April 8, 2023 Yokohama Day 2

After a good night’s sleep we were out of the hotel, skipping breakfast, to take the train in to central Tokyo. The sun was shining, the temperature was +16° C, but there were clouds in the sky. We packed our umbrellas just in case and took our hats. Along the route to the train station was a pretty mini garden of pansies on some stairs. It was about a 15 minute walk to Sakuragichō station. We can see it from our 17^th floor hotel room. Sakuragichō station looks like a long white cylinder between buildings. We bought tickets from a machine that had English instructions. It gave us each a ticket and a receipt. The tickets were less than $6 each way. We used the receipt in the entry gate machine but it did not work. A kind women gestured to us to use the smaller size ticket and it worked, we thanked her in Japanese with one of the only words I know. We waited on platform 4 for the Japan Rail train to take us to central Tokyo. Just about everyone was wearing a face mask. We stood until the next stop at Yokohama station when we got seats. The ride took about 55 minutes with stops at over 15 stations before getting to Tokyo station. It was less than a half a kilometre walk straight west to the Imperial Palace grounds.

You could see the trees of the palace grounds from the train station 500 meters away. As we walked closer, the dark stone walls of the palace compound were visible and one of the moats came into view as we arrived at the Kikyomon Gate entrance to the Imperial Palace.

We had hoped to arrive in time to be one of 130 people to get a morning tour of the Imperial Palace compound, but we were too late. There were already almost 90 people in line, for the 70 non-prebooked places, at 8:45 a.m. for the 9:30 a.m. ticket sale.

The Imperial Palace was renamed in 1868 from the former name, Edo Castle. Edo Castle had been the seat of the Tokugawa shoguns since 1603. The buildings endured several fires, which destroyed buildings in the compound and the surrounding town over the centuries. The last fire had been in 1863. In 1867, with the overthrow of the shogun, Japan’s capital and imperial residence were moved from Kyoto (meaning capital) to Tokyo (meaning East capital). Emperor Meiji lived in Edo Castle from 1868 to 1888. Construction of a new Imperial Palace began in 1888. It was destroyed in World War Two and rebuilt in the same style. Only 130 people twice a day are allowed to tour the outer palace grounds. The Emperor and his family still live in the Imperial Palace.

We went to plan B, which was to explore the Imperial Palace East Gardens. Edo Castle's innermost circles of defence, the honmaru ("main circle") and ninomaru ("secondary circle") were located where today’s gardens thrive. We scanned a QR code which directed us to download an interactive quide to explain the different areas of the garden. It sensed our location in the garden by GPS and promoted the information for that area. The Japanese SIM card we bought before the trip has come in very handy in just the two days we have been in Japan.

We crossed a bridge over the Kikyo-bon Moat on the north side and the Ote-bori Moat on the south side to get to the security check by the East gate. There are three restored guardhouses from the early Tokugewa Shogunate period which lasted from 1603 to 1867. They are The Doshin-bansho (bansho mean guardhouse), the Hyaku-nin-bansho and the O-bansho. We saw orchard trees - oranges, lemons, Japanese pears, peach and plum trees close to the grove of different Bamboo trees. We climbed the sloping path of Tenshuda, which is the foundation of the 4^th Edo Castle Keep that was not completed, since Japan was in a peaceful time in 1658. The third keep had been destroyed by fire. Nearby was the Takagakudo Concert Hall, built in 1966, for private concerts hosted by the Imperial family. It is a striking building covered in Mosaic tiles. At the bottom of Bairim-zaka slope are 1,478 plum trees. The next wooded area are the Symbolic Prefecture Trees from 47 prefectures (similar to a province or a state). The 1912 Suwa no Chaya Teahouse In the Nimomaru Gardens was moved from the Imperial family’s Fukiage Garden within the Imperial Palace grounds to here in 1968. It is close to the Ninamaura pond with the colourful carp swimming in the lily pond. Beyond the lily pond is the lovely Iris garden. There are the naturalized Ninomaru Woods which consist for flora and fauna from the wooded areas of Tokyo that were being developed. The emperor created the woods in 1983 to preserve the species living in the old wooded areas.

We followed the audio prompts for two hours then decided we should get something to eat at the Honmaru rest place near the building that held a model of the third Edo Castle (built in 1638). Besides vending machines at the rest place, there was a freezer with ice cream treats. We choose what looked to be soft ice cream in a frozen hard state for $1.70 each. They came in a container and were quite frozen, but good. It was an unusual choice for breakfast! Next we followed the path to the Camellia trees which were almost finished blooming, ending with a visit to the lookout for a view of the tall buildings at the centre of Tokyo.

We spent almost three hours wandering the grounds keeping watch as the clouds grew darker and bigger. We did not get wet. The return train ride to Yokohama took less time since there were fewer stops.

On the walk back from Sakuragichō station we noticed the Yokohama Air Cabin gondolas (or Ropeway) before we stopped at Queen’s Square for coffees at a little kiosk and watched a busker juggling flaming knives. The coffee cost almost as much as a one way ticket to Tokyo! The step count for the day so far was over 15,000.

For dinner we returned to Queen’s Square and Landmark Plaza to find a restaurant for an early (5:30 p.m.) dinner, since we had not really eaten during the day. We chose a quaint Japanese restaurant that did not post an English translation. It had a menu with pictures and a brief English description. We chose soup, beef steak strips, barley rice, Japanese pickles that were quite spicy and a Japanese salad, which was delicious. There was no sign of forks so we used the chopsticks set on the table. Larry tried a Sapporo beer which came in a 500 ml bottle served with a 100 ml glass. The total bill was under $40. I guess the dining splurge will be at lunch tomorrow with our Japanese guide. There was a bit of fine drizzle on our five minute walk to and from to the shopping centre, but not enough to unfurl our umbrellas. The walk only added 2,100 steps to or daily count.