Day 70 (7 April) - Imperial Palace

Location: Hibiya, Tokyo, Japan
Weather: Sunny 19 degrees!
Author: Amy

Hello to all! It is Sakura Season in Japan and the Japanese (plus some gazillion tourists) are out in full force for the sakura viewing season! You'll see more evidence of that when we post our pictures of Ueno Park.

Yesterday, we went to the Imperial Palace Gardens for a picnic and, of course, to take pics of the beautiful sakura trees there.

The first glimpse of the Imperial Palace in the horizon.

Just so you know, the Imperial Palace and its gardens are actually surrounded by a moat. So there are several bridges around to access the place itself. Unfortunately, not all allow access so we had to walk a distance to get to the right one.

Chrissie's Mom loves willow trees, hence this pic here.

I must admit that seeing the willow tree branches swaying gently in the breeze can be calming... but I also grew up in Malaysia where there are a lot of 'stories' about willow trees.... *shiver*

See the Imperial Palace behind me? We will need to book a tour to get in. Maybe next time...

The 'forbidden bridge'. Forbidden cause we weren't allowed on it.

One of the bridges leading into the Imperial Palace. The entire area is HUGE. And very beautiful as they take special care in beautifying the place.

Lots of these types of trees. They look like giant bonsais! I want!

For some reason, we were pretty adventurous yesterday and wanted to utilise our camera functions fully by using all the colour effects we could find. So you'll see some sepia, black & white and other 'special' effects pictures from here on. I wonder if you can spot which is which...

We took this pic in the 50s... when there were no colour cameras... (time travel)

Here's one 'special' pic. The camera picks up any reddish hues and mutes all other colours. Just our luck this tree was mostly white flowers...

We loved the landscapes!

Here's a black & white of the same landscape.

The Imperial Palace Garden closes at 4.30pm and we kept telling ourselves that we should hurry up and get in before it closed. But we kept getting distracted by everything around us.

One of the distractions... we thought the antique railings were gorgeous! And couldn't resist taking portraits.

Gorgeous pink sakuras! A bit of a rare species as most sakuras are white.

Another time travel moment

Close to the entrance to the gardens (just behind me)... but still sidetracked.

After convincing ourselves that the trees and sceneries outside will not run away, we finally made our way into the gardens. The place is so big that we had to take a token at the entry so that they could keep track of how many people went in and how many found their way out at the end of they day. Or how many didn't...

Greeted by this beautiful sakura tree!

What I like most about the cherry blossom trees are that the black trunks and branches contrast so vividly with the white blossoms. Unlike our miserable plum blossoms back in Perth... boo!

There were several kimono-clad women around. I want to try that someday...

We knew where we wanted to have our picnic as we had been to the Imperial Palace Garden before in 2007. So we kind of took our time, taking pics as we went along.

I loved this feature wall. It had the most interesting colours!

There were a lot of walls and features around. We couldn't resist trying to take 'artistic' pics (SUPER amateurish artistic that is...)

I wonder how long it takes for a sakura tree to grow to that size.

We found our little picnic spot and took a rest. Chrissie was happily snapping away while I kept shifting around to sit under the sun. (It kept moving away, naughty sun!)

View from our picnic spot.

Our picnic 'guest'

Trigger-happy Chrissie. She took heaps of self-portraits cause she finds it fun.

And on with the sakura hunt!

This was taken with Chrissie's special 'find anything red, mute all others' camera function. We told ourselves that we are soooo wearing red next time.

Surrounded!

Another special camera function! We call it 'dreamy fairy' for lack of a better word... blurs the pic slightly. Great if we're hiding imperfections!

As we walked around, we found more walls! While we were happily taking pictures, the announcer was informing everyone that it was time to leave. Didn't stop us from taking more pics though.


And more sakura trees. We really had to cut down on the pics of sakura trees we wanted to post up cause there were a LOT!

Yay! Blue sky! It had been cloudy last week so this was a great change.

Finally, we decided to leave.

Sigh... time to go...

Yeah... I'm sad too...

Cheery-up! Lots more pics and sakuras on the outside! Possibly more walls too!

Last wistful gaze at the Imperial Palace.

I cheated on this picture. It wasn't sunset but I used a special setting that made colours look more brown and antiquey.

Told you there would be more walls!

We had an appointment in Roppongi so we made our way to Roppongi Hills. Again, we were distracted by walls.

Or stairs in Chrissie's case! Yippee!

There were lots of wall arts in the subway corridors and I couldn't resist taking pics with them. Obviously, I made Chrissie take pics too.

I'm a flooooower!

So am I!

Time to take a break.

Tsk tsk, Amy... Tired already?

My final presentation! Flowers for Danny!

Got to Roppongi Hills. Took a look around for more picture opportunities.

Found one!

Rose, rose, I love you...

I want to pull this out and give it to Danny!

We also checked out the Mohri Garden (traditional Japanese garden).

Ooh! Pretty! *click*

Hmmm... what's that I see yonder?...

...an endangered species amongst the bushes!

Amy: And that concludes...

Chrissie: ...today's Sakura viewing event.

Please join us next time for our adventures in Ueno Park!