Happy New Year, and Tenno Heika, Banzai!!

This morning, Adam, Eiji, and I met up with Eiji's girlfriend and 2 of her friends and went to wave at the emperor. The second part of this post's title is what the really intense visitors were yelling when they raised their hands in praise!!

Here is the approach to the imperial palace. This photo was taken from beyond where the public is usually allowed to go.



Here's one of the imperial palace guards at a gate that is usually closed except on special days like today.


Here are the joyful crowds welcoming the imperial family.



Behold Akihito, the "Heisei Tenno" (tenno = emperor, Heisei is the current era, which means "peace everywhere")
Now, a paraphrase of Eiji's translation of the emperor's speech: "It is nice to be with all of you commoners today. I hope you all find good health in this happy new year and peace in the world."
Following that, everyone waved flags frantically. The more pumped-up visitors tended to yell "Tenno Heika [pause] BANZAI!!". When they yelled Banzai, most of the crowd (including myself) threw their hands and flags in the air and also yelled "Banzai". It was rather intense, and I loved it!! This was also Eiji's first time showing up to greet the emperor, but he claims to have loved it so much that he'll be at all of the future appearances.


Here are my comrades in indescribable glee after being in the emperor's presence. Adam likes the US a lot, so he wasn't nearly as ecstatic as I was.



To continue our imperial day, we went directly to visit the Yasukuni shrine. This shrine get notoriety at least once every year when the Japanese Prime Minister visits it, much to the chagrin of some neighboring asian nations. Hideki Tojo is among the thousands enshrined here. He's generally not treated kindly by history books. If you wikipedia it, its controversial nature will be elaborated upon. This place was crawling with Yakuza. They were pretty scary, but fortunately noone looked at them the wrong way, so it was ok. There were good food stands all over, and the shrine staff provided free sake. Hooray!


The black van across the street was used by imperialists. I think we were ok because we visited sites that they approve of. Regarless, it's pretty intense.



This is in a store in Yokohama's Chinatown. Chinese people love pandas, and so do I.


A panda store in Yokohama.



I think no explanation is needed here.