More of outside the palace

On Friday, I shared some pictures I took wandering around the area near the Imperial Palace and in the park just north of it. I thought it fitting to show the other pictures I took once I got onto the main grounds today. I warn you that they're much less exciting though.

To start, there's a big gate called Sakurada-mon.

Some guy kindly walked through it as I was taking a picture for scale.

Then there was an even bigger part of the gate just around the corner from that one.

An even more impressive gate.
Also, someone sleeping on the bench.

While I'm sure these gates served a purpose at some point, now they open onto a large graveled area and a field with some trees (that you're not allowed to walk on) and then right out into the city.

I think the gates were left there because they're big and impressive (and they survived the war), but most of the walls surrounding this area were taken down so they don't serve much of a purpose anymore. Around the corner from the gate, there's the Seimon Ishibashi bridge (I showed this last time) which leads to the East Garden, which was inaccessible because it was Friday.