Off to tour the Imperial Palace. It has been the residence of various past Japanese Emperors until 1869, at which time the capital was moved to Tokyo (during the Meiji Restoration). My impression ? … not as interesting as other Castles or Temples (as you cannot go inside) but nonetheless, nice and very big. I suspect the Emperor would have led a very restrictive life. A captive of his own birthright.

Unlike most things around Kyoto there is no entrance fee! The sheer size of this place is amazing and if you think about how it was constructed…, you cannot go into the palace but there are rooms you can view from the outside. The gardens inside were worth the visit.

The palace was the residence of the Japanese emperors for over 500 years until 1869 when the capital moved to Tokyo. There is no need for a guide since there is a very informative brochure given out in several languages. No one can enter any of the buildings. The gardens would be stunning in the spring with the cherry blossoms but were beautiful with the unique trees, stone bridges and a meandering stream.

Kyoto's ancient emperor palace consists of a handful of dull, enclosed buildings. Outside the buildings lies a massive park, resembling and designed as a public recreational area. Here, you can lie down and soak up the sun, and eat your packed bento box. There's also a pretty, smaller area with water, small trees, and a little waterfall. That's the highlight. After at most 30 minutes, you'll be thankful you didn't pay admission for this "pleasure." Better spend your time in Kyoto exploring the thousand orange gates and the golden temple.

I hadn't expected this palace to be as interesting or pretty as it turned out to be. It's a large site in the middle of a really lovely park so you need to set some time aside for it. The palace gardens are lovely and there are many interesting buildings.

The Imperial Palace is off the beaten path but worth the visit. Free admission and beautiful gardens highlight the beautiful architecture. We ended up here by accident. Unfortunately the interiors are not open to the public like Nijo-jo Castle. The gardens are of course picturesque, the grounds maintained and manicured to perfection. It was very quiet here and peaceful.

Free English tours 10 am last about one hour. Entrance is at Seishomon Gate. No advanced reservation required. Each person has a headset to hear the guide. This was especially important as it was pouring rain the entire time. One can also walk around on one’s own, but a guide is imperative to know what you are viewing as signage is greatly limited. You don’t enter the palace, but you see some rooms from the outside looking in. You wait for the group to assemble for your given guide in a large waiting room. Different groups for different languages wait there. There are free lockers there for your belongings.

We had a few hours available one day of our trip and were trying to decide between this and a few others. We ultimately decided to go here since we never visited an Imperial Palace before but had gone to castles, shrines, temples, etc. I will say it was very interesting and very cool to see but personally we like castles and shrines better. It was a large complex and many structures to see, the gardens were very nice, but it's been rebuilt and you can't go in.

Very crowded, but still well worth a visit. Do take a guide and make time for the garden. It will take at least 3 hours to see everything at a reasonable pace. Be prepared for the crowds and the fact you might be forced to wait at times for others to go through.

I have been avoiding going here for years. Better places to go I used to say. But finally on what might be my last visit to Kyoto, we decided to go. A large parkland in the centre of a busy city. Lots of families playing, people have picnics, people riding bikes all very friendly on what was a very nice sunny day. The imperial palace is now open to visitors without reservation (another reason I convinced myself not to go). What great place, imperial buildings and really well maintained gardens. Well worth going too. On my way out I noticed another garden with entrance just off the palace garden, from the outside this looked like a better garden. I was already impressed. The Omiya garden, we unfortunately couldn't get in immediately and were not going to be around when we could later in the day. So much for my research upfront. Anyway I enjoyed the original garden and the walk around the park land surrounding.