Still Medium: Papa I'm a Millionaire

This blog gets my opposite of goat!

Papa I'm a Millionaire

Published 1.02.2005 by E. Luther | E-mail this post

First and foremost, I've totally OD'd on Grisham's Runaway Jury. The book is ok, and the movie is ok. Not, however, worth watching/reading in succession unless you have a John Cusack/John Grisham fetish, which I might.

Post New Year's has been fun -- I went yesterday with some newly acquired friends to see the Emperor speak at the Imperial Palace. The ensuing events were the most bizarre excuse for hooplah I've ever experienced. Here it is -- a step by step visit to see the emperor, lest any of you should decide to partake in such revelry later in life:

1) Get bag searched.
2) Get frisked.
3) Get scanned by metal detector.
4) Accept standard issue Japanese flag for fervent waving later on.
4) Enter the PALACE yard area.
5) Give a cursory look and think, "this looks like the county fairgrounds."
6) Walk about a quarter mile to the viewing area.
7) Notice that the press corps is pathetically small.
8) Watch emperor and family enter glassed in balcony.
9) Wave flag fervently (yet demurely), for maybe 1 minute.
10) Listen to 3 minute speech
11) Wave flag fervently (yet demurely), for maybe 2 or 3 more minutes.
12) Exit

So it goes. This is apparently only one of the two times each year when the palace is open to the public, so we figured the experience was worth it. As unexpected on-the-side-benefits, I visited my first shrine (much like a football tailgate, I felt --- roasting meats and slanting sunlight) and took some fun pictures, and also discovered some rather western and picturesque parts of the city. Unfortunatley my newly acquired Japanese flag was somehow lost later on in friendly town. Bollocks.

p.s. I've finally posted some picutres (albeit of grainy thumbnail quaility), so check out a couple old posts for pictures of roommates and the bowling alley, etc.

Papa I'm a Millionaire

E-mail this post

About me

Blogsies

Chicago

Rarely Updated

Archives