Crown Prince Frederik's Official Visit to Japan: June 12-16, 2011

[Muhler]

Thank you, Kasumi

And for those of you who cannot get enough of seeing Frederik in a T-shirt, here is a clip from BT: - BT TV - BT.dk
Basically covering all events of this Tuesday.

The tune the pupils with the flutes are playing, and playing pretty well, is the Danish national anthem. - It's perhaps not the easiest tune to play, but compared to the royal anthem it's a walk in the park.
If you want to know about the song the kindergarden children are singing, with Frederik in their midst, ask FasterB.

TV2 news at 19.00 had a similar coverage, including the impression he made on a Japanese journalist.
By the way, Frederik's (adult) team lost the soccer match...The sixth graders won. - As it should be.

[Muhler]

The beforementioned clip from TV2 at 19.00: TV 2 Nyhederne - Video

Danish businesses have donated fourteen school buses, so that children can go to school, as many local schools have been levelled. That will also give the children some resemblance of a normal life.

- And I hope someone else will take over as I don't expect to post much, if anything, for the next couple of days.

[lancchick]

Originally Posted by Muhler

- Anything in the local media?

Here you go: YouTube - ‪DRFGARDEN's Channel‬‏

[Muhler]

Originally Posted by lancchick

Here you go: YouTube - ‪DRFGARDEN's Channel‬‏

Thank you, Lanchick
Any idea what the children are saying?

[Marika86]

Two articles on "Billed Bladet"

Billed-Bladet - Den skulle du ikke have taget på, Frederik

Google Traduttore

Billed-Bladet - Frederik fik klø af japanske skolebørn

Google Traduttore

[wartenberg7]

Can you imagine the japanese Crown Prince singing with small children or playing soccer with them?! I wonder how Frederik´s easy going attitude is received in Japan! And isn´t it emarrassing for the imper. family when a foreign prince invites japanese children to his palace for "recovery" while they don´t...?!

[Kasumi]

Japan nuke plants to add vents, other safety steps - SignOnSanDiego.com

[Kasumi]

Originally Posted by wartenberg7

... And isn´t it emarrassing for the imper. family when a foreign prince invites japanese children to his palace for "recovery" while they don´t...?!

That is not true. The Imperial Family does help the Japanese people since the earthquake and tsunami.
Please, check up this and this posts in the 'Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko: Current events' thread to know more.
As for the Crown Prince Naruhito, maybe he needs a better TV-cover of his activities. Does he?

[Muhler]

Another story from Frederik's visit to Japan: Frederik slået ud af gammel flirt i Japan - Royale - BT.dk

At the same time it's also a story about what not to do, should you ever meet a royal, unless of course you feel a desire to expose yourself as being silly...

Okay, Frederik was at the farewell reception at the Danish embassy in Tokyo and as always he met a number of invited Danish and Japanese guests.
One of them was a 37 year old woman, (see photo) Ulla Kofoed, who when shaking Frederik's hand said: "I have to tell you (*) a funny story. We've met before".
She then prodeeded to babble away about sometime many years before when she met Frederik in Aarhus: "It's many years ago, when we were both young and lived in Aarhus". She and a couple of her (presumably just as silly) female freinds had gone to a disco and flirted with a couple of men, only to learn that they were PET officers. Our phenomenon added: "You were standing on the dance floor and we all rushed out and took turns dancing a little into you", showing with her arm how. (See picture).
Frederik grinned a bit akward, says the article and managed to get a couple of words in: "Funny. Funny". Then she moved on.

Our clueless women told the reporter afterwards: "I simply had to tell him. But it was a bit quick because I was afraid I would be kicked away". (**)
That happened fifteen or seventeen years ago, now she lives in Japan with her husband and children and she is a designer. (***)
She babbled on: "He's still incredibly hot". She was however sorry she didn't have more time to talk with...to (****) Frederik: "I would like to have said that we are very proud of him outhere, because he shows his interest".

What can we learn from all this? That Frederik is a very patient man.

(*) First mistake. A reception at an embassy, especially at the end of an official visit is after all a pretty formal affair, so you don't address the Crown Prince with informal you. Frederik is pretty easy going and informal, but he is still the Crown Prince, and you show respect for his position by addressing him with formal you. You can get away with informal you on a one to one basis or by accident - otherwise you just expose yourself, in my opinion.

(**) Ah. So she IS familiar with the grabbeling hook...

(***) Isn't that the current standard occupation for all women who are married to bald attorneys and who have an affair with their fittness trainers?

(****) Oh, my head! Sorry, I was banging my head against the wall.

[wartenberg7]

That is not true. The Imperial Family does help the Japanese people since the earthquake and tsunami.
Please, check up this and this posts in the 'Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko: Current events' thread to know more.
As for the Crown Prince Naruhito, maybe he needs a better TV-cover of his activities. Does he?[/QUOTE]


Yes, I know they visited some areas, but that´s far too little IMO for this amount of devestation that has hit this nation. Basically the imper. family seems to be very aloof and out of touch (demi-gods...)
I might be wrong about the crown prince - in that case I apologise! But for what reasons his activities, if there are any, wouldn´t be covered by the media like the danish Crown Prince´s?!

