Eastern monarchs are in consultation to reconnect with the River Thames to strengthen ties with Britain

LONDON (AP) – Onward Emperor Naruhito of Japan Attends a dinner party organized through king charles iii, lay a wreath at Westminster Abbey or visit one of Britain’s leading biomedical analysis institutions, he will be visiting the U.K. at this pace. Will start the journey of. Visiting a website online that has special meaning to her: the Thames Barrier.

Retractable overspill gates control week river thames While not managing most lists of must-see tourist attractions, the itinerary underlines the monarch’s fascination with the waterway that is London’s beating heart.

That passion was born 40 years ago when Naruhito studied 18th-century trade on the river as a graduate student at Oxford College. However, those two years, described in his memoir “The Thames and I”, created a different passion for Britain and its society. The moment the Emperor was given a chance to be outside the palace walls, the generosity of the strangers to whom I was in a hurry to help could be seen when he dropped his handbag, scattered money on the floor of a shop, and Experienced the traditions of a great British pub. Walk slowly.

“It would not be possible to go to a playground in Japan, where hardly anyone would know who I was,” Naruhito wrote. “To be able to personally visit a place in one’s private years was truly impressive.” And valuable where he wants.

Naruhito and Empress Masako, who studied at Oxford a few years after her husband, returned to Britain. Combining the glamor and ritual of a ceremony with four days of less formal events over a week on Saturday will allow the royal couple to revisit their private relationship with Britain.

The consultation comes in a month when the U.O.K. It is trying to strengthen ties with Japan as it aims to become the most influential European settlement in the Indo-Pacific patch, said John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Japan and Korea program at the Center for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge. , In October 2020, Britain announced a financial partnership with Japan as the first major global industry promise it had made since leaving the EU earlier that month.

“The UK-Japan relationship is extremely important. …It is based on shared shared experience. “It is also based on the affinity between our two peoples,” Nilsson-Wright said. “Britain and Japan can act as a source of stability and, hopefully, mutual reassurance at a time when political change is likely.” It is becoming unstable.”

The trip, originally planned for 2020, was supposed to be the monarch’s first trip abroad since ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 2019. But it was definitely behind schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He then attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Situation consultations will begin on Tuesday, when Charles and Queen Camilla will officially welcome the monarch and queen Before they began a ceremonial carriage journey to Buckingham Palace. Naruhito is also expected to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey after returning to the palace for the dinner party.

However, before the pomp and circumstance begins, Naruhito will consult the Thames Barrier, a row of retractable metal gates that provide protection to London from heavy rain while allowing ships to proceed on the river. Then depending on the situation, he and his wife will have a month to visit their disabled colleges in Oxford.

It was at Merton College that the then-Emperor, born Hieronomiya Naruhito, became known simply as Hiro because it was easier for the college and scholars to remember the surname (and as the Prince Loved the tone of it), he wrote in “The Thames and I”.

One of his greatest joys at Merton was visiting the Center Regular Room, a gathering place for graduate scholars, where he drank espresso and chatted with other scholars the following lunch.

Naruhito wrote, “Those moments with my fellow scholars, however fleeting, have been very influential for me.”

Britain in the 1980s was a revelation to Naruhito because he seemed to be enjoying the moment while also embracing it, he said, recalling the non-violent coexistence of students in traditional cap and gowns and punk rock. Missed young people wearing costumes. ,

“I didn’t think it was out of the ordinary,” he said. “I felt like it reflected the spirit of each playground. It was once, at the forefront, a rustic that created the Beatles and miniskirts. I felt that the British that year had combined virtue with spoiled traditions, and besides, they were also capable of doing something new.

Naruhito also wrote about the novelty of wandering the streets of Oxford unnoticed, of spending hours doing his academic research at the local information office, and of having the chance to buy groceries and do alternative mundane tasks that most Society breaks without any consideration.

And he remembered hiking a hill northeast of the city to soak up the view.

“It was at its best possible at sunset,” he wrote. “I will never be able to get that era out of your mind when the silhouettes of the spires of Oxford, one after another, lit up the night and above the fog They seemed to be flying. This mysterious scene, which has caused so much wonder, is known as the Dreaming Peak of Oxford.”

Behind all this, however, there was always the River Thames, which flowed south-east from Oxford to London before emptying into the North Sea.

Naruhito began learning the river trade as a boy when Japan’s roads and rivers offered a glimpse of travel and freedom outside the confines of the castle. So when he arrived in Oxford, it made sense to check out the Thames.

Naruhito told reporters in Tokyo before flying back to Britain that if he looks at his research papers written 40 years ago, he is filled with nostalgia.

“The memories of my month along the Thames come flooding back to me,” he said. “The list goes on and on, including my dry toils in collecting historical materials… the beautiful surroundings around me… Which gave me relief from my fatigue from analysis, and the day I jogged by the river.”

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Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi and Mayuko Ono in Tokyo contributed.