Imperial Palace

We had the quick visit to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, and even though visitors can’t fully access the inner areas, the experience was still memorable. The palace grounds are beautifully preserved and give a sense of calm right in the middle of the city. The park is covered with vibrant green grass, neat bonsai trees, and wide open spaces that are perfect for a peaceful stroll. Standing there, you can see Tokyo’s modern buildings rising in the background, which makes the view even more scenic. It’s a quiet place that feels like a hidden pocket of nature in the heart of the city, even if you’re just visiting the outer grounds.

The Imperial Palace is a remarkably serene and beautiful place in the heart of Tokyo. The gardens are meticulously maintained, offering calm paths, elegant bridges, and stunning seasonal scenery. The harmony between traditional architecture and natural surroundings creates a peaceful atmosphere that feels worlds away from the busy city. The historic stone walls and moats add a sense of depth and significance, making every view picturesque. Visiting the Imperial Palace is consistently a rewarding experience and one of the most memorable highlights of Tokyo.

This review is meant to the gardens around the palace. I couldn’t really find the palace itself, as all the trails that led to it were blocked. Some people say you can have guided tours twice a day to visit the exterior of the palace, so that might be an option, but I believe the palace itself is a newish building and unassuming. However, the gardens or park around the palace are huge, and you start to see some autumn colours (end of October 2025). I took a long walk there, and it was very peaceful. There are also toilets at various sites (I used the ones by the entrance next to Starbucks and they were clean; no paper towels or hand dryer though so bring a washcloth). I saw many people enjoying the good weather and just relaxing. So I wouldn’t worry about the opening times of the palace (they might seem very strict), as I was, because you’re probable only going to visit the gardens anyway.

Was expecting a big palace, but in reality there isn’t something like that, mostly nice roads, but no palace. The gardens were amazing, super well kept and look stunning. Entry is free. Overall a nice place to talk a walk, and enjoy a bit of nature in the metropolitan city of Tokyo.

The Imperial Palace is the main residence of the emperor of Japan. We get to visit a part of the park and enjoy nature, experience zen garden. It's beautiful inside but I wish I had more time just to sit and enjoy the beautiful fall leaves.

didn’t mean to visit this place at first, but ended up having time. it was right beside Tokyo station and it took about a 12 min walk to get here. scenery was beautiful, had history tied into it. and it was a huge place overall! really enjoyed taking pictures here and here’s some of the pics i took from my camera hehehe

Visiting the Imperial Palace is a must! Once the heart of imperial Japan, the grounds are beautifully maintained. You'll be impressed by the sheer size of the walls and various protective features surrounding the palace. Highly recommended for history enthusiasts and anyone wanting to explore Japan's royal heritage!

We visited the place on a Saturday, and did find a lot of tourists. But the place is huge and calm, so you will enjoy walking here. It is well maintained and can be explored without a guide as well. A must visit if you’re in Tokyo!

Sightseeing in Tokyo, Japan... Our private tour bus dropped us off quite far away. It seems like our tour guides really wanted us to take a group photo here. The Palace was closed for tours at the time of our arrival. It was late in the afternoon on Sunday, March 11, 2024. We lined up along the side of the Palace where there were fewer visitors. A lady in our group crossed over the low barrier and stood on the grass behind us. I felt her falling on the backs of my legs, and she called out, "He pushed me!" I turned around and figured out that one of the guards pushed her without warning. Our tour guide yelled at the guard that this is unacceptable behavior. He should have told the lady to cross back over the low barrier. There's no sign that says: "keep off the grass". The sign only says: "Do not sit on barrier ". That was the most exciting event of our day!

i think it's a really cool and chill ~ vibe ~ it's crazy to think that someone was born into royalty and lives here omg so green and serene along the brick walls civilians are jogging or on a work call; the usual

Came to the Imperial Palace just to check it out but happened upon the free guided tour at 9am. If you want to do this tour, you could reserve online or you can walk in and hope to be in the 140 people that are accepted. Bring your passport. Bring a hat. Wear comfy shoes. The registration process to get forms started around 9:10am, but the final check wasn't until 9:45am at which point we were directed into a large conference room with a small gift counter (of course), restroom facilities, and a couple vending machines. The tour itself was informative and objective. Stay near the front if you want to hear the info and also if photography is important to you. Our guide was very kind and tried to answer everyone's questions. She also did a good job sprinkling some one-liners into her presentation to keep it fun! The palace grounds are immaculate! The photos turned out beautifully for the nice autumn day! The tour lasts about 1 hour 15 minutes, I left the grounds around 11am. Please note, you cannot leave the tour when it starts and there are no facilities along the way. I would agree that this is not a must-do but it was certainly a nice-to-experience!

