Japan Tour 2025: Day 17 Sailor Moon and Gundam in Tokyo

Entry to Imperial Garden

 

By the numbers

28,961 steps

22.57 kms

 

Level of Chaos: Undecided as to where to go next

 

I really should start getting up earlier and making a move as soon as the restaurant opens up. The reason is that I keep forgetting about the sheer number of people catching the train from the local station in the morning and I seem to be surprised the rush has actually started already. Its not a trickle and then it explodes, its just appearing and I don’t think it lets up for quite some time at all. I was actually undecided as to where I should be going as I wanted somewhere that was close in distance so I wouldn’t have to be stuck with crowds for any length of time. Tokyo Tower was out, so I went with a plan that I had been throwing around. Visit the gardens of the Imperial palace.

 

I caught the underground rail for that and I had a specific exit I had to pop out of as there was a grave that I wanted to visit. The walk to that particular exit took some time to get to and I wasn’t sure if the nearby escalators took me to where I wanted to go, or I should take the stairs instead, so I took the stairs. Once I found myself at the top it wasn’t far to the grave. The grave to the samurai was more of a shrine as people were praying to the grave. It was an interesting place as it was near the imperial palace, but also in an exposed place beside a building, a skyscraper to be exact. From there I went to the gardens of the Imperial palace, but they didn’t open until 9am. I had around 15 mins before that happened and I could walk to another entrance. I couldn’t access the imperial palace itself, but I wasn’t worried about that part.

 

The imperial palace gardens were once Edo castle, which no longer survives, but the walls and moat are still around along with several guard houses. What I didn’t know was most of the land in front of the palace including Tokyo station is actually reclaimed land and the palace or castle had water front view at one stage and one of the surviving towers had that view and that of Fuji as well. Once I could walk in they had to look in the bag as well, which was the usual for the imperial places I have been to so far. I decided to wander aimlessly, although there were some sunflowers I wanted to see. When I did find them later on, they were not blooming. They were significant as they were in honour of a girl who died in an earthquake and the flowers were growing from the ruins of her home. There were places that we couldnt access like a marial arts dojo that I think was part of the imperial military. The gardens were interesting and there was even a replica built of the Edo castle to show what it would have looked like. In the centre of the grounds was a rock base of a tower that was going to be built, but never was.

 

After taking everything in and seeing more and more people walking into the area to have a look around I made the decision to visit Tokyo Tower. A big red tower and one of several in the city. I was just going to walk around the base and then go on my way. I ended up going to the first floor as I didn’t want to spend the extra money by going to the next floor up. I had a great view of some of the city and could see the smog as well. It wasn’t that bad, but it was there hanging around. I had been planning on finding the man hole covers for Sailor Moon and after I left the tower, I found the first two, and I knew there was a cemetery nearby, so I looked it up and found that was going to close at 3pm and I only had 40 mins before closing. The cemetery was the resting place of the Tokugawa Shoguns who ruled Japan for a period of time and there  were six of fifteen buried in a mausoleum all part of a Buddhist temple. I quickly made my way there and had a hornet land on me, I brushed it off with my hat and it never returned. It was interesting walking around the temple grounds, but to see things properly, you had to pay and I was only interested in the graves. The last two manhole covers, I walked to and then caught a train to the last one as I didn’t want to walk. I find it funny when they are easy to find and you just take the picture you need. I was using Google maps and a website that someone had made about the manhole covers to find four of the five. I wasnt comfortable finding a girls school and that I think it was further away than the other four.

 

With the last cover found, I decided that it would be cool to go and visit Diver City to see what it was all about. Several trains later, I went for a walk around the front of the shopping centre to see the statue and realised I couldnt get to it the way I was trying and had to turn around. What I wanted to see was the Gundam statue that was standing outside the shopping centre. It was impressive. I went for a walk around the inside of the centre and they had a Godzilla popup store, though they seem to have bands playing here as well, or it’s the J-pop type bands. I did go have a look at the Gundam base, but I wasn’t sure if you had to pay to get in and have a booking, or even need to buy something. I did realise that time was getting away with me and I would be stuck in the rush hour again and I did not like that especially when you see people squashing onto the trains. Though it is funny that you have to get off at the next station to let people off before getting back on. I think because I am in Tokyo, I have crammed several plans in on the one day as it was cloudy during the morning and while it might feel cooler, it was just as hot as I had sweat pouring off me. I still havnt been to a museum while here yet as I have been too busy sight seeing and there are plenty of places to see, but have to make a decision as to what I want to see. You will never see all of Tokyo, even if I can give it a red hot go.