Hi,

Is it mandatory to book in advance to visit the Imperial Palace in Tokyo? I get the impression that we cannot just wander the grounds on a self guided tour and it is necessary to get an visit permit. Is this right?

How do we go about this?

Thanks!

My understanding is that some parts of the grounds are often open to the public and other parts require reservations. See japan-guide for this (and other) information:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3017.html

Yes, I have seen that but it is rather confusing. First of all, the Imperial Household Agency site shows all visiting time slots for the dates we are interested in as closed. Does this mean the tours are full or we cannot visit the palace at all even on our own? Or perhaps a self guided tour is not an option?

Oh, that could mean it is booked or closed or that the slots haven't been opened up yet. Are you going soon? You might be able to get an idea of what's going on if you look at other dates near when you are going to see if there are available slots -- but even that won't answer your question definitively. You might want to check more or less daily, plan on being able to go, and have a good back-up plan in case you can't. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

When are you going? If I remember correctly, you can only make reservations for the Imperial Palace about 3 months in advance. The Imperial Palace tours allow you to walk around the grounds, and do not permit access to the actual buildings. Alternatively, you can take a stroll of the Imperial Palace East Gardens on your own, which is worth a couple of hours. From there you can walk over to the palace entrance gates, from where you can view one of the main buildings sitting up atop a hill and the Nijubashi Bridge in front of it.

I don't know your Kyoto dates but the Imperial Palace there is having Spring Open Days April 9 through 13 when no advance reservation is needed....
http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e-event/kyotogosho.html

I think there is a special opening at the Tokyo Imperial Palace as well but the info I have found is all in Japanese....it's from 4/4 to 4/8 in honor of the Emperor's 80th birthday:
http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/event/inui.html: