Tokyo Private Tours
The Imperial Palace is Tokyo's most-searched attraction. Here's what's actually possible, what most first-timers misunderstand, and how to make the most of your visit.
July 12, 2025
10 mins
The Tokyo Imperial Palace sits in the heart of the city on the former site of Edo Castle, surrounded by moats and stone walls that survived centuries of fires, earthquakes, and war. It's Tokyo's most recognizable landmark and most-searched attraction. But what most first-time visitors don't realize is that "visiting the Imperial Palace" means several different things depending on what you actually want to see—and what's actually accessible.
What's Always Accessible (No Booking Required)
East Gardens (Higashi-Gyoen) Open Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday (closed Mondays and Fridays). Free admission. This is the most accessible part of the Imperial Palace and what most tourists visit when they say they've "been to the Palace."
The East Gardens occupy the former site of Edo Castle's inner fortifications. You can walk through massive stone walls built in the 1600s, see the foundation remains of the castle's main tower (destroyed by fire in 1657 and never rebuilt), and explore seasonal gardens that bloom with plum in February, cherry blossoms in early April, and autumn foliage in November.
The gardens take 45-90 minutes to walk through, depending on your pace and interest in photographing the stonework and seasonal plants. Entry is free but you must pass through a security checkpoint.
Palace Outer Grounds The 5km perimeter walk around the Palace moat is always accessible. This is where you'll see joggers doing their loops and tourists photographing the stone bridges and watchtowers. The most famous view is Nijubashi Bridge—the double-arched stone bridge that appears in every Imperial Palace photo. You can walk up to the bridge plaza for photos but cannot cross it (it leads to restricted areas).
This walk is best in early morning or late afternoon when light angles make the stone walls and moat reflections photograph well. Budget 30-60 minutes for the full perimeter walk, or 15 minutes if you just want the Nijubashi Bridge photo.
What Requires the Official Tour (Limited Access, Advance Booking)
Palace Inner Grounds The actual Imperial Palace where the Imperial Family resides is not open to casual visitors. The only way to see restricted inner grounds is through the free official tour run by the Imperial Household Agency.
This 75-minute walking tour covers about 2.2km and shows you:
Fujimi-yagura (one of the remaining castle turrets)
Seimon Ishibashi and Seimon Tetsubashi bridges
Outer garden areas not normally accessible
Views of palace buildings from a distance (you don't go inside any buildings)
What you won't see: The Emperor's residence, palace interiors, or most of the 115-hectare grounds. The tour is essentially a controlled walk through outer courtyards with distant views of palace buildings.
What You Can't See At All
Most of the 115-hectare palace grounds remain closed to the public year-round. The Emperor and Imperial Family's living quarters, private gardens, and administrative buildings are off-limits except for two special public opening days per year (January 2 for New Year's Greeting and December 23 for the Emperor's Birthday), when tens of thousands queue for a brief glimpse from a designated viewing area.
How It Actually Works
Cost: Free
Duration: 75 minutes
Language: Tours available in Japanese and English (specify when booking)
Booking: Required in advance through the Imperial Household Agency website. Walk-ups sometimes accepted if space available, but unreliable—always book ahead.
Frequency: Tours run twice daily (10:00 AM and 1:30 PM) Tuesday-Saturday. Closed Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays. Also closed for special Imperial events.
Group size: Large groups (often 200+ people per tour)
What to bring: Photo ID (passport for foreign visitors). No large bags allowed. Arrive 15 minutes early for security screening.
Accessibility: The tour involves walking 2.2km on gravel paths. Not wheelchair accessible. Difficult for anyone with mobility limitations.
What the Experience Is Actually Like
The official tour is a security-controlled group walk through outer palace grounds. A guide provides historical commentary (in Japanese or English depending on your booking), but this is not an intimate storytelling experience—you're in a large group moving through checkpoints.
You'll see impressive Edo-period stone walls, reconstructed guard towers, and palace buildings from a distance. The architecture is beautiful, the grounds are meticulously maintained, and the sense of Tokyo's imperial history is real. But you're viewing from designated paths and viewing areas, not exploring freely.
