Today is our real scheduled day to visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. We hope our mistake yesterday was worth it, in other words they will require our passports to get in. Also, today is laundry day. The laundry room is on the 8th floor; washing machine is 300 yen, and the dryer is 100 yen for each 30 minutes – decent price.
The Tokyo Imperial Palace was the residence of the Tokugawa generals in the Edo period (1603-1867). After the Meiji Restoration, the Imperial Palace was moved from Kyoto to its current location. Since then, it has become the emperor’s palace. Various ceremonies are held in the residence and palace. The Meiji Palace burned down in 1945, and the current palace was completed in 1968. The entire Imperial Palace covers an area of about 1.15 million square meters, and is surrounded by moats.
After we arrived at the Imperial Palace, we were expecting the staff to check our passports, but nope! haha, we didn’t even need ID! They just checked our backpack before entering. This is a guided tour in about four languages, Japanese, English, Chinese and Spanish. We initially joined the English group, but of course, this group had the most people. If you aren’t standing right next to the tour guide, you can’t event hear the explanations at all. So later, we saw the Chinese group and switched over to that group. There were a lot fewer people, and we could hear clearly. I listened to the Chinese tour guide and we could also listen to the English explanations on the Palace App on the iPhone.
Although there are were no tours indoors at the palace, the outdoor experience of visiting the Tokyo Imperial Palace shows its simplicity. I’m surprised that the buildings of the Imperial Palace were not ornately decorated with gold and silver. It is very simple and not pretentious. I think this is a good thing.
After the visit, we went back to the hotel to rest for a while. For dinner, we went to a barbecue restaurant back in Memory Alley. Unfortunately, the owner of this restaurant was Chinese and it wasn’t the authentic Japanese BBQ we were hoping for. The quality and taste was just average. They are just doing business for tourists and aren’t interested in repeat customers. It’s a pity that it completely confirms some typical Chinese people’s philosophy of doing business: just in it for money.
吃了几串不太好吃的烤串,我俩果断地离开,又去吃了这个章鱼小丸子 – After eating a few skewers that were not very tasty, we quickly left and went to eat these octopus balls I was craving.夜幕下的哥斯拉怪兽 – The Godzilla monster at night
今天又跟着你俩的脚步看到了东京皇居。和中国皇家是两种风格。
日本的美食还是很多的,看着也很诱人。
这回小熊的出境少,明天会有吧?
这次总是把小熊给忘了,它一直被憋在背包里,哈哈
If the palace was rebuilt in 1968 then I don’t suppose we visited it, did we?
I think “just in it for the money” is the philosophy of many business people!
My reply from yesterday has not appeared!