SUNDAY - TOKYO 
IMPERIAL GARDENS

After a long walk around, we finally got to the East Garden. This entrance pass says: Admission Ticket please return this ticket at the exit (4:00 pm closed)
Oh, you weren't supposed to see that side.
The Tōkagakudō, Peach Blossom Music Hall, was built in 1966 and it looks like it.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* Remains of the Tenshudai donjon that was built in 1638. A donjon is an inner tower, keep or stronghold of a castle.
The garden might look nicer in the spring or summer, but I've never been there at that time.
I don't know what kind of blossoms these were, but lots of people were taking pictures.
Bamboo probably looks the same in winter and summer.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* The Ishimuro Stone Cellar was an emergency storehouse but could also have been an underground passage or treasury.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* The Fujimi-Tamon. A tamon was a building on the stone wall for defense where arms were stored.
There were several citrus trees in this area of the park. The plastic tents probably kept them protected from the cold winter wind.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* There used to be nineteen of these castle keeps surrounding Edo Castle, but there are only three left.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* The Ōbansho is a great guardhouse, much better than a good guardhouse. It was strictly guarded by samurai guardsmen of higher rank than other guardhouses.
Another picture contrasting old and new Tokyo.
Again, the park probably look beautiful in the spring. In winter it's a lot of sticks on trees. But the little waterfall is nice.
The Suwanochaya, or Suwa Tea Pavilion, was built in 1912 somewhere else and was moved here when the East Gardens was laid out.
Just a little rest house. Not much to say about it.
You can get both cold and hot beverages from a lot of vending machines in Japan. The ones with the blue under the bottles are cold and the red are hot.
I had a delicious peach nectar juice box.
*DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING* This was the entrance I left through back in 2008 and I thought we were going in today. I was mistaken and the long walk began.

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