As you know we Smith’s School of English coaches of communicative confidence regularly have fun meeting and greeting students and prospective students in the morning. Over a period of time many things happen that make the start to our day quite often an unique experience and certainly one that is never mundane.
I had an even more interesting morning recently in fact it was last Monday. I had to go to the Tokyo Immigration Department to have my passport updated with my new visa details and because I was early it took just 20 minutes for me to finish my business there and be on my way out of the office and into a bus heading for Shinagawa railway station – now that is a bustling crowded station.
It was my day off so rathet than go back home I decided while I was out I’d visit the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park to see an Imperial Collection of Art. But when I arrived there it was closed – it doesn’t open on Mondays. Oh well I thought I’d visit Ueno Zoo but then I saw many school kids heading there so I quickly gave that idea a miss and subsequently took a stroll through the park, had a look at a bonsai display, checked out Daibutsu yama and decided to have a coffee and then wander along Ameyoko Shotengai and try to fine a couple of short sleeve shirts that would fit me.
Anyway I’d noticed throughout Ueno Park that there was an incredible number of uniformed policemen and even more plain clothes ones. And a thought went through my psyche that maybe the Prime Minister or a member of the Emperor’s family maybe going to see the bonsai exhibition and not long after that notion past through my mind a plain clothes policemen walked up and suggested to me that I may like to join a small group (5 or 6) of Japanese people who were waiting to get a glimpse of and take a photograph of a Japanese princess who would drive past them shortly. So I accepted his offer and to my surprise the so called Japanese princess was in fact the Empress of Japan – she was only about 6 metres away from where I stood and she leaned forward and through the wound down window waved to us – amazing, truly unbelieveable! What a royal experience.
- The Empress of Japan
Talk about good luck! I once saw the imperial motorcade along the Biwako lakeside, but I didn’t realize that that’s who it was until someone told me later! Shoulda snapped a picture… oh well!
-Ed