Today is the Emperor’s Brithday, a public holiday in Japan and also one of the few occasions where you can enter the imperial palace. So I make my way back to central Tokyo to be there in time for when the doors open.

For his birthday the emperor invites the public onto the Kyuden plaza (map) to give a short speech. There are serveral sessions plannedfull story ...

Tags: emperor, festival, event, tokyo, imperial palace

“Remember, remember the 5th of November” - well not quite, over in Japan it’s the 3rd of November and it is a national holiday known as ‘culture day’. This day is a very significant day in the history of Japan (wp). This day started off as the birthday of the Meiji Emperor (wp) and later became the day of the post-war constitution of Japan was announced. To commemorate his birth in 1852, a festival is held at shrine to emperor Meiji in Tokyo, about which I had written before.
full story ...

Tags: meiji, shrine, festival, tokyo