Emperor Akihito 80th Birthday – Imperial Palace Grounds

Yesterday, the 23rd of December was a public holiday in honor of Emperor Akihito’s birthday, his 80th. It is one of the two annual events where the emperor greets the public, both take place in front of the huge Chowaden, the reception hall at the Imperial Palace (Kyoden) at Tokyo’s most central address, Chiyoda 1-1. About 24 000 people gather in front of the balcony, guided by a very tight security show by the Tokyo police and Imperial Guards.

I got up early in the morning and made my way to the Sakuradamon metro station, from where it was just a short walk to the Imperial Palace. Police had set up a double security check point before you could enter the public outer palace grounds. While waiting in the second group of the third section I noticed the very large amount of foreigners in the waiting to see the Emperor. I had huge group of Taiwanese (there were several other groups in the other sections) next to me, as well as Americans, Russians, Chinese and Koreans, and those were only the ones I could identify. I am sure there were many other nationalities represented there as well.

It was my first time inside the Imperial Palace grounds (not counting the outer grounds which are open to the public year round) and it was thrilling to walk through the massive palace gates for the first time, crossing the elevated bridge over the inner moat after having admired the bridge from a far distance many times before. I also got to see the Imperial Guard in their red, black and gold uniforms for the first time. There were police stationed ever twenty meters or so, telling us not to stop and take photos, so I had to take all of these photos while walking fast! The Emperor makes three public performances, on which he waves to the public and gives a short speech. Despite his recent bout with cancer and a bypass operation he looked and sounded like a man in perfect health. I have heard many silly rumors that his speeches would be in an archaic Japanese even native Japanese would find it hard to understand but as usual his speech was brief, to the point, easy to understand and quite moving. If only half of the corporate speakers I have endured during my life was only half as good as the Emperor, my life would have been much easier!

Moments before the emperor came out with his wife Michiko and immediate family it was hats off for everyone in the audience and half a second before the door opened the man next to me (who must have a sixth sense) raised an ear shattering banzai! that was soon joined by many thousands of other voices. It was quite an experience! Well worth the wait in the December morning cold.

I took the close ups with my cheapo 70-300mm Sigma tele zoom, not the best camera but for the price of a nice meal out in Tokyo I think it is one of the best lenses ever made, and extremely light weight. I could have brought my backbreaker, the 50-500mm Sigma, but that beast would have been much too large for an occasion like this, so the smaller Sigma had to do. Sorry for the poor quality, but handheld at 300mm in poor light in a swaying crowd means you have to crank up both the shutter speed and the ISO! You can see my other photos of the Imperial Palace Grounds here!

More Imperial Grounds in Snow

Here’s a few more photos of the unusual snow in Tokyo the other morning. The first is a panorama of the moat near Sakuradamon, viewing north, and the following photos is a few that I snapped on the way from the “Cherry Field” gate to the front of the palace grounds. There’s a subway exit near the gate and city workers were busy shoveling away the snow and ice to make it easier for pedestrians to pass. There must have been a shortage of snow equipment because I saw some workers hacking away at the ice with crow bars! I still have some other photos to show, but I’ll post them some other day. I hope we can get one or two more days of snow like this before the winter is over!

The Imperial Palace in Snow

Yesterday I woke up to see even central Tokyo covered in snow! Snow like this doesn’t happen very often in the capital and it is usually all gone by noon. I went to the most photogenic place I could imagine, the Imperial Palace area to see what it would look like. Here’s a few pictures from yesterday morning. It’s the first snow photography I have done in more than a decade and it shows! I really need more practice with this subject.

As I was snapping away and stumbling around the palace grounds (it was really slippery) more and more tourists arrived to take pictures of this rare scene. Even a few News crews were unpacking their camera gear and in the afternoon most newspapers had a photo like this, of the palace in snow. Once in a life time, maybe?