Imperial Palace inner grounds

If you have ever visited the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, you most likely have only seen the outer grounds.
That is the area that is normally open to the public. There are only a few days each year that the general public are permitted to enter the inner grounds (and on those days, you must line up and go through a baggage search and pass a metal detector).

Last weekend was one of the rare occasions that the Imperial Palace inner grounds were open to the public.
People were allowed in to view (and photograph) the beautiful autumn colors in the royal gardens.

Last Sunday, my wife and I went there. Here are some of the photographs I took of the inner grounds:

The staff quarters.

 

This foundation is the remnants of the original castle from centuries ago. The roof of the famous Nippon-Budokan can be seen in the distance.

 

The Imperial music hall.

 

One of the original guards’ quarters

 

From there, we walked to the 100 year old Tokyo Station for dinner.

 

Skinny-dipper in Tokyo?

Yesterday, a British citizen (who resides in Spain) was visiting the 皇居 (Imperial Palace) in Tokyo.

Supposedly, the group went to the palace guards to tell them, in English, that they accidentally dropped their bag into palace moat. They weren’t satisfied with the guards’ reaction (who probably didn’t understand them)…so the middle-aged British man stripped completely and jumped into the moat!

His crazy antics immediately drew a large crowd who began taking his picture with their 携帯電話 (cell-phones).

The police dispatched numerous officers to apprehend him. Some were in a boat (see photo above (by the way, I didn’t take that photo. It was from the Associated Press™)), and some were on the ground surrounding the moat.

The tourist began throwing rocks at the officers in the boat. Then he climbed out of the moat and found a construction barrier-pole and used to to try to hit the police officers. One officer rushed him and pushed him back into the moat.

The British man then swam to the other side and scaled the stone wall (knocking out one of the stones in the process).

After his climbed out again, the police arrested him.

Quite a crazy story! I’ve never heard of anyone swimming in the Imperial moat before…especially without clothes!

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Anyways, as I said at the end of this post, my daughters’ 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) died recently.
Well, my second daughter’s teacher gave her one of his beetles. It’s not the same kind…this one is even bigger! It’s a ゾウカブト虫 (Elephant Beetle).

It’s only in the 幼虫 (larvae) stage right now. It should change into an adult beetle next Summer.

The Elephant Beetle is from South America and some parts of the southern U.S.A. and looks quite different from the 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that we usually get.

Here’s a picture of him in his larvae stage (the larvae of the 兜虫 (Rhinoceros Beetle) that we usually get is much smaller):

He’s a big bug…but still just a baby!