Welcome back to another blog post. I have been hard at work adding new features to the blog, so I haven't been able to post recently. The newest addition to the site is now the language translation function from English to Japanese and vice versa. This surprisingly took longer than I expected it to. For reference, it took me 2 weeks to build this whole site and it literally just took another 2 weeks for the translation function alone. But in the end, I think it is worth it as I want my Japanese followers and readers to also be able to have a good experience on the blog.

Let's get started with today's story

Today's blog post is about the recent visit Trump made to Japan. Now let me just say right off the bat, I don't intend or want this to be political. I know this dude is probably the most controversial person in the world right now and even talking about him causes a stir but I think this post needs to be made and regardless of your stance on the man, this was a huge moment in Japanese history. Personally, after living in Japan for going on 4 years, I have become pretty much neutral on politics. Partly in part because the majority of the things going on in the US right now don't affect me, but also I have been able to take a step back and view things from an objective perspective. I think both sides are wack honestly at this point.

But first a little history lesson

For those that are unaware, Trump recently came to Japan for two days. This was the first time in 6 years that he visited Japan. Coincidentally, Japan also got a new Prime Minister just last month. Ever since Japan's most influential Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, died in 2022, Japan has been in a rough place both politically and economically. For reference, they haven't been able to keep a Prime Minister in office for more than a year; compared to Shinzo Abe serving over 8 years during his time before he was assassinated. During the time Abe was in office, American relations were at an all-time high. With Abe and Trump both being very good friends, Japan and America were both strong allies. During the Biden administration, we had 3 different Japanese Prime Ministers. None of them really made any good progress neither within Japan nor with international relations. And America's relation with Japan remained stagnant.

However, the new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, is looking promising for both Japan and international relations with America. Not only is she the first female Prime Minister that Japan has ever had, she was also close friends with Shinzo Abe and shares a lot of the same ideals that he did. Trump obviously likes that, and during the meeting they recently had, he went as far as saying and I quote "Any time you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favours you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there". Trump is not someone who lightly says something like that. For him to say that shows how much faith and trust he is putting in Japan and how closely he considers them an ally. This obviously bodes well for me being an American living in Japan. So now maybe you can see why his visit was such a big deal.

Anyway, back to the story

With that explanation out of the way, I want to just go through the events that took place the other day and how I was able to get a front-row view at the first look of Trump riding through on the Beast. Over 6 years since he came to Japan last and I was one of the first people to see him back in the country.

Being on a shift system at my job, I just happened to have the exact Monday that he was landing on, off from work. Having no other plans that day I figured "Why not see if I can get a glimpse of Trump today." From the news, I heard that there were over 18,000 police deployed for Trump's visit. That equates to roughly one-third of the police force in Tokyo. And it was quite apparent as soon as I left the house. Literally, any street I went on there were at least 3 or 4 police officers stationed.

The funny thing though, is nearly every police officer I saw that day was smiling. Literally grinning and laughing with the other officers. It seemed like most of Japan was in a really good mood and/or happy Trump was visiting because in my 3 years of living here I rarely, if ever, see police officers smiling. If I had to count, I saw probably over 20 or 30 officers smiling that day. These officers, however, were not.

The game plan

I started my day around 1 pm hopping on my bike and going to the American embassy. I wasn't sure if anything was actually going to happen there but I wanted to check just to see anyway. I figured there might be at least a crowd of people waiting for Trump or something. At this point, I hadn't even looked at the time he would be landing and didn't even know if he was in Japan yet or not. When I got there, I noticed a small group of Japanese people holding professional cameras; here for the same reason I was. As soon as I got to the embassy a squad of embassy cars all rushed out in a single file line. At first, I thought this might have actually been Trump. I still don't know what it actually was but if I had to guess people from the embassy getting ready to greet Trump at Haneda airport.

After staying around for a little bit to see if anything else would happen, I headed to the Imperial Palace because surely if anything was gonna happen it would be around here right? I was half wrong and half right. Half right in the sense that everyone else had the same idea as me. There were a ton of news channels and both Japanese and foreigners alike all waiting and seeing if Trump would come around. It was around this time that I started to doubt the man was even in the country yet. I used one of my favorite apps, Flight Radar to find and see where Air Force One currently was.

The plane was still flying over Taiwan........

