Charlotte1
Courtier
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2005
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- Australia
That makes sense, but then WHERE is Aiko going on her own?(At least, more or less on her own, I suppose that there is a bodyguard somewhere around - but no family member, as far as I can see.)
It is true that in these pics one sees her only walking, but there is a second pic in the forum (probably the cover of some periodical) that shows Aiko by herself in the underground. Unfortunately, I cannot find a way to create a direct link to the second pic, but you can easily find it by just scrolling down this page to the fifth post. There you´ll find, first, the Spanish text I have quoted, second, a smaller version of the pics showing Aiko walking and third, the said periodical cover (if you click on "Ampliar esta imagen", it´ll get bigger).
I cannot really conceive that Aiko should be allowed (or even feel the wish) to go shopping or to make an outing by herself, so, at least, until we get a better explanation, I still suppose that she is on her way to school.
I can't read enough of the kanji to tell you exactly where she's going but can glean some information from what's there and I can read. The walking footage is taken "this morning at 8am", she's in her school uniform, carrying a bag but not her school packpack (the Japanese ones are all the same type). One of the kanji is 'learning' but there's no kanji for school or elementary school so she's not on her way to school. It could be a field trip or another education type outing, she sings in the school choir so could easily be going to a performance out of school hours. Japanese children do attend school related events on weekends and are expected to wear their school uniform to those events.
The picture from the magazine with Aiko on the platform doesn't really show that's she's on her own, it's a close up shot and she's clearly looking up at someone, who's probably with her. Regardless Aiko is never 'on her own' from the point of view that there's always a security officer with her, but 'on her own' without parents or other adults is fairly normal for Japanese children. If they need to catch a train or subway train to school from the age of 6 you will see Japanese children riding these trains without their parents. It's normal, Aiko is now 9 years old and in the 4th grade, the other children in her class would all be roaming to school and school events on their own, riding public transport on their own. (Masako was doing it from when she was 8 and her family returned to Japan) Naruhito and Masako stated in the past they wanted Aiko to have similar childhood experiences as other children her age, so they took her to Ueno zoo, to Tokyo Disney, having her catch the subway is giving her similar experiences to her peers.
), but I think it is very improbable that it should be someone of the imperial family because then I think he or she would have ended up being on the cover, too.