Most participants describe it as "worth doing once to say you've been inside," but not the highlight of their Tokyo trip. The tour satisfies curiosity about what's behind the walls, but it doesn't provide deep cultural context or the kind of immersive storytelling that makes historical sites come alive.
How to Book the Official Tour
Visit the Imperial Household Agency website and register in advance. Tours fill up during peak seasons (cherry blossom season, autumn, and around holidays), so book 2-4 weeks ahead if visiting during high season.
Short answer: The East Gardens are worth 45 minutes if you're nearby. The official inner grounds tour is worth doing once if you're curious, but it's not essential to experiencing Tokyo.
Longer answer:
The Imperial Palace grounds are beautiful, historically significant, and well-maintained. Walking through the East Gardens gives you a sense of Edo Castle's massive scale and the craftsmanship of its stone walls. The seasonal gardens bloom beautifully in spring and autumn.
But the Palace isn't a museum. There are no palace interiors to tour, no crown jewels on display, no immersive exhibits explaining the Imperial Family's role in Japanese history. What you're experiencing is the grounds—stone walls, moats, gardens, and exterior views of palace buildings.
For most first-time Tokyo visitors, the Imperial Palace makes sense as part of a larger traditional Tokyo day, not as a standalone destination requiring half a day. The Palace is geographically central—near Tokyo Station, Marunouchi, and the Ginza area—which makes it easy to incorporate into a route that also includes other traditional sites like Meiji Shrine or Asakusa.
What Most Travelers Actually Want
Here's what we've learned after years of guiding visitors through Tokyo:
What first-timers think they want: "I want to tour the Imperial Palace."
What they actually want: Cultural context about Tokyo's imperial history, understanding how the Palace relates to the city's development, and a full day that includes the Palace area alongside other traditional Tokyo experiences with storytelling and local insight.
The 75-minute official tour provides access but minimal context. Most travelers, especially those 50+, find that the Palace grounds are more meaningful when experienced with a guide who can explain:
How Edo Castle controlled feudal Japan for 265 years
Why the Imperial Family moved here in 1868 (and what that transition meant for Tokyo)
How the Palace grounds relate to nearby areas like Marunouchi (former samurai estates) and Nihonbashi (merchant quarters)
What survived the 1923 earthquake and 1945 firebombing, and what got rebuilt
This is the difference between "standing in the Palace grounds for 90 minutes" and "understanding Tokyo's imperial history in context while experiencing a full day of traditional culture."
The Reality: The Palace Takes 1-2 Hours, Then What?
The East Gardens require 45-90 minutes. The official inner grounds tour is 75 minutes. Even combined, that's 2-3 hours maximum.
Most travelers arrive in Tokyo for 3-7 days total and want to maximize their experience. Dedicating half a day solely to the Palace feels inefficient when you could experience it alongside other traditional Tokyo sites that provide complementary cultural context.
What Makes Geographic Sense
The Imperial Palace sits in central Tokyo, within reasonable distance of:
Traditional Tokyo (15-30 minutes away):
Meiji Shrine (Harajuku)
Asakusa and Senso-ji Temple
Traditional gardens like Rikugien or Koishikawa Korakuen
Yanaka's shitamachi (old downtown) neighborhoods
Modern Tokyo (10-20 minutes away):
Ginza shopping district
Tokyo Station and Marunouchi
Shibuya and Harajuku youth culture
Most visitors who want to experience the Palace area benefit from incorporating it into a full-day route that shows Tokyo's traditional and modern contrasts—not spending a full morning on the Palace grounds alone.
The Private Guide Advantage
Here's where having a local guide changes the experience:
Without a guide: You visit the East Gardens or take the official tour, get some photos, check it off your list, then figure out what's next.
With a guide: The Palace becomes part of a narrative about how Tokyo developed. Your guide explains what you're seeing in context (this is where Edo Castle stood, here's why these stone walls matter, this is how the Imperial transition shaped modern Tokyo), then continues that story throughout the day as you visit other sites that complete the picture.
For example, pairing the Palace grounds with Meiji Shrine shows you how two different eras of imperial power shaped Tokyo's landscape. Pairing it with Asakusa shows the contrast between imperial formality and working-class shitamachi culture. Pairing it with Tokyo Station and Marunouchi shows how former samurai estates transformed into Japan's corporate center.
