Our Last Day in Tokyo

The Imperial Palace and the Diet Building

We were able to go inside the walls to the Imperial Palace! We had a tour of the grounds near the East Garden and saw the building where the Emperor greets the people of Japan on January 2 and his birthday (December 23) each year. We learned a bit of the history to this section of the Imperial Grounds – very cool!

After our tour at the Palace, we visited the Diet Building, which looks a bit like our capital building. It took 50 years to complete this building and all materials were from inside Japan. It is quite grand.

We finished our day with a trek through Shinjuku station to Yodobashi camera, Starbucks, Kinokuniya (6 floors of books!) and Takashimaya – a 12 floor department store.

The evening was complete with our group packing for the trip home tomorrow. Everyone had large smiles and looked forward to sharing stories with family members at home.

Cheers
Kathleen and the DRTs