Emperor's Speech

On January 2 of each year, the gates of the Imperial Palace are opened and the public is allowed on the grounds in order to watch the Emperor give his New Year's speech.  The only other day this occurs is on the Emperor's birthday.  The rest of the year the grounds are closed to the public.  Drew and I were excited that we were free to go check it out.

I ended up being amazed by the number of people that showed up for this event.  I had never before seen so many other foreigners in Japan.  It was obvious that everyone was excited to get to go through the Palace gate and onto the grounds. There were security guards all over the place, which is not something I usually see in Japan.  I was able to snap a quick photo of Drew before that security guard ushered us along due to the large crowds.  Just look at how friendly he is!  Japan is great like that.

We arrived during the Emperor's lunch break and had to wait in the crowd for a little over an hour.  Luckily it was a sunny day and not too chilly.  The officials had passed out Japanese flags and I had mine ready to go.

Even though we had to wait awhile, getting a spot early made it possible for us to clearly see the Emperor and his family.  The old man, third from the right is the Emperor.  His speech was only a few minutes long but it seemed to get the crowd excited.  Too bad I have no idea what he said. 

Here he is appearing to the crowd.  Flags ready!

Maybe you can help translate.

After the speech, Drew and I visited Meiji shrine in Tokyo.  As I mentioned before, it is tradition for everyone to visit a shrine at the beginning of the New Year.  Meiji shrine happens to be the largest shrine in Tokyo and, therefore, the most crowded during this time of year.  We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes just to get up to the shrine.  They even had a large TV screen with commercials that had been made specifically for people waiting in the line for Meiji shrine.

The crowd was never ending.  Let's just say I was getting a bit tired of being in a mob of people by the end of the day.

Looking ahead toward the front of the line

We finally made it

Shrines normally have some sort of box to put donations in.  However, at this time of year there are too many people to even try to have a box.  Instead, they draped out a large sheet in front of the shrine to toss your money in.  People were actually throwing coins over several rows of heads because it was almost impossible to get to the front.

This was the white sheet

To end the day we enjoyed some Thai food.  Super tasty!