I can’t wait for the local elections to be over. The political sound trucks are out all day, broadcasting speeches by politicians or, even worse, just driving around downtown repeating the candidates’ names over and over and over and over. The voices from the loudspeakers are at full volume, and bounce from building to building in the downtown area. I have to keep my window closed at work because the noise from the loudspeakers with the window open makes it too difficult for my students to hear.
The amount of noise pollution in urban Japan is almost beyond description — you really have to experience it to appreciate the scope of the problem. Booming voices are everywhere, music comes from the strangest places, announcements and warnings are ubiquitous, shouts of welcome greet you at stores and restaurants, and giant television screens broadcast everything from news and commercials to music videos and travelogues.
A crosswalk in downtown Nagano has two separate visual clues alerting pedestrians when to walk, accompanied by a chime, a melody and a voice announcement — all playing simultaneously. This crosswalk is in front of the Nagano train station, where the top of the hour is marked by both an extraordinarily loud chime and a multimedia presentation on the jumbo screen. Try crossing the crosswalk at the top of the hour and you find yourself in an audio typhoon.
As much as I’ve grown fairly accustomed (though not happily) to all this aural clutter, I just can’t handle the political sound trucks. At least in America when you’re sick of the worst aspects of political campaigning you can just keep the television turned off. Here, you’d have to live on the top of a mountain, where only the faint, distant echo of a politician’s name would reach you.
Month: April 2003
Thinking About SARS
There is a natural fear that comes from proximity to disease. Rational thought becomes much more difficult in such circumstances, especially when the element of uncertainty or of the unknown is added.
That’s the case these days with SARS. And as Japan is just a short hop away from the apparent epicenter of the SARS outbreak, I can’t help but feeling a bit of anxiety about the spread of the virus.
Not that Japan is really any closer to China than any other country with an airport, tourists and business travelers. After all, Canada has had the highest SARS death toll after China and Hong Kong. And there are currently more than 150 suspected cases of SARS in the United States.
Here in Japan, the government reports that there are now 28 “probable” or “suspected” cases of SARS in this country. (UPDATE: The Japanese government is now saying that none of these 28 cases is considered to be SARS.)
One of my students returned from a trip to Southern China last week. I didn’t really think anything of it until after sitting through a lunch looking over her snapshots from the trip and realizing that the area she’d been in was in Southern China. Then, just two days ago, she mentioned that a friend from China had visited her family last weekend and that her husband was in China this week on business.
The family of another student has been planning to move to Toronto this June so her husband, a doctor, could work at a hospital there for a year. They’d planned to travel to Toronto last week for a quick visit, but had to cancel because of the SARS outbreak in that city. It turns out the hospital where her husband was to be working is connected to the facility that saw the first Toronto SARS deaths. One hospital is shut down, the other under restricted use. Her family’s plans to move to Toronto are now on hold.
I’d planned to travel to China in June, but that’s not going to happen now. Even a trip to Seoul is up in the air. At this point, any Asian travel plans will have to be made at the last minute, depending on the spread of the virus.
Suwa Mirror
Suwa is a small city — or a large town — nestled in the mountains of central Nagano Prefecture. It encircles Suwa Lake, upon which giant swans and turtles ferry passengers. This shot captures the mountains, lake and one of the giant swan boats in the mirrored surface of a lakeside sculpture.
A Simple Request
I was in the small town of Suwa on Sunday, and had lunch with friends at a cafe owned by an Iranian man. The coffee was good and the chicken curry with flat bread was excellent. We lingered over our coffees, visiting and occasionally chatting with the owner who of course asked where we were from because that’s just what you do here when you see other non-Japanese. Three of us are from America, one is Canadian. When it came time to leave, we each paid individually and I was the last to pay. As he said goodbye, the owner added — quietly and with a pleasant smile on his face — “Please kill Saddam Hussein.” It was so unexpected I wanted to double-check to see if I’d heard correctly. But it really wasn’t something I wanted to hear again, so I just smiled, waved and left. I’m still wondering if it’s what he actually said or something I imagined.
Zenkoji Go-kai-chyou Receiving Ceremony
Last Sunday saw the unofficial start of Nagano’s most important festival — the Zenkoji Go-kai-chyou. This festival is held only once every seven years at Zenkoji Temple, when a sacred statue of Buddha is revealed to the public. I’m still trying to put together background information on the festival and on Zenkoji, so I’m going to save that for a later post.
The event on Sunday was to celebrate the delivery of a wooden pillar from Matsushiro (a neighboring city) to Zenkoji. The pillar plays a central role in the Go-kai-chyou festival.
I’ve posted photos of the procession and the subsequent ceremony at Zenkoji, along with some videos and sound clips. The video clips will be up on the Photos & Flicks page for a limited time.
The photos are here.
The Mask
The next global, must-have fashion accessory? Likely to be the surgical mask There was a spread in the Japan Times today showing a collection of fashion-enhanced masks.
It’s very common to see surgical masks in Japan and in other Asian nations. People here wear them when they have a cold (to politely prevent the spread of germs) and also to protect themselves from the cedar pollen that makes so many Japanese miserable at this time of the year.
With the fear that’s spreading more quickly than the actual SARS virus, I’d say it’s only a matter of time before wearing surgical masks becomes common throughout the world.
Thanks to v-2 Organisation for the photo link.
Shadows & Light
MacDara also snapped some great shots of the interior of a cinema while waiting for the show to start.
Hubble Captures Light Echo
These are time-lapse images of an erupting star, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The first image was taken in May 2002, and the final image seven months later in December 2002. You can get more information and see additional photos on the Hubble Site.
(Thanks to ChariOtaku for this link.)
WWII Leaflets Dropped On Japan
Tim over at ChariOtaku has found a picture of a leaflet dropped by US forces on cities and towns in Japan during WWII. It’s what you might call “truth in advertising.”