Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace Tokyo is the residence of the Emperor and sits on the massive stone walls and moats of the former Edo Castle at the city's heart. When the Meiji Restoration of 1868 moved the capital from Kyoto to Edo and renamed it Tokyo, the young emperor moved into the former castle of the Tokugawa shoguns. Today's palace buildings date from 1968, replacing the Meiji Palace destroyed at the end of WWII. Visitors may only enter the inner grounds on two days a year, New Year's Day and the Emperor's birthday; the rest of the year they photograph from Nijubashi Bridge across the outer moat to the Fushimi Yagura, one of the few surviving Edo watchtowers. The Kokyo-mae plaza, with its black pines, remains one of the most palpable quiet zones in dense Tokyo.