The imperial palaces have kept surprising me with how enjoyable they have been to explore and the fact that it’s free. Where the primary palace was moved to Tokyo; I’d assumed we wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near it but actually most of the grounds were accessible.
I had a nice walk around the moat and again was amazed by the sheer size of the place as well as the magnitude of the walls made up of immense pieces of stones.
There were some lovely areas of flowers at at one saw this most amazing sights I’d had all trip. There was maybe a hummingbird or hummingbird hawk moth (I wasn’t sure which) that kept feeding on the flowers. It was absolutely beautiful and a special to watch.