天皇 (tennou) - The emperor

When the 天皇 finally appeared (I did not completely understand the Japanese announcement, but I think he was delayed due to a phonecall(?!) and he was very sorry for having us wait for him in the rain) everybody was very happy and waved the Japanese flags we got earlier around. It was a little bit like a Rock concert, albeit I had the impression that they were a little bit "wilder" than on a rock concert ;-).
As the crowd got quiet again after some minutes, the emperor held his traditional new years greeting speech. The only things I understood were something like: Happy new year, be happy and continue building a peaceful world ... :-).
After the speech ended, all visitors left the palace gardens as calm and ordered as they entered them. Maybe a little bit happier and quite a bit soaked from the rain... ;-)