Subject: Supplemental Travel Pool Report #6: color from the state call
The state call was held in an Imperial Palace room with no editorial presence. Pooler watched a video taken on the pool cam that included audio after the fact. Audio cannot be played back publicly. But here’s what I heard and saw:
The state call was held in a beige room covered in large and medium-sized tan circles.
President Trump was seen laughing and talking with Emperor Naruhito as he entered the room.
The emperor and empress speak English – they attended Oxford – and conversed with POTUS and FLOTUS earlier in English. They appeared to speak to them in Japanese through translators inside the official state call.
They made inaudible small talk for 2 minutes before the pool camera was removed. It was after the pool cam was out of the room that the gift exchange took place. Still waiting for White House confirmation on what the gifts were. That will be your last supplemental pool report until tonight’s state dinner.
Subject: Travel pool #3. Leaving one palace for another.
At 1015 am, the motorcade began rolling from the Imperial Palace toward Akasaka Palace for meetings with PM Abe.