Pretty cool to know this was once the largest fortress in the world, but I wish we did more research beforehand. I was expecting to see the interior, wondering what a Japanese "Castle" was like after seeing various European builds. Naive, I didn't realize the Imperial Family still lives here. So, it's like visiting the White House. Viewing the exterior is okay to the public but the interior is completely off limits. I. SERVICE Security is strictly enforced everywhere you go. The entry to the Imperial Garden wasn't very clear so we walked quite some ways around the moat to get to the entry. II. QUALITY The inner-walls containing the gardens weren't anything impressive to me. No floral arrangements or hedges set in a decorative way. Mainly trees and grass, like anywhere else within the city. IV. CAPACITY We came on a rainy day and there was no crowds. No line to enter the gardens.

This review is focused on the free tour. I would not say that the tour is a must-do, but it's a nice-to-do. If you are looking for the free tour walk-on line/tour entrance line and coming from Otemachi or Tokyo stations, you cannot enter the Otemon Gate and hope to reach the right area, even though it looks like you can on maps; there is a path but access is restricted. You need to enter from the Kikyomon gate about a 7-minute walk away instead. My mistake almost made us miss the tour. We were literally #s 128 & 129 out of the 140 allowed walk-ons. See their website for more details, but there are a limited number of spots that can be reserved online (I think also 140 at the time of my visit), and additional walk-on spots for each tour. Each day has a morning and afternoon tour. Upon entering the Kikyomon gate, you fill out a short form for visitors and wait in a cafeteria-looking room to receive initial instructions in all of the languages available that day (I believe every tour has Japanese and English; and on the day we went there was also Chinese and French). You are also given a map of the grounds indicating the path of the tour. You are then released to follow the tour guide who speaks your desired language. The guides use a microphone with a speaker mounted around their waists, which is great, but you have to be fairly close to hear well. The grounds were lush and beautiful, and so expansive! The moat attracts birds, so you can watch ducks and crows, and whatever else is there. Also, the East Gardens are right next door through the Otemon Gate I mentioned earlier so you can easily check that out on your visit as well.

I've been to the Imperial Palace twice, I believe, and I still don't really understand what you're supposed to do there. It's a hard place to visit, especially when it's hot out. We tried and didn't get much out of it besides a long, sweaty walk in the blazing sun. We spent a week in Tokyo and got around, for the most part, by train and on foot. We figured we'd be able to get to the Imperial Palace by riding to the closest train station and walking to the entrance. This was, apparently, naive. The Imperial Palace is an enormous destination, with sprawling grounds and no obvious central landmark or starting point. We spent a lot of time trudging across huge expanses of uncovered pavement--basically a series of scenic parking lots. There were some trees and gardens, but they were kind of siloed off, there to be looked at but not to provide any shade. By the time we found our way to the area where people lined up for guided tours, we decided we'd had about enough of the Imperial Palace. I think I did the whole tour on my first trip to Tokyo, when I was in high school, and neither of us felt strongly about spending another hour seeing whatever buildings we hadn't seen yet, also from outside. Monarchy isn't my thing anyway, and imperial Japan wasn't particularly nice to my people. We had a great view of Tokyo from our hotel room and after this unsuccessful visit, we noticed we could see the Imperial Palace from our window. We could also see all the poor souls making their way to the palace, looking like ants as they roasted in the sun and crawled across the pavement.

Very spacious tour spot! Came here in late april, was able to catch the last bit of spring before it gets hot! It was gorgeous just to walk around. Definitely recommend to people who likes history and or nature. If I ever come back, would love to do a run here!

