The Imperial Palace on Foot: Otemon Gate, the Guardhouse Ruins and Ninomaru Garden in Tokyo

The Imperial Palace grounds are the middle of Tokyo and almost nobody understands what they are looking at. This was Edo Castle, the largest fortress in the world when it was built, and the seat of the Tokugawa shoguns for two and a half centuries. The city grew outward from it in rings. The palace only became imperial in 1868, when the Emperor moved from Kyoto and the shogunate ended, and the modern residence sits inside walls that were laid for an entirely different purpose.

The walk goes in through Otemon, the main gate, which is where daimyo lords entered to present themselves. You pass the guardhouse ruins, where retainers waited and where the checks on who entered were carried out, and up to the foundations of the great keep — a tower that burned in 1657 and was never rebuilt, on the reasonable grounds that the country was at peace and the money was better spent elsewhere. What remains is an enormous stone platform with a view over the moats and the modern towers beyond.

Ninomaru Garden closes the route: a reconstructed Edo-period garden, deliberately quiet, and one of the few places in central Tokyo where the traffic disappears entirely.

Groups run to a maximum of ten per guide and the guide works in English, with a French-speaking option on the same route. Your guide will point you at the photo angles that work if you ask. There is no dress code and tattoos are fine, which is worth stating because several Japanese sites are stricter.

Meeting is at Wadakura Fountain Park, five to ten minutes on foot from either Tokyo Station or Otemachi. Nothing is included beyond the guide — the grounds themselves are free to enter.