We took the underground again, changing twice, so as to visit the gardens of the imperial palace. From the underground station we first saw the front entrance to the palace which is well guarded and has an attractive two arched bridge over the moat.
We followed the moat round to the Otomon gate where we could go in and walk around the gardens. There is a beautiful iris and azalea garden which everything in full flower at the moment. Then one goes up a small hill and at the top are the remains of the base of the Edo fort. This burnt down only 19 years after it was constructed, so that since then there have only been these foundations. Opposite that a concert hall has been built.
There is then a large open space with lovely lawns and a few trees with many more trees and bushes including some lovely blue hydrangeas around the side. Before leaving we looked into the museum where there are supposed to be over 9000 treasures from Showa Emperor. However on display was only 956 items of a porcelain service, bowls, dishes, plates, tea cups etc from 19th century. They are very beautiful being painted with flowers, grasses and in some cases butterflies made by the potter Kanzan.
This post is an extract of my mother’s travel journal written during a tour of Japan in 2014.
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