[Muhler]

Summary of a number of articles in Billed Bladet #24 & 25, 2011.
All written by our correspondent in Japan, Ulrik Ulriksen.

Wearing a T-shirt with the word: hope, Frederik toured the parts of Japan where the tsunami has hit the hardest. Frederik was the first royal, apart from the Imperial family who had been visiting the area affected by the tsunami.
After his courtesy call at Crown Prince Naruhito and the Imperial couple, he went on to the city of Higashi Matsushima, which is located in one of the most severely affected areas.
Frederik first met an elderly couple, Mr. And Mrs. Ogata, who was separated during the tsunami but who fortunately was reunited. They were waiting for Frederik in front of their completely levelled house. After shaking hands with them: “Konnichiwa, Mr. And Mrs. Ogata”, he heard their story. When the tsunami warning sounded they fled, but the water caught up with them and they were swept away. They survived unharmed and found each other again.
Upon returning to their house they found their photo album, which was particularly precious as it contained pictures of their daughter who passed away some years ago.
Then it was off to meet the mayor of Higashi Matsushima, Hideo Abe, who responded to the donations by Danish companies, which were officially handed over by Frederik, with a heartfelt: “Arigato”. At the same time an invitation for twenty children to stay in Fredensborg for a week was also conveyed.

Then it was off to Akai Minami kindergarten, where 75 children were waiting for him. And this is the right element for Frederik, who has a very good rapport with children. He naturally followed local costumes by changing shoes, when he entered the kindergarten. Frederik may not have been able to speak with the children, but he could communicate with them, that worked fine. He sat in the middle of a minor sea of children and sang along to a well-known children’s song. They in Japanese, Frederik presumably in Danish.
The kindergarten has been rebuild with the help of donations from a Danish company and the toys, which were handed out to the children, were also sponsored. In return they gave him a hat made from paper, which he promptly placed on his head.
Frederik told the children: “I have four children. Two of them also attend a kindergarten. And two are twins and five months old. I personally know all the toys I’m about to give you. Because my children play with the same toys at home. When I come home, I’ll tell them about how happy you are and I’ll tell them how courageous you all are, because in my country we don’t have big tsunamis and the ground doesn’t shake like here in Japan. I wish you a lot of funny hours with the toys and do keep on behaving well”.

Frederik the drove in a Danish sponsored school bus, to Hamaichi Elementary School and he chatted with some of the schoolchildren on the bus. At the school the Danish adults played soccer against, what appears to me to be two teams of school children, pink and yellow. The adults lost 2-3, despite a spirited effort by Frederik.

After the visit to the school, he went sailing among the islands off Matsushima, where tourism has dropped disastrously, before returning by train to Tokyo.

Frederik lived with the Danish ambassador to Japan, Franz-Michael Mellbin and his wife Eva. The ambassador said: “The Crown Prince can something, which many others can’t. He has an enormous impact here in Japan”. The Japanese medias were certainly in place and Frederik’s visit to the kindergarten was shown live on one of the major networks.
His visit was featured in one of the popular morning shows, but the emphasis was just as much on how Frederik is as a husband, father and as an physically active person, which they concluded must be the secret of his hot and well trained looks. (*)

But this was also about promoting Danish commerce, not least in the view of the major rebuilding, which is going to take place in Japan. Alternative energy was among the main topics and this is an area where Denmark has a considerable know how. That doesn’t mean the Japanese are behind in that respect, oh no! Frederik went for a test ride in a prototype of an electrical car at Nissan. (**)

The visit ended with a reception at the Danish embassy, where resident Danes had a chance to meet Frederik.
Our reporter noted that a number of giggling teenagers took pictures of Frederik and a couple of female journalists confided to him: “He is very handsome”.

Our man in Japan interviewed Frederik on the train back from Higashi Matsushima. More on that in the next post.

(*) Og ikke et sæde var tørt…. They’ve sure been drooling!

(**) Here in DK there is a 300 % tax on new cars and what is even more idiotic, environmentally sound cars are no cheaper. Result: we drive in older and more polluting cars. Why doesn’t the current right wing government cut down on taxes on cars? And why is there no danger the next left wing government will cut down taxes, I can hear you ask? Because it’s a great money machine! Those of us who live in rural or semi-rural parts of the country (and that means outside the eight or so major cities/towns) have to have a car, so there is no need to cut taxes!

[Muhler]

Translation of interview in Billed Bladet #25, 2011.
Jeg vil aldrig glemme det – I will never forget it.
Interviewer: Ulrik Ulriksen.

This very interesting interview took place on the train back to Tokyo.

Q: Describe what you think after having visited the tsunami area today?
F: “It’s overwhelming when you see an area, which has been urban and settled, where there now are only concrete foundations remaining. And also to sense the force which nature can unleash, as it has here. It puts it all in a perspective for me. I reflect on the fact that we humans can’t do much, against nature’s fury. The natural disaster toppled a highly developed society like the Japanese and turned it into a battlefield. I’ll never forget this. Higashi Matsushima, where we have been today, why, it looks like a war zone”.

