On our last full day in Tokyo, we had tickets to teamLab Borderless in the morning and tickets to the Shinjuku Sumo Show in the evening. In between, we decided to split up and explore different interests. My husband and oldest son went to an off the beaten path neighborhood to go thrifting and record shopping. My youngest and I went to the Imperial Palace.
Unfortunately for my youngest son, this was my first planning failure. I didn’t do a ton of research. I had seen pictures and thought it would be something cool to see that was historical and interesting but not a temple or shrine.
So we headed off to Chiyoda and figured we would walk through the gardens on our way to see the palace. We entered at the Ōte-mon Gate, which is the main entrance to the East Gardens. We passed by some impressive defensive stone walls, as well as three guardhouses (bansho) from the Edo period. We continued up the hill and eventually made it into the main garden area.
The garden scenery was beautiful but this is where things started to get confusing. We could clearly see where the Imperial Palace was on Google Maps but we could not get to it or even see it. We kept going in circles, looking for paths that either weren’t there or were blocked off. We finally asked another family if they knew how to get to the palace and they said they were looking for it too. Apparently we weren’t the only ones chasing our tails through the gardens.
After we had exhausted all possible ways to get to the palace, we headed back out the way we came in. We stopped in the little store near the gate and asked how we could get to the palace. The woman looked very concerned and said “you can’t.” I said we just want to see it. She said “no see!” I asked why not. She said “security!!!” Dejected and a little confused, we walked back out to the street.
There was a map of the grounds hanging on a fence at the entrance along the road. I pointed to the iconic Nijubashi Bridge and asked a security guard how to get there. He pointed me in the right direction and we headed out to circle the grounds from the outside.
We finally made it to the bridge and learned the error of our ways (or my ways, more accurately). I had done enough research to know that you couldn’t go into the palace without a tour (which we didn’t plan on doing) but I assumed that you could still get to the outside of it to see it somewhat up close. My assumption was wrong. The closest you can get is a parking lot next to the moat. You can see one side of the castle from a distance. The view over the Nijubashi Bridge is indeed lovely, but I thought we would get to see the palace from other vantage points as well. It turns out that it is not just an historic monument but is also the active residence of the Emperor of Japan and his family so you cannot get any closer (without a guided tour) because… “security!”
So this excursion was a little bit of a bust. I only took comfort in the fact that my youngest son wouldn’t have enjoyed thrift shopping either so at least he got a nice (albeit far away) view of the Imperial Palace and a good travel story to tell in the future. What teenage boy doesn’t love a “you won’t believe what my mom did” story?
