1 post tagged “imperial palace”
Today Nikki and I ventured out to the Imperial Palace. We signed up for a guided tour a couple weeks ago, after our Yamanote Sen Adventure. I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I thought we would have a small group of people and a tour guide escorting us around the grounds, maybe even in English. When we arrived at 1pm for our 1:30 tour, there were about 40 people standing outside the front gate in 2 large groups. We had no idea what was going on so, as we have started to do every time we are lost or confused, we asked someone where we needed to go to check in. There were guards at the gate so we asked one of them where we needed to check in and he hustled us to the front of the huge line of people and told us to wait there. He literally ran over to where we needed to stand, it was quite strange. Although, it happens quite a lot - like the woman at Abiko City Hall. We got checked off the list, handed our English pamphlet for the tour (which had the obligatory Engrish mistakes in it), and then ushered inside the visitors centre with our spiffy retro audio guides. We were the only foreigners there, and probably the youngest ones too; we were surrounded by senior citizens on a bus tour. It felt like we were getting preferential treatment since the guy who was leading the tour would say "English Audio Guide #" whenever we stopped anywhere, just for us.
It typical Japanese fashion, we were herded around like sheep the entire time. We were supposed to be in four lines throughout the tour, but that didn't last very long. Well, they were all over 65, so how much damage are they going to do? Got to see some of the inner and administrative buildings of the Palace, and some really cool architecture, but it was like a ghost town except for the officers shuffling us from place to place. More than necessary, they would come up to us to tell us what guide number we should be listening to at that point in the tour. Even the little grannies would tell us we should take pictures, or fall back in line. Before we started, there was a short video presentation about the tour course and safety precautions. There was a gift shop that was open before the tour, but neither Nikki or I went in. There was a huge race of people to buy their souvenirs before the tour began and I didn't feel like fighting through only to find that there was nothing I wanted to buy. Pictures were souvenir enough for me. Too bad it wasn't a nicer day: it was overcast and a bit cool, though that was a nice relief.
The tour was about an hour and a half, and covered 2.2km. We learned about some of the history of the Palace and its buildings and what they were used for, past and present. It was really cool. I am looking forward to going to some more museums and being a cultured snob.
Sunday night was our (belated) Welcome Party for the new Nova staff. About 20 people went out to an izakaya in Kashiwa and had nomihodai (all you can drink) and just hung out. It was nice to socialize with the J-staff for once and see everyone our of their work clothes and relaxed. I had such a good time and got to know a lot of my coworkers a lot better. We went for karaoke afterwards, of course, and let loose even more. It was nice knowing that everyone went out and felt a little worse for wear in the morning, not just me. I present you with the highlights of the night.
