Sento Imperial Palace Gardens

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One of the first things we saw in Kyoto was the Sento Imperial Palace Gardens.

 The gardens require that you apply to enter them in advance; we applied about three months in advance providing passport info and location where we are staying.  They only admit a limited number of visitors every day.  We also did one other tour, but the third palace was already at capacity.

 We had to arrive early for security.  It seemed like most of the visitors at the garden were actually Japanese.  The tour guide provided an in-person Japanese tour guide, whereas we got audio guides in English.  The audio guides were great.  They covered each of the main spots that the tour guide stopped to elaborate on key highlights.  

 The Sento Imperial Palace is where the crown prince and princess stay when they are in Kyoto.  The tour doesn't enter any buildings, but you cover the full walking garden and see inside some of the tea houses.



The garden was beautiful.  The strolling gardens provided a different view from every turn.  The second part of the garden had more "features" like bridges and small statues.  
One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!  The stones were brought in to balance the more "natural" scenery around the garden.  The stones were very orderly




 The end of the tour recommends that we come back again soon since the next time we come, the garden will be different.  We would definitely recommend coming back.  It was a great tour of one of the top items that Kyoto is known for...gardens!

 Time in gardens: 1.5 hrs
Times visited: 1
Overall: A-
Location: Japan, 〒602-0881 Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, 上京区京都御苑3

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