Happy Birthday Emperor! And Odaiba Trip

Wednesday marked the last day of school and the start of our winter break. Thursday was a holiday for all though, because it was the Emperor's Birthday. He was 77 this year. On this day there's a public ceremony which takes place at the Temple- a place usually off limits to the public. On the 23rd of December (which changes with the emperor of course) and the 2nd of January (for New Years), you can walk across the famous Nijubashi bridge and actually enter the inner grounds of the Imperial Palace where the emperor will come and greet the crowds of people on his balcony. So that's what we did  !

A parade was behind us as we walked

Passing a guard on the Nijubashi bridge

My friend Rachel's host family accompanied us too. She has the cutest little host sister and brother

Rachel's Host mom, sister, and brother

After walking across the bridge you reach the inner grounds. And the emperor comes out and you wave your flag and shout "banzai!"  Which has almost the same meaning as 'long live the king'. It directly translates to '10000 years!"

Sorry my camera doesn't zoom.... but you can kinda see him? haha. He's in the middle with the empress on the right.

After that you walk out of the palace.

CROWDS of people. Of course.

Interesting fountain area outside of the palace: 

OH HIIII

After that, me and my friends got some lunch before we met up with the International club to go to Odaiba!

This is just so Japan

And so is this, what I had for lunch the other day...I am REALLY going to miss the food here

RAMEN

Mister Donuts Christmasy Dessert!:

Odaiba is in Tokyo Bay, so it's kind of expensive to get out there and once you are out there, everything else on the island is expensive too! haha. The big mall they have looks exactly like Ceaser's Palace in Las Vegas if you've ever been there. It's made to look like Rome or something on the inside, and has the sky painted and it's decorated with sculptures and everything. Only this time it was decorated for Christmas too. Oh and there are couples EVERYWHEREEE

From right to left: Kanako, Ghislaine, me, and my new friend from Finland.

Pile of Capybara! I waaaant theeeeem @_@

Outside of the mall, they have a really expensive ferris wheel I didn't ride haha.

And then we walked around the other side, so we could see Tokyo's Rainbow bridge all lit up. It was so pretty

PS It's not lit up for christmas or anything, this is how it always looks. Cause it's the Rainbow Bridge!

Rainbow boats?

We're being 'romantic' uh duh

You can see the Tokyo Tower too in this one (kind of)! It looks like the big rainbow stick in the background

The Giant Gundam used to be in Odaiba, but I guess they moved it...So imma have to track it down, and get back to you people <3