Charles' Travel Blog

Day 6 – Kyoto – Kyoto Imperial Palace

I woke early in the morning to make my way to get in line to have a free guided tour of the Kyoto Sento Imperial Palace. This was a palace for emperors who retired. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone who is visiting Kyoto. It is in Japanese but they do have audio guides in other languages.

In addition, this palace served as a Guesthouse for foreign dignitaries and they brought in western style furniture so the dignitaries would not have to remove their shoes.

The style was to create walkways with rounded stones. This is the longest example in the Imperial Household with over 110,000 stones. The stones were collected by nearby residents and they were given 1.5 kg of rice per stone.

In addition to touring the Kyoto Sento Imperial Palace grounds. I was able to see the Kyoto Imperial Palace itself. The entrance is tucked away on the side.