Tokyo Imperial Palace...

Early in the morning, after having our breakfast from the Toyoko Inn ,w e started our journey to the Imperial Palace.  We took a one day pass or the Tokyo city travel and hired the train to Tokyo station.

We walked towards the Imperial palace which can be accessed by a 5 minute walk from the station according to the information that we have collected.

We crossed a park while walking to the palace which looks so beautiful with trees surrounded with flowered bushes and fountains. In 7 minutes we reached the east gardens of the Imperial palace.

 The current Imperial Palace is located on the former site of Edo Castle, a large park area surrounded stone walls. It is the residence of Japan's Imperial Family. The palace buildings and inner gardens are not open to the public. Only on January 2 (New year) and December 23 (Emperor's Birthday), visitors are able to enter the inner palace grounds and see the members of the Imperial Family, who make several public appearances on a balcony.The Imperial Palace East Gardens are open to the public.There are two bridges that form an entrance to the inner palace grounds called the  Nijubashi.

Nijubashi.

Imperial palace.

The Imperial Palace East garden is open to the public. They are the former site of Edo Castle's innermost circles of defense, the honmaru ("main circle") and ninomaru ("secondary circle").
None of the main buildings remain today, but the moats, walls, entrance gates and several guardhouses still exist. A wide lawn and the remaining foundation of the former castle tower can be found on top of the hill, where the castle's innermost buildings once stood.

The foundation of the former castle tower.

 In place of the former buildings in the secondary circle of defense (ninomaru) at the foot of the hill, a nice Japanese style garden has been created.

We walked up to the foundation of the former castle tower. From there we could see the palace building.

Then we walked through  the garden infront of it, there were so many cherry trees with full of flowers.

We left the palace garden area after walking  around there for an hour.

Cherry blossom at Togokusan Fruit Park, Kozoji..

We planned to go to the Togokusan Fruit Park during the cherry blossom. We went there on one Sunday. Eventhough the overall weather is cold, that day was sunny. So the journey was quite comfortable for us. From Tajimi we reached the very next station ,  Kozoji and walked to the park. Kozoji is a quite big place and the roads were very rushed.  We crossed a bridge over the river. We saw some bamboos felt down in the river  due to last night's rainfall and wind. There was a heavy crowd on the road and we scared that  it will be difficult if it is too rush there in the park. On midway, half of the people went to another way as they came for sawayaka walking. We alked for about 15 minutes, but slowly as it was crowded. At last we reached the park. There were so many sakura trees seen on the way to the park and the park looked pink in color from outside. It as the Hanami day in the place, that is why such a large crowd is seen there. "Hanami" is the Japanese practice of picnicking under blooming sakura trees. 

Map of the park.

 There were various varieties and colors of Sakura in this park. Also there are other kinds of colorful floers in the park like tulips, poppy etc. There as a small pond with sakuras and other  trees around it which seems so beautiful. While walking through the park, we saw the fruit trees of the park, but the leaves have just sprouted after the winter season. 

We saw a man standing on a board lifted over a roller wood and playing balls.  We stayed there and watched it for some minutes. It was amazing.

Man playing balls over a roller.

At another part of the park, we saw a lady with a monkey playing some tricks. There were such small shows conducted at some corners of the park.

Monkey playing tricks in the park.

We walked towards the lake, crossing the bridge e entered the lake bank here a lot of people spend time on fishing. At this place you can rent fishing rods and buy food for them. There we saw so many people fishing, we observed some of them for some minutes, but couldn't ind any fishes getting trapped in their tray, eventhought hey take over the food from the rod.

A rose sakura on the lake bank.

Sakuras on the bank of the lake.

Me on the bridge.

White sakura.

A variety sakura with more petals and different color.

The yellow flowers beneath the sakura trees.

A fountain in the lake.

The greenhouses.

 There were two green houses inside the park where they grows tropical fruits. Inorder to enter inside we have to take a ticket worth 200 yens per person. There are trees like jack fruit, mango etc that are very common in our place. Felt like we are in a village of Kerala. There  are spiral steps up inorder to see the trees and plants inside the green house.

 

As we walked back, we bought some Takoyaki from the small snack house where they prepare some items  there itself.

Takoyaki.

After eating our Takoyaki, we walked to the fruit stall of the park. It was crowded with people. Since it is the strawberry season, packets of strawberries ere sold in front of the stall. We went their for buying a pack, but seeing the long queue we stepped back. But we entered the stall and buy some dry fruits and sweets from there. 

A colorful sakura on the way.