Tokyo: Day 1, Part 2: Imperial Palace East Gardens

We left Harajuku as it was becoming more and more crowded, and walked several blocks over to Shibuya. There are a lot of department stores and chain restaurants in this area. Actually, we found a Disney Store there, which made it convenient for me to buy my pass for Disneyland for tomorrow. :)

We had a quick and uneventful lunch in Shibuya, then took the metro to the Imperial Palace. Dick and I had tried to go to the Imperial Palace when we were here seven years ago, but it was closed on the day that we went. Today, we spent a couple of hours walking around the Imperial Palace East Gardens. (The Imperial Palace itself is usually not open to the public.) It was a beautiful walk. We're here just a month or so before all of the cherry blossoms will be in bloom, and a lot of the flowers/trees were still bare. It was still a gorgeous and interesting walk.

We were lucky in that the plum trees were just starting to bloom. Turns out, they are the same type of plumb tress as we have at home in our backyard! :) The blossoms of white and pink were very pretty, and a nice surprise to see.