Q: Does it change your view on live after having seen the devastation of the tsunami with your own eyes?
F: “It certainly does something with my view on life, when I experience people who have survived the disaster and who must no struggle hard to get their normal life back. I met the older married couple Mr. And Mrs. Ogata, whom I talked with outside what was once their house, but which no is only a heap of rubble and boards.
They had lost everything and had to start all over again. But they were strong enough to look forward. Life goes on and you cannot just sit down and think about all the good that once was. You have to look ahead and work hard to overcome the destructions of the disaster. That was their attitude and that I respect”.

Q: You have now, almost without a break, travelled to Mozambique with the Red Cross, to Ukraine with a commerce delegation and now to Japan with projects for support and moral backing. What do you say to Prince Christian and Princess Isabella, when you travel so much?
F: “I tell them that now daddy is travelling again and sometimes you tell them that you can bring things back home to them and then things go a little better. But if you say that each time or do that each time, then they get a little too spoiled, so I don’t bring presents back home each time”.

Q: You were recording with your iPhone when you visited the Japanese children in the kindergarten. Why did you do that?
F: “I did that, so that I can show a little from my visit to the kindergarten to Prince Christian and Princess Isabella. They will have to see that I’ve visited a kindergarten in Japan, and then I’ll tell them that all those children had to rush away head over heels when the alarm sounded and they were told that there had been an earthquake and that a tsunami was coming. I can explain to Prince Christian and Princess Isabella that a huge wave came, which destroyed a lot and forced people to run for their lives. They can understand that. It’s obvious that the scale of the disaster and the terror, which Japanese children and adults must have felt, is something I cannot get my children to comprehend. Children after all have a completely different way to perceive most things. So they will not feel frightened out of their wits by my story. But I will tell Christian and Isabella that their dad has been somewhere where people have had their houses washed away by the water”.

Q: Am I right in sensing that you couldn’t hide that you were very moved by the meeting with the Japanese children in the kindergarten and in the school?
F: “It’s probably quite right that I was moved by the meeting with the children. Perhaps the small children in particular. I mean, some of the smallest children had lost their parents, either one or both, so it’s obvious that makes you reflect on things”.

Q: The Japanese public school children appear very well brought up/well behaved and now you have yourself chosen that Prince Christian shall attend a public school. What thoughts are behind that decision?
F: “The Japanese children are very disciplined, but the stern discipline thing (*) is not something you see much in the Danish Public School system. But of course you wish for your own children to have a good upbringing/learning to be well behaved and schooling and Christian will get that in the school we have chosen”.

Q: There are still after shocks in Japan and in this region after the big earthquakes in March. Is that something you have considered?
F: “I thought about it, just before I landed and I asked about the procedures/what to do in case of an earthquake. I asked ambassador Mellnin and his wife. The ambassadorial couple was pretty calm about it and they even live here with their three children, who are a little older than mine. They were in Tokyo the day the earthquake took place and they took it in their stride even though the quake lasted a long time”.

Q: Will you return back to the disaster area in Japan and follow up on this visit?
F: “That can certainly not be ruled out. But I can’t promise anything. But I will ask about the development in the area and I will wish (well) for the city I and Denmark has devoted most attention to, Higashi Matsushima, that it will be rebuild again”.

Q: Do you think your twins, Princess Josephine and Prince Vincent, are big enough to give you a smile, when you return home from Japan?
F: “It’s coming, but I don’t quite think they are big enough for the smile-thing yet. And to recognise me as daddy. But perhaps they respond to the deep familiar voice”.

Q: What does it mean to you to experience how delighted the Japanese in the disaster area are for your visit?
F: “It means a lot to me that I can make just a little difference. And I’m pleased with the coverage of the Danish media of the visit. But it’s certainly also impressive that both Japanese TV, radio and the press are in place to such a big degree. It’s good that there is put extra focus on the rebuilding of the tsunami-disaster-area (**) and on Denmark supporting Japan. I was impressed that my visit at the kindergarten in Higashi Matsushima was aired live on one of Japans leading networks”.

(*) Frederik is here using an expression comparing it to an almost military style of discipline and drill.

(**) The speed and efficiency of the rebuilding of the infrastructure has astonished people here in DK.

[stellam]

Thanks again Muhler for your translations as always it makes for interesting reading. I think months after this natural disaster people are still amazed at the destruction and devastation. It would be lovely if Fred could go back in a year or two just to see for himself what progress was made.

[Muhler]

You are most welcome.

Yes, it would be nice with a follow-up.
I thought the interview was interesting as it gave us yet another glimpse into the mindset of Frederik and also into how they bring up their children.
- It can't always be easy to leave your children behind...

Originally Posted by stellad

Thanks again Muhler for your translations as always it makes for interesting reading. I think months after this natural disaster people are still amazed at the destruction and devastation. It would be lovely if Fred could go back in a year or two just to see for himself what progress was made.

ADDED: Part of the interview from Billed Bladet: http://www.billedbladet.dk/Kongelige...mme%20det.aspx
Including a picture of a thoughtful Frederik.