Happy Birthday Emperor Heisei!

So today we went to the Imperial Castle for the Emperor's birthday. They only allow people INSIDE the interior gates on two days out of the year: the Emperor's birthday AND the 2nd day of the year. I was really excited to get an opportunity to see where the emperor actually lives. Although we didn't get a chance to see inside his actual chambers or anything like that (I know I wouldn't want some 20 odd thousand people trapsing through my room on my birthday), we did get to SEE the Emperor!! That was pretty awesome. Although my picture didn't turn out all that well, I can say that he is a really cute old man and he gave this really cute speech about how he was worried about his people. He wanted them to be careful of catching a cold, and he worried for the people that are dealing with the huge amounts of snow. (Which by the way, almost 100 people have been killed so far by snowfalls up to 8 meters high!) It's insane! I think that the snow and the cold weather followed me here from Wisconsin. :'(

So anyway we got to take a nice long walk along the castle grounds. I took lots of pictures for you all to see :) The castle grounds are beautifully kept... and all I can say is that the Emperor is damn lucky to have such a wide open space to walk around in.. in the middle of one of the biggest metropolises in the world... he he he

When the Emperor first came out, everyone was screaming and waving around their Japan flags that we were given at the entrance to the castle. It was nuts how loud it was. Everyone screaming "Banzai" and "Heika!" -> ('Heika' means "Your highness") It was pretty interesting.

Afterwards, there was some old Japanese guy wearing an American flag and cursing at any poor foreigner who crossed his path. Most of the people there were just tourists and couldn't understand Japanese, but it was interesting to see the expressions on their faces when some dirty, crazy old veteren comes up wearing the American flag and is babbling about waiving his finger at them... What was even funnier was that some of the foreigners were European.. as they would talk about him in French, Italian, German... it was kinda funny, so we all sat and watched. I didn't dare take a picture because I didn't want him to freak out on me... especially in the Imperial Castle... Especially on the Emperor's birthday!

he he he

So afterwards, we all went to Ayumi's part of town and ate some Indian food. Let me tell ya... Japanese version of Indian food is the bomb! (Excuse my oh-so-90s expression.. he he) I had a piece of Nan that was so big I could wrap it around my waist and wear it as a belt. It was... in a word... AWESOME!

After we ate to our hearts delight... I went to go see Kouta in Shibuya. We did our usual stroll around the Shib.. and then ate dinner and went home.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I FINALLY get my Christmas present from Kouta. I know it's going to be a purse.. and he's been keeping me in suspense about what kind, what color.. etc.... I'm so excited.

I'll explain more about Christmas in Japan in my next entry.
For now, just enjoy the pics!