Read about this and made a reservation to tour online. It's free. Upon arrival at my designated time, there were 2 lines, those of us who reserved and those of us who appeared the day of. No difference in the tour for reserving. You are ushered to a building where you sit for almost as long as the tour. They split up the group by language and offered guides that spoke English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Japanese. The tour was disappointing. The tour guide did not offer much more information than that offered in the pamphlet they provided. The tour was the outside of 2 buildings that looked like offices and a couple of watch towers from afar. And that is it. You can't leave the group once the tour starts and it goes for about 1 1/2 hours. But, it's free.

Although it's a "palace", it was once belong to shogunates from 1600~1800. Therefore it was originally built as a "castle". Unlike to castles from other regions such as Himeji and Osaka, this one has very few buildings left. So, it may look quite underwhelming to many. But if you pay attention to fortifications like moats and stonewalls, you'll realize that they are really massive and vast. In fact, it is the biggest one ever built in Japan. However, it is still hard to work your imagination w/o background information. To get the most out of it, I'd recommend to attend "Tokyo Free Walking Tour"(https://tfwt.jp). If you are visiting only Tokyo, this might be good cultural dosage but this is definitely not a "must". I'd definitely recommend Himeji, Nagoya, Matsumoto or Osaka if you want to see proper castles.

In this incredible property lies the palace. In one small spot, on the large lawn, on the east side of the property, you can actually see it!!!! Yawn. It's nice. It's historical. For a tourist to actually see anything? Meh.....

Review #032 - 2019 Sadly, when we showed up at 4 PM, the garden had just closed so we didn't get a chance to tour it at all. Yelp should update the close time to 4 PM, instead of 4:30 PM. We decided to walk over to the palace gate and take a few pictures just so it wouldn't feel like a total waste of time. The palace is not as big as I'd expected since I was in S. Korea recently and saw how big the palaces there actually were. You don't really get to see much of the palace other than the front gate & surrounding water; so unless the garden is actually open, I wouldn't make a special stop just to see the palace. There are a lot of police officers standing guard to make sure that people don't cross over the forbidden areas.

It's a must for visiting tourists. This is the palace of the current emperor. It won't take long to view the outside pond, exterior, and gates. However, there is a large park surrounding the palace. You can sit, take a walk, or bird watch. It's a lovely place to visit.

Beautiful tour. I was worried going in January, but it wasn't too cold and walking keeps you warm. Yes, it's a walking tour of the grounds. We were able to get tickets for 5 right before the tour started, I'm not sure if that's normal or lucky. They offer tour guides in a LOT of languages and I was super impressed. An absolutely beautiful palace and I recommend taking the time to visit.

On my first visit, I would have only given this place three stars. Visitors can't even get close to the palace. You're so far from any actual buildings, that it feels kind of pointless. You can walk around the lagoon surrounding the building, but that's as close as you could get. But, when visiting on the most recent trip, we were greeted with nice surprise. Apparently, there was some special event going on, and they opened up the Inner Garden to the public. All I can say is,... BEAUTIFUL. The lush landscape is absolutely gorgeous. The Cherry Blossoms were bright and lovely, even during an overcast day. Love seeing some of the structures within the gate, and the lagoon is even better from the inside. I don't know when or how often they open the gates to the public, but it was a great experience.

This is a review of the guided tour of the Tokyo Imperial Palace is a large expanse in the middle of a bustling metropolis. The only real accessible areas of the main palace grounds are the East Imperial Gardens. If you want to go into the Imperial Palace grounds proper, you have to wait for New Years to rub elbows with the Emperor and hang at his crib. The other option is to sign up for a tour in advance through the Imperial Household Agency. My fellow gaijin, anyone can sign up for a tour of the imperial palace. You just need to apply online in advance: http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/guide/koukyo.html I figured, this was a once in a lifetime, so we went ahead and signed up. You have to leave your passport info, and a specific date of when you want to visit. I'm guessing the Imperial Household Agency does a background check on you to make sure you don't have any hidden agendas during your visit. Reservations open up on the first of every month for the following month's tours. I suggest you sign up early as they can fill up fast. The tour itself allows you on the actual premises where the Emperor lives, however, they don't take you into the inner grounds of the actual palace. The walking tour lasts a little over an hour. You get to see some old castle towers, the main public halls of the Imperial Household Agency and some royal reception halls, but not like a tour of His Majesty's home. There are several minders that keep an eye on the crowds so don't stray too far, or cross the areas where you're not supposed to or you'll get scolded. Although I was not terribly impressed with the tour (I wanted to see the emperor's actual home like how you can see the queen's house outside the gates of Buckingham Palace), it is a rare opportunity to see the inner grounds of the palace, even for Japanese citizens. It's worth a look, if you're curious.

