Six hundred years ago, Tōkyō was an insignificant fishing village called Edo. In the fifteenth century, a vassal samurai built Edo Castle (江戸城) and the village became… still a relatively minor castle town. It wasn’t until Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) moved to Edo and brought Japan out of the Warring States period (戦国時代) that a bustling metropolis grew around the castle.
By the late 19th century, when the Tokugawa shōgunate yielded to the Meiji Restoration, Edo was the most populous city in Japan. The emperor renamed the city to Tōkyō (東京), the Eastern Capital, and moved his residence from Kyōto to a new Imperial Palace on the grounds of the former Edo Castle. The palace was destroyed in the 1945 firebombings and rebuilt on the west side of the grounds after the war.
The east side of the grounds are now a park open to the public and contains a garden, the ruins of the original Edo castle, some fruit-bearing trees, and some magnificent koi.
A beautiful early-fall day in the Imperial Palace East Gardens.
The Imperial Palace remains at the heart of Tōkyō, which can be seen from a map of its public transportation system. Most of the major stations, including the entire Yamanote Line loop, are within 7km of the palace, and six of the nine Tōkyō Metro lines visit at least one of the eight stations surrounding the palace grounds.
JR East’s Yamanote Line, the nine Tōkyō Metro lines, and the four Toei Subway lines, all of which pass near the Imperial Palace grounds.
I mention the train lines not only because I am a huge transit nerd, but also because their influence is so apparent. Because of the train system, there are relatively few vehicles in the downtown core and a lot of busy areas primarily for pedestrians. Stations are surrounded by walkable shopping districts and random alleys with excellent restaurants. And interesting things are built into the physical structures themselves: I ate in at least one restaurant whose ceiling shook with every train passing overhead.
Active and interesting places in, under, around, and near Tōkyō’s transit infrastructure.
We stayed in a hotel between Ōtemachi and Kanda stations1 at the recommendation of one of Leah’s friends. This was the perfect place for us: it’s very centrally located, but much quieter than the urban mega-hubs Tōkyō is famous for. From our hotel, we had easy access to seven different train lines, the lunch offerings of the Ōtemachi financial district, and more convenience stores than you can shake a stick at.
Various sights from Uchikanda and Otemachi.
From Ōtemachi it’s a short walk to Nihonbashi (日本橋), a bridge that was frequently depicted in art before it was reconstructed in stone and later covered by an expressway.2 The bridge is the traditional kilometer zero for Japan, marked by a stone plaque on one side.
A dragon statue on the modern Nihonbashi and the zero milestone. The bridge was wood in the Edo period, as depicted here in Utagawa Hiroshige’s “Sunshower at Nihonbashi”.
On our last day in Japan, we stayed in Ueno (上野). Although Ueno Park is famous for its zoo’s pandas — or at least I assume so, given that everything in the area was panda-themed, including our hotel room — we didn’t go to the zoo. Instead, we enjoyed a rainy walk to Shinobazu Pond (不忍池) and its lovely temple. For some reason, it also has a monument to Tokugawa Ieyasu’s glasses.
A rainy day at Shinobazu Pond.
I took many more photos in Tōkyō and our other destinations in Japan, but that will do it for now. Stay tuned for more!