Abroad at Buckingham Palace: What Happened Meeting King Charles & The Emperor of Japan (Patreon)

Well today was certainly quite the day.

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to the UK-Japan State Banquet at Buckingham Palace and almost chucked it in the bin, thinking it was spam or a joke.

Alas, it turned out to be a real invite to a real event with a real Emperor being hosted by a real King Charles.

And with that, I spent a week trying to work out what the fuck a white tie suit was so I could try and get hold of one for the event (I got there eventually).

I'll admit, it was rather surreal walking into Buckingham Palace. It's not somewhere you ever expect to set foot in. After stumbling out of a taxi and waving the invite to the police at the gates, we were in and made our way across the courtyard into the inner sanctum of the Palace.

I knew it was going to be grand (after all I've seen the Crown) and having worked at a decadent castle as a waiter for 4 years, I thought I'd seen it all. But my lord, the Palace has one hell of an interior; a mesmerising mix of fine furnishings, chandeliers, paintings and wine. Apparently you can tour it in the summer and I definitely recommend having a poke around, as it's an almost otherworldly interior, like some sort of perfectionist film set.

After downing a glass of champagne, I turned the corner to find King Charles, Emperor Naruhito, the Empress and Camilla standing there, who's hands I promptly shook and to each I had a brief chat.

Credit to Charles, he's got quite the presence and charisma, and he dived in straight away to ask a few questions after he heard I am Youtuber.

I pointed out that even in far flung regions of north Japan, most Japanese folks seem to have a fond affection and curiosity for the British royal family, to which he was most pleased - though I stopped short of name dropping Natsuki outright.

I then found myself in the grand banquet hall early with a few other early arrivals, one of which was Keir Starmer, the soon to be Prime Minister of the UK in a fortnight. We shook hands and had a chat for a few minutes, wishing him well in the impending top job.

Then after an endless dinner of wine and fish, I ended up somehow chatting with former UK Prime Minister David Cameron about the BBC show Giri Haji and the assassination of Shinzo Abe. He was surprised at how quickly Abe become unpopular after his demise, to which we pointed out the scandal involving the Unification Church.

And as quickly as the night began, we were back outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, the whole evening feeling like a surreal fever dream and one that I certainly won't forget in a hurry!

Lots to think about on the trip back home to Tokyo!

Now let the 8 million year flight back to Japan begin.

Chris