The second half of our day tour began with a delicious teppanyaki lunch. I will cover that later in a post about Japanese food.

After lunch, we headed to the Imperial Palace. It is located in downtown Tokyo, near the Tokyo Station. The Palace grounds are surrounded by a moat. We were not allowed to go inside the Palace itself, and it is closed to the public most of the year.

The Moat

You can’t really tell by the picture below, however, the buildings here are only allowed to have views of the Palace up to a certain floor. After that, the windows are blacked out so that there are no views which would allow someone to see inside the Palace grounds.

Buildings in Downtown Tokyo

Pretty Trees

Entrance Gate

View of the Palace and Bridge

Groundskeepers

The Moat

Trees Outside the Palace