The Imperial Family Courtesy of yahoo news

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko welcomed 1,699 distinguished guests to their annual Autumn Garden Party at the Akasaka Gyoen garden. Prince Akishino, Princess Kiko, Princess Takamado and Princess Akiko of Mikasa attended the party as well.

The guests included actress Mitsuko Mori, astronaut Koichi Wakata and director Yojiro Takita.  The Emperor broke the rule of never inquiring about a lady’s age and asked Mitsuko Mori: “You’re almost 90, aren’t you?” Mori, however, didn’t appear to mind: she smiled and replied, “Yes, next year”. Mori also spoke of her memories of the night the Emperor was born, when all the sirens in Kyoto sound to announce the birth of the Heir. The Empress, meanwhile, had a conversation with Wakata. The astronaut spoke of his experience of the “perfect darkness” of space – a reference to a poem read by Empress Michiko at the 1997 New Year’s poetry reading. “When I was on the International Space Station, the ‘perfect darkness’ of space seemed to be filled up with dreams and hopes,” he said.

Princess Mako Image from Wikipedia

The Imperial Family has yet more causes for celebration.

October 22 marks the 68th wedding anniversary of Takahito, Prince Mikasa (Emperor Hirohito’s younger brother) and Yuriko Takagi, the daughter of Viscount Masanori Takagi. Prince Mikasa is Emperor Akihito’s only surviving paternal uncle.

On October 23, Princess Mako turns 18. Mako is the elder daughter of Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko and the first grandchild for the Emperor and Empress. Mako is currently a student at Gakushūin High School.

Princess Yoko of Mikasa turns 16 on October 25. Yoko is the younger daughter of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa and Nobuko Aso. Prince Tomohito is the eldest son of Prince and Princess Mikasa and Heir to the Princely House of Mikasa-no-miya. Nobuko, Princess Tomohito is the daughter of Takakichi Asō and Kazuko (the daughter of former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida), as well as the sister of former Prime Minister Tarō Asō. Princess Yoko has graduated Gakushūin College with a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Relations and has been a practitioner of the traditional Japanese martial art of kendō from an early age.

To learn more about Imperial Family of Japan, visit this thread.

Marsel Japanese Royals Birthday, Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, Garden Party, Prince Mikasa, Princess Mako, Princess Yoko

On 30 August, the Belgian King and Queen hosted a garden party to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. At the same time, the wedding anniversaries of the other Belgian royals were commemorated, as this year is also the silver wedding anniversary of Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz, as well as the 10th wedding anniversary for Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde, and the 6th wedding anniversary for Prince Laurent and Princess Claire.

Click to see full image at Zimbio

To celebrate all these festivities, the royals organized a garden party on the grounds of the Palace of Laeken, where the guests could wander around, meeting the royals and enjoying the entertainment. Many of the guests were couples with the same wedding date as one of the royal couples.

The festivities, however, were overshadowed by an accident. Two carriages collided after one horse was stung by an insect and the driver could not regain control. The people sitting in the carriages were flung out and got injured. Two were only lightly injured, but two others more severely, probably having broken bones. First aid was provided by the military medics who were on stand-by, and the injured were quickly transported to a hospital to receive further care. The festivities were not interrupted, but in a public statement, Palace officials said they regretted the accident deeply.

See here for an article.
See here for the thread about the wedding anniversaries festivities.

LadyLeana Belgian Royals Garden Party, King Albert II, Queen Paola, Wedding Anniversary

 I’m sure HM the Queen has had to deal with situations ranging from silly to the downright diabolical, but this one must take the cake. The Queen, who is the figurehead for the entire commonwealth, might have to welcome a convicted criminal to her Summer Garden Party. As if that weren’t insult enough, apparently it all so that someone can make some political hay out of the invitation that is being completely misused. The Queen, who counts among her subjects a full range of society from Anglo Saxons to Aborigines, might well have to deal with BNP Party Leader Nick Griffin coming to her home. Not so unusual one might say, but given the fact that this character has been convicted of inciting racial hatred, you’d think those that are in charge of allocating the invitations might put some restrictions on them. Now, an invitation was not issued to Nick Griffin himself, however one of the London Assembly’s members has decided to use one of their guest tickets to bring along this person who can clearly be called a racist.

So exactly why is a convicted criminal in public office anyway? I guess it doesn’t really make sense to me, but apparently enough people agree with his views that he was voted in one way or another. All I know is that I’m sure HM wouldn’t agree with them. And she certainly won’t find meeting him the most pleasurable day of her life. He speaks for one tiny little subsection of society, whereas she must speak for the entire Commonwealth. It certainly won’t look good if she has to make nice with him!

Surely there must be a way to prevent him from showing up and making a political mess out of the entire tradition. I suppose we will see, so stay tuned for further updates!

Empress British Royals British National Party, Elizabeth II, Garden Party, Nick Griffin