Tokyo Imperial Palace
The most powerful address in Japan — 1.15 square kilometers where shogunate, empire, and Japan's surrender all converged.
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Built on the footprint of Edo Castle, these grounds held the underground shelter where Emperor Hirohito met his Privy Council in August 1945 and decided Japan's surrender. The current Kyūden palace rose from rubble after Allied firebombing destroyed almost everything in May 1945. The East Gardens — the old inner compounds — have been a public park since 1968.
What to look for
- The Nijūbashi bridges over the moat — the original wooden double bridges replaced in stone and iron
- The Kyūden's broad traditional roof spanning seven wings, completed 1968, built almost entirely from domestic Japanese materials
- East Gardens: the former Honmaru, Ninomaru, and Sannomaru compounds, now walkable public grounds
East Gardens are open to the public; guided tours of the Kyūden Totei Plaza run Tuesday through Saturday; on January 2 and February 23 the public may enter through the Nakamon inner gate to see the Imperial Family on the balcony.
Tokyo Imperial Palace is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Tokyo, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Tokyo pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Tokyo
- Mode Gakuen Cocoon TowerA 50-story school curved like a cocoon — white aluminum and dark-blue glass, criss-crossed by diagonal white lines — that beat 150 rival proposals and won Skyscraper of the Year.
- Tokyo SkytreeAt 634 metres, the height isn't random — 6-3-4 spells "Musashi," the ancient name for this exact corner of Tokyo.
- Tokyo TowerA third of its steel came from US tanks scrapped after the Korean War — Japan's postwar recovery, painted orange and bolted into the sky.
- National Diet LibraryBorn in 1948 as a "citadel of popular sovereignty," Japan's national library holds 12 million volumes — and anyone can walk in.
- Akihabara (Electric Town)The black market that outgrew itself and became Japan's otaku capital.
- Tokyo National MuseumOne in ten of every artwork Japan has ever officially designated a National Treasure lives here.