Enthronement

Today was another holiday.  My husband was home from work and my son home from school.  While I was happy to spend the day together, it feels like there has been holiday after holiday.  The past eight weeks (since my son went back to school), three of those weeks have had a national holiday and one had a school holiday!  It is no wonder I've felt like it was holiday after holiday.

Today's holiday was Enthronement Day.  It is the day the new Emperor proclaims his accession to the throne.  It is a day full of ceremonies of historical significance. 

The ceremonies were not open to the public.  There were 2,000 attendees, including top Japanese governmental personnel and foreign dignitaries.  We stayed at home and watched everything on TV.  The four hour coverage included a few highlights of previous enthronements, which was very interesting, but the modern day ceremony was what really interested me.  I always wonder what is going through their head as they slowly walk through the very formal ceremony. 

There was supposed to be an Imperial procession throughout the streets of Tokyo, but it was delayed due to the Typhoon Hagibis that wreaked havoc on many areas of Japan last week. 

Since we were in the US in May when he took the throne, it was neat to be in Japan for this.