Tokyo Day 2 - Imperial Palace, Botanics and Atomic Bomb Boat

Delicious Family Mart Snacks                 Half Height Subway Barriers                         Woman Only Sign

Got up super early, grabbed a snack from the Family Mart (yup, they have cheap tasty boiling food) and rode the subway downtown, was surprised by how busy it was. Similar to Kuala Lumpur there is a car reserved during rush hour for women only. Japan is also the reason phones bought in Korea can't turn off the camera sound - apparently there were too many pervs taking photos up ladies skirts on the subway. Maybe I've been in Korea too long but maybe if their skirts covered their ladyparts.. Although the ladies I saw were a lot more conservatively dressed so I'm sure it's not that. 


The Imperial Palace became so way back during 1868 when the Emperor moved up from Kyoto. The Edo castle on the grounds was originally built in 1457 and subsequently destroyed in a few fires and of course World War II. It's right in the centre of the town so you walk into it from streets covered in skyscrapers.  We wandered around, some parts like the walls and moat haven't changed in a few hundred years - such a huge change from Korea where almost the entire country was destroyed during the Korea War.

Attractions to see: A side building with pictures of the Japanese Royal Family, guard towers, moat, gardens etc. When we were wandering around too we saw an old horse-drawn carriage. Not sure why that was there!

Afterwards we wandered past protesters and marathon runners (see photos on the right) to the Sakuradaemon station - I was very pleased with myself that I could read the kanja for door/gate in 
桜田門. Next stop was the botanics to meet some couch surfers to take photos of the flowers.

Getting from Shinkiba station to the botanics involves walking under a huge elevated road (where they store construction vehicles and buses).  It's