the Ueno Imperial Park. Attractions of note in the park that seem to be popular tourist attractions are: Ueno Zoo, The National Science Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and the National Museum of Western Art. The area also has various arts schools so you could say it is the museums and art area of Tokyo.

We took a free guided tour of Ueno run by the Tokyo Systematized Goodwill Guide Club (SGG Club). The details of the free tours of Ueno and Asakusa can be found here: http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~sgg/guide.html

I thoroughly recommend this walking tour. It was a 2hr tour around the Park and it's useful for getting the lay of the land so you know what you might like to see in more detail. Our guide Keiko was very knowledgeable.

There are two main religions in Japan - Shinto and Buddhism. Two places of worship for the two religions are shrines for Shinto and temples for Buddhism. On our walking tour we saw a temple and a couple of shrines.

Torii - entrance to the shrine

Little shrine - people make 1000 paper cranes in the hope that their wish may be granted

Face of a Buddhist statue. People write wishes and leave them in the hope that they will come true.

After our long walking day... we did some more!! It was a fine day so we went to the Tokyo Skytree.

The Tokyo Skytree first opened 3 years ago as a telecommunications tower to replace Tokyo Tower. It is a high tower and offers 2 observation decks with a 360 degree view of Tokyo and surrounding countryside. It is rare to see Mt. Fuji from Tokyo Skytree but it can be seen on the exceptional day when Tokyo skies are clear.

The obligatory pose with the 3rd anniversary cutout

The elevator has a glass ceiling. You can see your progress up the tower.

View over Tokyo from Tokyo Skytree

I have been to a few towers before. It seems like most cities now have some kind of tower with the 360 degree view of the city. E.g. Centerpoint tower in Sydney, Burj Kalifa in Dubai. I have found that if you can time your visit for just before sunset it is good. You get to see the city in daylight and then wait a bit to see the city by night with lights.

Sunset over Tokyo

After Tokyo Skytree we took the bus back to Asakusa. We were starting to get hungry. The main street outside the main gate to the Sensoji temple (which we visited before) has lots of restaurants.

The gate for the Sensoji temple

View of the Tokyo Skytree from the main street of Asakusa

Marika mentioned wanting to try okonomiyaki which is a Japanese pancake or Japanese pizza. Dave found this place on Trip Advisor and we had teppanyaki (which I had been wanting to do).