Gardens & grounds were closed today, disappointing. The only seem to be opened a few days a week. We saw the moat and beautiful perimeter.

Well, this is it! I arrived at the Imperial Palace but someone didn't tell royalty I was here from Canada. So, the backup plan was to drive Palace Security into lockdown by just circling the grounds. Yes, we Canadians don't like to be ignored. Polite however, is a big part of the heavy responsibilities of being a Canuck! Oh well, it was a nice but brief stay.

An amazing place to visit in the city. It is free and takes little over an hour to walk the entire palace. It is free to all visitors. Very easy to get to just a short walk from the subway and is a must see if you are in the city.

The Imperial Palace is the resident of the Emperor of Japan. It is built on the grounds of Edo Castle. The most convenient subway station is Tokyo Station. The residential palace offers walking tours of select parts of its grounds. One could try his or her luck by queuing at around 9:00 am for a 10:00 am entrance or register and book a tour with the Imperial Household Agency online in advance. The latter method offers a guarantee entrance if the booking is accepted. They have daily quota of visitors for the free tours. The tour lasts between an hour and ninety minutes depending on where one is taken as depending on the palace's requirements the tour may be curtailed and areas may be blocked. The older parts of the palace feature the older parts of the former Edo Castle. The remnants of the old castle occupied by the shogunate of the 16th to 19th century are occasionally visible; however, most of the tour is an excursion through the outer buildings and offices of the current palace, the manicured gardens and the romantic, castle's gates and archaic bridges. One part of the garden resembles a giant bush, for example, but on closer inspection is shaped after a turtle, which is an omen of fortune and longevity in Japan. A part of the grounds was once called 'Fuji viewing' garden, but since skyscrapers of the business district have blocked the palace for years now, this has become an anachronism. The western grounds, which are near the 'eyeglass bridge and is actually on top of a massive underground parking lot, are what most people know of the castle as it is the site of the Emperor's New Year greetings that is broadcast on the news. The ceremonial hall/corridor is also where foreign ambassadors march through. On the day I was there two foreign ambassadors were carted with pomp and circumstance on the imperial chariot from Tokyo Station and, upon conclusion of their reception, back to the station. The ceremony was nice to see, but by the same token the tour was cut short. The beautiful palace tour is free and available in Japanese, English and Chinese. These tours commence separately, but due to speed and logistics sometimes collide. If the explanations are unimportant to you or you speak Japanese I suggest taking the Japanese tour. The group is better behaved and more orderly. When I was there the Chinese tour group caught up with us and gave the palace security a lot of trouble as they strayed into forbidden areas and rushed for selfies and photographs to spots they were not allowed to go and were off limit thus annoying the guards and creating some fuss and upset the respective tour leaders. Incidentally, the palace is surrounded by a beautiful garden and a moat. Tokyo Station nearby is a haven for food and pastry. One store was proudly selling Canadian maple syrup cookies made in Quebec. In particular, one store sells ekiben (station bento) from all over Japan, which means many regional meals and specialty train station food trays are on offer in that Tokyo location. The food should guide one's choice, but just for interest and cuteness sake two of the bentos are a Doraemon and a Bullet Train one. Try it. Dining options are aplenty at Tokyo Station or walk ten minutes to the south (which is straight ahead as one exit's the palace's main gate) and the alleyways are full of dining options along the train tracks.

The Imperial Palace is a beautiful garden and palace right smack in the middle of a bustling Tokyo Metropolis. It's amazing to me the amount of tranquility you can obtain in this palace. It's a very huge space to explore and the gardens are very nice. What I love most about this is the history and its FREE admission! You have nothing to lose if you're in Tokyo and want to check this out.