The Imperial Palace... oh that looks walkable

I made reservations to go see the Imperial Palace (no one is allowed inside, but you can walk the grounds). You have to "apply" online, but this is for crowd-control rather than any kind of background checking. The tour time was 10 am on Friday morning. I looked at the map and thought for sure it was walkable, the grounds of the Palace looked to be only about 20 minutes away. To be safe, I left the hostel around 9 am.

Boy am I glad I did! The beginning of the grounds may be close, but to get to the appropriate gate took 55 minutes!!! By the time I arrived I was dripping wet and thoroughly exhausted... only to walk another 2 miles within the grounds to see the sights. It was slightly anticlimatic and I felt like I was being "herded" through by the guards, who were insistent we stand in a proper line and keep the pace up. I had a headset with english instruction, but the live Japanese tour was clearly more comprehensive and humorous. It was slow moving through the grounds, and they weren't very ostentatious, in fact, quite the opposite! The palace was understated to say the least.

The tour took about 90 minutes from start to finish, and I, of course, opted to take the subway back to the hostel rather than risk any further loss of water (if my body had any left to lose).

Because of my exhaustion and probable heat stroke, I laid low for the remainder of the day. I took a nap, watched a movie, and did some laundry. That evening, I trucked on over to one of Temple's buildings to attend a lecture on Dubai.

It was both nostalgic and interesting to see the developments that have gone on in Dubai of late. I will be anxious to see whether Dubai can sustain its current growth considering how rapid the infrastructure/construction is growing. Also will be critical to see the longterm impact on the ecosystem... although they claim they are taking measures to overcome any damage, including transplanting sea grasses into the area. I was able to spot my old neighborhood on some arial shots, but hardly recognized the place! The lecture was interesting, but not terribly illuminating. I was surprised the gentleman wasn't able to shed more light on the market in Dubai considering he recently lived there for a year.

An early night though (or at least attempted to be, I'm not sleeping well here) because I had an early train to catch the next morning for my adventure outside of Tokyo.