On July 4, 2003 the Emperor and Empress of Japan came to visit Asahikawa for the first time in about 35 years.  I was not going to miss this chance to see the royal couple so I closed my classroom for a while and went to several of the events that were held on that day.  Most of the photos that I took on that day can be seen by clicking here.  As you can see I was lucky enough to capture one good photo of the Emperor as he was waving from his car just after a lunch reception at the Taisetsu Crystal Hall.  The picture was taken at  about 15:00.   Other images were taken in front of the Asahikawa City Hall where a large crowd of people gathered to wave to the royal couple as they appeared in an upper floor window of the Grand Hotel.

As you can also see, there was a small fire when one of the paper lanterns was set ablaze by the candle inside.  The incident caused some concern and much amusement, but it resulted in no harm to anyone.  In fact, it made for an interesting photo.   The Emperor and Empress appeared for about 5 minutes from a 15th floor window of the Grand Hotel. I have drawn a red circle around it.   They waved two large illuminated paper lanterns back and forth slowly, in unison with the crowd of citizens gathered below.   Towards the end of their appearance, the crowd shouted Banzai! many times.  The whole event ended when the royal couple waved goodbye and the lights in the hotel room were turned off.  For me, it was a once in a lifetime experience.