A large forest that spreads in the middle of huge city Tokyo is the Imperial Palace.
With the help of the sacredness of an emperor, Imperial Palace has a different feel than the rest of the city.

Visiting the famous Imperial Palace Plaza and Double Bridge is good as well, however, I would like to recommend walking around the Imperial Palace if you have time.
There are various tourist spot around the palace so touring while walking is a good idea. You should be able to relax and feel refreshed surrounded by green trees and water.

It will take about half a day to walk the whole round by foot.
I would like you to use this article as a reference.

The outskirts of the palace is 5km. Due to the marathon boom, it has become a popular jogging course. Jogging while touring may be nice too.

The outline of the course.
Start at Tokyo station, enter East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, where regular people can get in, from Ote-Mon Gate. Stroll around Ni-no-maru Garden and Hon-maru-tensyudai : Remains of Donjon and leave the garden from Kita-hanebashi-Mon Gate.
Pass by The National Museum of Modern Art,Tokyo MOMAT, Science Museum, Kita-no-maru Park where Nippon Budokan is, and Tayasu-mon Gate. Also stroll Yasukuni Shrine and Chidorigafuchi. Then walk along British Embassy to Hanzo-mon Gate. Have a look at the Supreme Court and Kasumigaseki while walking along the moat. Passing throught the Sakurada-mon Gate will be Kokyogaien National Gardens and you will reach Nijyu-bashi Bridge. Walk through the woods of pinus thunbergi from Nijyu-bashi Bridge and you can go back to Tokyo station.

Imperial East Garden
Within 10-minute walk through the skyscrapers from Tokyo station is the Ote-mon Gate. Ote-mon Gate is actually closer to Otemachi subway station.

Ote-mon Gate is the main gate of Edo-jo.

On the side of Ote-mon gate, Shachihoko is placed. It is from the Ote-mon Gate that was burned down during WWII.
Go through Ote-mon Gate and receive an admission ticket at a gate there. You will return this ticket when you leave the East Garden.

At Sannomaru Shozokan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections) you can see art works related to the Imperial Household.

Hyakunin-Bansho is a checkpoint built during the Edo period.

Further in the garden you will reach No-no-maru Garden.
This is a restoration of a garden that Iemitsu Tokugawa, the third shogun, ordered to make.
Each season, various beautiful flowers bloom.

When I visited, azalea and iris were at their best. There were many people walking around.

By the lake, there were spotbill duck grooming.

You can have a nice view of the skyscrapers of Marunouchi from the Shiomi-zaka Slope. During the early Edo period, there were Hibiya Irie : Hibiya inlet stretching close to the palace so you could’ve seen the sea from here.

There is a tensyudai : Remains of Donjon at Hon-maru.
Tenshukaku : donjon was built in 1607. It used to have a height of 58 meters. However, it was burned down from fire in 1657 and was never rebuilt.
Today, there is only Tenshudai, the base of Tenshukaku. The stone wall used to be 14 meters back then but it has 10 meters now.

You can see the Hon-maru and buildings of Marunouchi from the top of Tenshudai. I was able to see the Giboshi of Nippon Budokan as well.

Kita-no-maru Park
You can enter the Kita-no-maru Park by leaving the garden from Kita-hanebashi-Mon Gate next to Tenshudai.

MOMAT Craft Gallery is a beautiful building built of brick. It was built as the headquarters of Konoe shidan : Imperial Guard in 1910. You can see exhibitions of crafts and industrial designs. 5 minutes walk from MOMAT Craft Gallery is the main building of MOMAT where you can see various exhibitions.

The unique building with façade that has star shaped whole is the science museum. It is a popular facility among children with experiment classes.

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*Let’s walk around the Imperial Palace Part2