Emperor's birthday address

My Tokyo adventures continued. It is interesting. The more I go to Tokyo and explore, the smaller Tokyo is becoming in my eyes. The most amazing thing to me is that there are so many, many shops! On Monday I went to the Imperial Palace to hear Emperor Akihito's birthday address. Unfortunately I was too late. I got in line just after10AM. The news reported that there were about 80,000 people. That was because it was the final birthday address by this emperor. (The average is about 50,000 I heard.) While I was waiting in the first line, I watched as many, many people exited (left) the palace grounds after the first speech. It took about 20 minutes. We finally started to move in, but there were two giant rows of people in front of me. We got to the check points. First there was a bag check and then we continued to the body scan. I passed both with "flying colors". Then we waited again. I could see the crowds starting to enter the palace grounds waaaaaaaaaaaaay in the distance. By the time it was our turn, the police officer announced that it was too late to hear the speech but we could enter the grounds. I gave it up. I couldn't wait any longer. I had to pee.