Kyoto Imperial Palace in Japan - Book a Tour

October 6, 2008 by Jeff · 1 Comment

We went to visit the Imperial Palace today, however, we didn't have a reservation or approval for entrance. So when visiting the Imperial Palace in Kyoto be sure to either make a reservation ahead of time or when you arrive.

To make a reservation in Kyoto you simply go to the Imperial Palace grounds and go to the Information Centre. From here you can get approval for a tour of the palace grounds. They will scan you passport and make sure you're 'qualified' to enter. They also manage three other ground tours in Kyoto which include the Sento Imperial Palace (tours in Japanese only), Katsura Imperial Villa and the Shugakuin Imperial Villa.

That being said if you only have one night in Kyoto and want to see the Imperial Palace grounds they're definitely worth a visit. It's a very open, green and beautiful open space in the middle of a busy city. Quite a nice change of pace actually. You can see the immense open space surrounding the walls of the Kyoto Palace in the picture below!

If you're into taking beautiful photographs then this is a great place to catch a couple great pictures of trees (springtime for Cherry blossoms and autumn for Japanese Maple's). Here is our prized photo of the day from the Kyoto Imperial Palace Grounds.