State Guest House Akasaka Palace

This guide to the State Guest House Akasaka Palace in Tokyo begins with a fire lighting the night sky over the building you're standing in, then reaches back to why it was built at all: a Versailles-and-Hofburg-inspired residence completed in 1909 for Crown Prince Yoshihito, who took one look and refused to live in it. The empty palace later sheltered a young Hirohito after the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake. Notice how thick the walls are as you pass them.