Imperial Palace of Kyoto

At 2pm today we were let into the Imperial Palace of Kyoto for a guided tour. There must have been a group of about 40 of us, and we were taken around by an English speaking tour guide and security. This was the first time we had seen armed guards in Japan, but then this is the Imperial Palace.

The Palace itself was huge and very impressive. Mixtures of bright orange paint, dark ceramic tiles, thatch roofs and hardwood made up the impressive structures.

The Palace itself has burnt down or been demolished by wars many times in the past, and rebuilt a number of times over the centuries. The palace was last rebuilt in the 1869, and still stands today, even know the official Imperial Palace has now been moved to Tokyo.

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan today, but it used to be Kyoto.

The Palace was surrounded by some amazing gardens with boating ponds where the Emperior would spend spring evenings, romancing his wife. Chilling out with Sake, in style...

The whole Palace was very solid and mighty, but not extravagant. This is because the Emperior in Japan always had the authority of the country, but not wealth. It was the Shogun family who had the wealth, and they own the castle we will be going to see later today, Nijojo Castle. Apparanty, that's where the money is!!!

That said, this Palace looked pretty plush to us!