Here is the Imperial Palace, the historical and current home of the Emperor. It has two moats snaking around it, though now you can drive across the outer one and go straight through the outer park.
The area around the park is completely built up, but the park has only a few small buildings that depart for the classic design. It is meticulously pruned and kept, and the buildings are mostly tourist centers restaurants and the like.
Despite it's current accessibility, the original fortifications are evident. Against an army of Samurai it would be about the safest location one could find. And these are just the outer walls.
The inner walls sport a wider moat and the walls vary from this size, to nearly twice that height! The bridge in the distance, like all the other ones into the inner area, are now fenced and guarded by more mundane security guards. 
The smaller pines in the public park were pruned sparse and round, in the common style of gardens here. But the older trees looming above the walls have been pruned to hang long and low down over the walls, this one is about 10 years from touching the water!
This is the old Imperial Castle. I believe the imperial family now lives in a more modern western-style mansion. But this is the far more impressive local. The white house is small potatoes in comparison...
This guy gets his own (marvelously sculpted) statue because of unfailing baddassery and loyalty to the shogunate. And all the statues in European town squares, the ones with powdered wigs and button up coats on horseback... This guy is going to destroy you. Your musket will fail in the face of such an overwhelming foe. He will eat you for breakfast. Seriously.
1 comment:
Greetings from Tokyo! I totally agree with you about the White House! The moat & area around the Imperial Palace looks beautiful in all seasons!
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