Running tour · Tokyo

Round the Palace

6.5 mi run

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The stories on this route

1. Tokyo Station

   Look at the long red-brick front of Tokyo Station: about 330 metres, with a ribbed dome over each wing and the central entrance in the middle. That middle door was for the Imperial Family only.

2. The Nippon Budokan

   Look up at the eight-sided hall with the sweeping green roof. Its ridgelines are meant to suggest Mount Fuji. That golden ornament on top is a giboshi, more than three metres high. People call it the big onion.

3. Chidorigafuchi

   Look down from the path: steep green banks, cherry trees leaning over the water, and the boat pier below. This is Chidorigafuchi, a moat on the north-west side of the palace.

4. The Imperial Palace loop

   Look along the path by the moat. Tokyo's runners go anticlockwise, palace on the inside. This is Japan's most famous running spot, with more than 10,000 people going round on busy days.

5. Sakuradamon Gate

   Look at the low outer gate with its heavy wooden doors. This is Sakuradamon, the Sakurada Gate. On 24 March 1860, the shogunate's Chief Minister, Ii Naosuke, was attacked outside it on his way into the castle. He'd signed a trade treaty with the United States against the Emperor's wishes. Snow was falling.

6. Nijubashi and the Imperial Palace

   Look across the moat at the two stone arches with their lamp posts, and the white tower on the wall above. Many people call this Nijubashi, the Double Bridge. Strictly, they're wrong.

7. Hibiya Park

   Look in at the trees and old stone walls along the edge of Hibiya Park. There's a reason this is a park and not a block of ministries. The ground here was once an inlet of the sea. Filled in, it was too soft for the heavy brick and stone government buildings planned for it.

8. Ginza and the Wako clock

   Look up at the curved stone corner of the Ginza crossing, with the clock tower on top. On the hour, during shop hours, it plays the Westminster chimes, then strikes the hour.

9. The Kabukiza Theatre

   Look at the white walls, the layered curved gables and the tiled roofs. Then look for the phoenix, the theatre's crest, on the lanterns, roof tiles and doors. This is the Kabukiza.

10. The Tokyo Marathon

    Look along Gyoko-dori: a very wide avenue with a stone-paved promenade down the middle, lined with ginkgo, Tokyo's official tree. It was built after the 1923 earthquake as a showpiece, 73 metres wide, from the palace to Tokyo Station. Its name comes from the imperial processions along it.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source