Tag Archives: Kyoto Imperial Palace

Touring Kyoto’s Imperial Palace & Botanic Garden

After an interminably long walk, we arrived at the Imperial Palace and took a bit of a stroll around two of the giant perimeter walls before realising that there was no way of entry (excepting through the paid entrance). We had a nice little lunch at the souvenir shop – the Japanese idea of tea and sandwiches doesn’t completely match the idea you have in your mind, but is tasty and inexpensive.

Some cherry blossoms in an outer garden were blooming, so we joined the not-quite-yet thronging masses to photographed them.

We joined a tour of the Palace and happened to luck upon an English tour which unfortunately contained a small horde of Americans. Kind of jars you completely out of the Japanese serenity.

Racing through the day, we managed to arrive at the Botanic Gardens 10 minutes after the conservatory (which by all accounts is worth a look in) shut its doors.

Right next to the subway entrance was an modern art installation which contained some interesting interpretations of both Asian and Western masters.

A dinner of Hong Kong style noodles at the brain-numbingly large Cube capped off a tiring day.