Couldn’t get into Imperial Palace

I meant to post this when I got back from Japan but forgot until a friend of mine who's going over there next month asked me about it.

When I got to the Tokyo Imperial Palace during my trip on the 29th Sept, a tuesday, I couldn't figure out how to get in. Thinking about it now, I think the problem was that I tried the Nijubashi bridge entrance which I may be employees only? I should've followed the advice here (http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3018.html) and taken the Otemon entrance into the gardens.

So was it just that I was a fool in not following j-g.com advice, or is it possible that the entire palace grounds are sometimes completely closed off? I did wander around the outside of the palace and discovered that the crafts gallery and nippon budokan hall also appeared to be closed?

Only the East Gardens are open to the public. On Tuesdays they are usually open, but there are exceptional cases, when it is closed. It does not show the opening calendar of September anymore, but the following page is very useful:
http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/event/higashigyoen/gyoen-close.html

I think it is only natural that the average tourist does not research the opening hours and days for all sights visited in advance. As a result, I think it is natural that from time to time, a travelers gets confronted with a closed attraction.

Tks Uji. Is it not a bit odd though that the crafts gallery and nippon budokan halls were also shut? That page you linked to (thanks for that) declares that the site can close without notice, but does it apply to the east gardens only or all buildings inside the imperial grounds?

Can I ask why you wanted to go into the Budokan? It's an events centre, so it doesn't surprise me at all if it was closed if there were no events (concerts etc) at that time. Many museums and galleries here are closed on either Monday or Tuesday, so that may well have been the case for the crafts gallery. Is the Budokan in the Imperial Palace grounds? I thought it was outside the moat.

I don't think there are many palaces that still have royalty/imperial families living in them that you can just stroll into in any country, security has to be a bit tighter than that. When you say you tried to get in the Nijubashi entrance, what happened? As I recall there are barriers and police officers there, so you wouldn't have got too far!

You must register to get into the Imperial Palace grounds proper.

http://sankan.kunaicho.go.jp/english/index.html

These are guided tours only with plenty of minders to keep you in line. Nevertheless, it is still interesting.

Of course the Budokan its an event center. Its special for Martial Arts Tournaments and made famous for concerts like the ones of The Beatles or Ozzy to name a few.
I DID get a chance to enter while there was no events last january hahaha. here is the proff of it http://hi5.com/friend/photos/displayMyPhoto.do?photoId=3194312989&albu...

How i did it its a secret