At this point, I knew it would be at least 3 hours before anything even happened now. It was starting to get dark and I didn't feel like waiting at night in some random spot in Tokyo just for the chance to maybe or not even see him. No one seemed to know the exact route he would take. There were NHK and other news stations stationed at nearly every corner in Tokyo but looking back; a lot of them waited for literally no reason in the end.

At this point, I start heading back home. I think to myself "Well I didn't get to see him pass by but it was a fun little adventure." Little did I know what turn of events were about to happen.

I got about 15 mins away from my house on bike and ran across a new pop-up store. It was for those King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls that they have in America. I personally don't really like them but the people working this pop-up store were probably the most enthusiastic people I have ever seen. Literally screaming for people to come and try some sweet rolls. I stopped my bike for a second to look up the store online and during that time I also checked out the Donald Trump livestream just to see where he was. Yes, there was a dedicated Japanese person streaming at Haneda airport waiting for Trump's arrival.

After checking, to my surprise he had literally just landed. Talk about impeccable timing. After a couple of minutes, I saw him get into Marine One. Normally this would be where I go home and call it a day, but it just so happened Japanese viewers on the livestream knew exactly what that meant when he got in the helicopter. Turns out, for Tokyo there are not many places you can just park an official helicopter. (Who would have thought?) Thanks to this, the viewers commented exactly where he was going; Hardy Barracks Helipad in Roppongi. I quickly searched the location and it happened to be, I kid you not, 5 minutes from where I was currently standing. So I hopped back on my bike and pedaled as quickly as I could over to the area.

I made it but..

When I got there, I was surprised by the lack of both police and people. There was a small crowd of people who also knew what was going on, but I don't think the police even knew what was about to happen yet. For the literal president of the United States landing in the area, it was not even blocked off. There were just maybe 15-20 police officers max standing in front of the front making sure we couldn't obviously get any closer. For Tokyo at the time, this was highly unusual. Japan likes to take extreme precaution and I think if they actually knew he was about to land there they would have blocked that road off way earlier so no bystanders could even get close or watch.

Thankfully, I made it in before they caught on and starting sectioning the roads off so no one else could get in. At the time I only expected to see maybe the helicopter and that was it, but it was even better. It started with a procession of 5 or 6 helicopters landing at the base. Like usual after the first one I was like "Oh that must be Trump." Yeah, no, I literally know nothing. That was just the escort. The actual Marine One that Trump was in was the very last. As it was landing, I pulled up another livestream. This one was literally live footage following the chopper and showing what was going on inside the base. It was kind of surreal to watch the very chopper you see on a livestream that people are tracking land right in front of you.

After a couple of minutes, I checked the livestream again and... wait, there is a long line of cars going somewhere. Could it be? No sooner than I see it on the livestream, I see a procession of cars leaving the base RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I could not have asked for a better angle. I quickly got out my camera and started filming. I have never seen a presidential procession before so I just assumed the windows would be completely blacked out and I wouldn't see anything. I also was dumb again and saw the first Beast and was like "oh hey that's Trump", completely forgetting that there are always multiple identical cars. I wasn't even aware of a second car as I focused on filming the first one. The moment I did, I heard screaming from girls in the background. "Wait what?" I think to myself. I look over and see another identical vehicle coming towards me. To my surprise, the window was completely see-through and I saw that famous super hair-sprayed-up yellow hair.

Since I was taking video I wasn't able to get a clear photo, but here is a still frame I grabbed from the video. You can just barely see the side of his ear.

Yeah, unfortunately, the man was literally facing the opposite direction from where every person was standing so I only saw the back of his head. Nevertheless, it was a pretty surreal experience to accidentally get that close and get the very first look at the president's visit to Japan after 6 years.

Following the procession, all traffic was stopped for over 10 minutes. No one could even move off of the sidewalk and the traffic lights were permanently set to red. It was as if time had actually completely stopped for a moment. Even a Secret Service man told me to get off my bike and stand still. After some time had passed the traffic resumed but it was pretty surreal to say the least.

What an experience

That was probably the closest I will ever get to Trump in my life. The man is not a god, not a king and not some savior, but he is without a doubt the most influential man in our current lifetime. One of the reasons I love living in Tokyo is that stuff like this is even possible. There would be no fathomable way of this even happening in my hometown of Tennessee and I am very grateful to live in one of the most modern cities in the world where the sky is the limit.