Travel: Nijō-jo Castle

The Nijō-jo Castle is a must in Kyoto. The grounds are just less than 70 acres and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Ninomaru Palace is the one space where you can enter, however, no shoes and no photos allowed. The floors squeak an the rooms are elegant, worth the line or wait if there is one. Okay, let’s check out some of our photos.

Nijō-jo Castle

First, the decorative roof features are similar to the Imperial Palace, neat, eh?!

As you can see from the sign and the map, the full walk through is about 2 hours. We did everything we wanted and spent a little under that time, about 1 hour and 40 minutes. We didn’t have a wait at all for the palace, and we even climbed the fortress to see the Honmaru-goten Palace, which was closed when we visited due to renovations. They were completed in March and are now open to the public!

The suggested route is the best one, as it saves time and breaks up the tour into chunks. Below is the palace you can enter without shoes. If you don’t want to leave your shoes, you can carry them – the staff will give you a bag to keep any stray dirt at bay.

The gardens are so well kept and break up the vast areas of flatness.

Now, let’s check out the Honmaru-goten Palace.

Climb up the fortress to get a wonderful view of the wide castle grounds. Get some great photos and see the mountains far off in the distance. Plus, seeing how all the trees helps create some balance with all the sharp lines of the architecture is beautiful.