A walk to the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace

This is the Hirakawa-mon Gate which is the closest gate of the Imperial Palace from Hotel Niwa Tokyo.
The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace is a public park approx. 20min. on foot from the Hotel and you can also see The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kitanomaru-Park right beside them.

Inside the Hirakawa-mon Gate there are the Trees of 47 Prefectures and the Plum Tree Slope.

Tall buildings, stonewalls and plum trees are making a particular view of Tokyo.

This is the remains of the main castle tower. The fire in 1657 burned the tower and was never reconstructed.

We were able to see an early blooming cherry blossoms in the park.

If you take a closer look at the picture you can see a lot of bulbuls on the cherry tree branch.

We walked around the park and got out from the Kitahanebashi-mon Gate.
This is a view of the Hirakawa-moat and a stonewall of the casle keep. A big moat and a curve of the stonewall reminds us a scenes of Edo period.

The East Gardens of the Imperial Palace
Around 20min. on foot from Hotel Niwa Tokyo or
1min. walk from Subway Mita-Line Otemachi Sta. C10 exit (2 stations from Suidobashi Sta.).

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Great Veiw of Tokyo from Bunkyo Civic Center

This is the Bunkyo Civic Center where you can experience a wonderful veiw of Tokyo from an observatory on 25th floor.
(The Tokyo Dome City amusement park can be seen in the foreground.)

The west side is a view of Shinjuku, you can see the metropolitan office building and the skyscrapers.On fine day, you can also see Mt. Fuji clearly.
(This photo is taken by telescopic lens.)

This is the east side of Tokyo, you can see the Tokyo Sky Tree.
It seems that the buildings never end until the horizon.

The Tokyo Sky Tree.
It became the world's tallest and the most beautiful free-standing broadcasting tower.
The tower and the giant commercial facilities will open on May 22nd 2012.
(This photo is taken by telescopic lens.)

The Bunkyo Civic Center's observatory is admission free and the opening hour is from 9:00 to 20:30.

Bunkyo Civic Center (Official website)
Around 10min. walk from Hotel Niwa Tokyo.

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Cherry blossom season is coming !

Every year in this season many medias report the forecasts of cherry blossom blooming.
According to the forecasts, here in Tokyo, the blooming day will be March 30 and will be in full bloom on April 5 or 6 this year.
There are many cherry tree veiwing spots close from Hotel Niwa Tokyo in a walking distance.

You can see a lot of people enjoying the blooming "Sakura" from last year's picture!

This is Chidorigafuchi pedestrain path.

Beside the pedestrain path is a moat and a cherry blossom hill.

Cherry trees in full bloom are so beautiful.

A shrine's guardian dog and a cherry blossoms.

A traditional Japanese building and sakura looks great together !

We can hardly wait for sakura to flower !
Annualy the Sakura Festival is held from the end of the March until the beggining of the April at Chiyoda city.
Chidorigafuchi-moat and Kitanomaru-park where the festival is held is around 20min walk from Hotel Niwa Tokyo.

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Plum Blossoms at Yushima-Tenjin Shrine

Yushima-Tenjin Shrine is well known for a viewing place of plum blossom in Tokyo.

This is the guardian dog of the Shrine, the relief of the base it stands is carved with plum tree motif.

Also, Yushima-Tenjin Shrine is very famos for "shrine of learning" since Sugawara Michizane, a god of scholarship, is enshrined.

These days, a lot of students and their family visit the Shrine to pray for passing the entrance examimation.
They write their wishes on an ema, a small wooden tablet, and hang it so that their prayer is heard.

Usually the beggining of March is the best season for plum blossoms but this year about half of them are in bloom now, because of the low temperature weather continued in Tokyo these days.
That means we can enjoy the plum season longer than usual !

There are many colors fo plum in the garden, such as white, pink and ruby.

It is said that Sugawara Michizane, he is a actual nobility of Heian period, loved plum blossoms.

Yushima-Tenjin Shrine is around 20min walk from Hotel Niwa Tokyo.

We definitely recommend to go for a walk on a warm season !