The Emperor Comes To Town

This is the emperor of Japan.  In fact, he is the only one in the world with the title "emperor."  Japan has had an emperor since like 1600 BC.  He, like the royalty in England, is a Ceremonial Head of State.  He is not elected, but, like the British royalty, receives his title from his father, through lineage.  He, traditionally, is the head of the Shinto religion as well. His title is Ten no Heika, which means "heavenly sovereign."  We address our God, or our Heavenly Father as "Ten no Otousama," so you can see how similar those are and how revered the emperor of Japan is.  It is very close to worship. In fact, before World War II, it was worship.  He was believed to be a God.   

His name is Akihito.  His father was the emperor when Japan surrendered at the end of world war II, saving thousands of life.  It was his influence that led to the surrender.  So, though not politically powerful, when the emperor speaks, everyone listens. 

The emperor recently came to this region of Japan and stayed for three days.  It was such an exciting event- a once-in- a- lifetime event for most Japanese people, and certainly for us.  He came in his own special train.  People lined the railroad tracks to welcome him.

The emperor's train.  Kind of the equivalent of Air Force One.

Our friend from the Volunteer Center took this photo of the emperor and his wife at the hotel where they stayed in Tsuruoka.

Here she is with her photo.

For several days before he came, we saw busload after busload of what we assume were security- preparing for his visit.  We joined the throngs and stood on the street to watch as his motorcade passed.  We waved a Japanese flag and videoed and photographed the event.

Traveling with the emperor are many, many people, some for crowd control.  This man was in charge of the area where we went (just a few blocks from our apartment.)  His job was to politely keep control of the crowd.  Everyone lined only one side of the street- the side on which the emperor would be seated in the car.

Elder Price, Elder Dance, and Elder Hinton waiting for the emperor.

Finally, the motorcade came, starting with car #1.

Ken's photo of the emperor and his wife.

This is the video I took as the motorcade went by:

Afterward, we went to lunch with the elders.  I felt impressed that I should show the above video to our little waitress.  She was so happy to see it; she even had tears.  She told us that she has always wanted to see the emperor, but never has.  She wanted to go to see him that day, but had to work.  I asked her if she had an I-phone so I could airdrop the video to her.  She said no, but it was okay.  "Mune ni kizanda" she said.  That means, "It is engraved in my breast."  That really touched me.  As we left, she thanked me again and again for sharing the video.

Elder Hinton is establishing a mission legend.  The elders love to go to these all-you-can eat places and drink floats.  The story keeps growing about how many he can drink.  We stacked all of our glasses to make it look like he had more and sent it to elders formerly in this area- keeping his reputation alive!

It was an exciting day as Tsuruoka welcomed the emperor of Japan.  We were glad he wore his "old" clothes!   :-)