Day 3: Part 1, The Imperial Palace

I decided to split this day into two because I went to the Imperial Palace and Kamen Rider the Diner and took a lot of pictures at both places. I can't even post all of them.

So my appointment at the Imperial Palace was at 10:00, but the East Gardens open at 9:00. So I had put that down on my itinerary. Then I got it into my head that I needed to be at the Kikyomon gate for the tour at 9:00, which was 50 minutes earlier than I actually needed to be there. I've finally managed to find the shortest distance to the JR station from my ryokan and I figured out how to get to Tokyo station. Tokyo Station is huge, but they had a lot of signs directing me to the proper exit to get to the Imperial Palace. It was good thing, because did I mention that it's huge? So I rushed to get there and made it just before 9:00 and showed my papers to the guard. Who explained to me in Japanese that I was early and could I please wait. There were other people there that were early too, so I guess it wasn't a big deal. I turned on my wi-fi to update facebook on my predicament and my Grandma was on Skype so I had a conversation with her (no video). She was pretty impressed that we were able to connect across the globe and apparently so was the ojiisan next to me because as soon as we hung up he started asking me questions. He didn't speak any English, but I'm guessing from my pronunciation of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto when talking to Grandma tipped him off that I spoke a little Japanese. Sato-san gave me his business card and showed me pictures of him playing the shamisen in a group. He had come to the tour alone too so I think his main intention was to have someone to take pictures for him. He asked me several times to write him a letter and he would send pictures. During the tour his insisted on taking pictures of me with my camera.

This is part of the building complex where the Emperor lives and where he addresses the public on his birthday and New Years. Sato-san got very excited and kept pointing from the picture in the guide to the building.

The man behind the microphone is 'number one in Japan' which makes this building 'number one' on the tour.
 'Number two' is this:

 This keep was moved from Kyoto in the ealy 17th century because the the Shogun thought is was pretty. It is pretty, but that seems like a lot of effort. Not for the Shogun I guess.

I rather like this keep better, plus it's on a really impressive wall.

After the tour, I went into the East Gardens. I didn't stay too long because I wanted to make sure I found Kamen Rider: The Diner in plenty of time <3.

 I am pretty sure this is a dojo, otherwise there were people being murdered in there.

 Tea house, it was gated off just like the one at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

This area was pleasant and shady.

Representative trees for each of the predectures in Japan.

These palm tree probably had some significance, but I could not surmise what it might me. I just took a picture of them because Robin likes palm trees.