This is what travelers remember—the connections, the story, the way the pieces fit together. Not just "I stood in the Palace grounds and took photos."
We don't offer Imperial Palace interior tours (that's handled exclusively by the Imperial Household Agency). What we offer is what most travelers actually want: the Palace area incorporated into a full Tokyo cultural day with storytelling, local context, and efficient routing that maximizes your limited time in Tokyo.
Tokyo Essentials (6 Hours)
Our most popular tour for first-time visitors combines traditional Tokyo's major sites into one efficient day. We typically route:
Morning: Asakusa (Senso-ji Temple, traditional shopping streets, shitamachi culture)
Midday: Tsukiji Outer Market (Tokyo's food culture, street food tastings)
Afternoon: Option to walk the Imperial Palace outer grounds or East Gardens, with cultural context about Tokyo's imperial history
This gives you traditional Tokyo's diversity—temple culture, food culture, and imperial history—with a guide who explains how these pieces shaped the city. The Palace becomes meaningful because you understand it in context, not as an isolated landmark.
Learn more: Tokyo Essentials Tour
Infinite Tokyo (8 Hours) - Fully Customizable
If you specifically want to spend more time at the Imperial Palace or take the official interior tour, we can build your day around that.
Example itinerary:
Morning: Official Imperial Palace tour (you book separately, we meet you afterward)
Late morning: Walk the East Gardens with cultural context
Afternoon: Meiji Shrine and contrast of Shinto vs. Imperial architecture
Evening: Traditional dinner in a neighborhood most tourists never find
Or combine the Palace with Yanaka (pre-war Tokyo neighborhoods), traditional gardens, Tokyo Station architecture—whatever interests you most. Infinite Tokyo is completely flexible.
Learn more: Infinite Tokyo Tour
Timeless Tokyo (8 Hours) - Historical Deep Dive
If you're fascinated by Tokyo's history and want to understand how the city evolved from Edo Castle to modern megalopolis, this tour spends a full day exploring historical layers.
We often include the Imperial Palace outer grounds or East Gardens as part of understanding how Tokugawa military power centralized here, then transitioned to Imperial power in 1868. The rest of the day explores Yanaka (pre-war survival), Asakusa (Edo-period entertainment district), and other sites that show Tokyo's historical continuity.
Best Times to Visit
Early morning (East Gardens open 9:00 AM): Fewer crowds, better light for photography, cooler temperatures in summer.
Autumn (November): Foliage colors in the East Gardens and along the moat.
Spring (late March-early April): Cherry blossoms, though crowds are intense. If visiting for cherry blossoms, arrive at 8:30 AM when gates open.
Avoid: July-August (brutally hot with no shade along outer grounds walk), and weekends/holidays if you want fewer crowds.
What to Wear and Bring
Comfortable walking shoes: Gravel paths in East Gardens and outer grounds. The official tour walks 2.2km.
Sun protection: Minimal shade along moat walks and in outer areas.
Photo ID: Required for official interior tour (passport for foreign visitors).
Water: Especially in summer. Vending machines available at East Gardens entrance.
Modest clothing: Not strictly required, but the Palace is an imperial site—avoid overly casual beachwear.
What's Nearby
The Imperial Palace is geographically central to Tokyo:
Tokyo Station (5-minute walk): Restored 1914 red-brick building, underground shopping, train hub
Marunouchi (5-minute walk): Corporate Tokyo, upscale shopping
Ginza (15-minute walk): Luxury shopping district
Nihonbashi (10-minute walk): Historic merchant district, modern shopping
Otemachi/Yurakucho (walking distance): Business districts with underground shopping corridors
After visiting the Palace, most travelers head to one of these areas for lunch or continue exploring central Tokyo.
→ Tokyo Essentials Tour — Traditional Tokyo in one comprehensive day
→ Timeless Tokyo Tour — Historical deep dive through 1,200 years
→ Infinite Tokyo Tour — Fully customizable to your interests
→ Tokyo Private Tour Planning Guide — Everything you need to know
→ Asakusa Private Tour Guide — Tokyo's traditional temple district
