Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The hidden palace


Another sunny day here in Tokyo, and first stop was the Imperial Palace. Whilst the palace isn't open to visitors, the grounds are, so a walk in the sunshine was called for. Confusingly, the palace itself cannot be seen from the grounds - you have to go on a bit of a walk outside them to catch a glimpse of it around a corner!

After this I went for a walk around the nearby business/retail area, including a visit to a small gallery in the offices of a life insurance firm and the Sony building. Later I took the Subway to visit the Tokyo Museum of Western Art. The current exhibition was of paintings by Edvard Munch, although many of them were drafts rather than the finished article. The permanent collection had a fair selection of western artists from the past few centuries - 2 of the Brueghels, Renoir, Monet etc. Final stop of the day was a wonder around the "Electric City" area of Akihabara to look at all the bright lights and shiny products, before grabbing some dinner and getting the subway back to the hotel (once I had chosen one going the right way at least!)

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