Kitanomaru Park and Chidorigafuchi 5K Running Route

Getting there

Start at the Inui entrance of Kitanomaru Park, across Daikancho-dori from the palace’s Inui Gate. It is about eight minutes on foot west from Exit 1a or 1b of Takebashi Station on the Tozai Line, past the National Museum of Modern Art. From Kudanshita Station, you can also walk in through Tayasumon Gate. Each 2.6 km lap ends back at the entrance.

There is nowhere to leave bags at the start, but there is a running station in the Palaceside Building by Takebashi Station. Toilets are near the start and by the car park on the greenway side of the park.

On the run

Each lap starts on the park path along the pond, then climbs to a viewpoint on the old embankment above the Chidorigafuchi moat, where the path is partly unpaved. Back on the park road, run north past the Nippon Budokan and through Tayasumon, one of the oldest surviving gates of Edo Castle.

Outside the gate, the route climbs Kudanzaka and turns into the Chidorigafuchi Greenway, a path along the water lined with cherry trees and one of Tokyo’s best-known cherry blossom spots. From its southern end, the moat-side path along Daikancho-dori leads back to the Inui entrance.

For the classic run around the palace, try our Imperial Palace 5K route.