Peace at last.

Today was election day in Japan. This was a very important and excellent day for me, not because I had any vested interest in the election results, but because the election meant an end to Japan's greatest evil: election vans.

I'll briefly describe these vans for those of you who won't know what I'm talking about. During election times all the candidates for pretty much all the elections send out these cars/vans equipped with loudspeakers to drive around time and campaign for votes. They go back and forth throughout the streets of town shouting out the candidate's name "ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!" (thank you), "YOROSHIKU ONEGAISHIMASU" (which I will loosely translate as "please don't hate us") and some campaign promises that my Japanese isn't good enough to understand. Each car is filled with multiple people who wave and shout at everyone as they drive by. Some vans even play music as they go.

My apartment complex seems to get hit especially bad by these campaign vans. I like in a large public housing complex filled with teachers and city employees. There's about 15 or so separate buildings in the area and the vans make sure that they stop at each separate one to shout out their message. Keep in mind that there were over 20 people running for various positions within the city and I'm almost certain that every single one of them had their vans going about the city and yelling at people. All this added up to tons and tons of noise pollution around my apartment that has been steadily building throughout the past few weeks. I think the worst of it was Sunday of last week; there was a 2+ hour period of time where I could hear at least one van shouting in the complex. There were also several times when 2 or more vans got close to each other and tried to out-shout each other. It's hard to express how irritating it is to try and enjoy a movie, talk to friends or take a nap when a car drives by about every 10 minutes to interrupt.

It seems that the Japanese people have accepted these vans as necessary evils. Pretty much everybody hates them, but nobody seems to be quite as pissed off about them as us foreigners. I'm sure several JETs have lost their cool because of the vans recently, and I was preparing to jump from my balcony because I couldn't take it anymore. The Japanese "it can't be helped" attitude towards this menace boggles my mind, especially when I consider what would to these vans if they were in America. Curious, I decided to do some research into these vans to try and understand why they're so tolerated and I found some fun facts!

-Campaign ads have been banned from television and newspapers, so driving around in vans is basically the only other way to annoy the voting population. The big difference being that I can turn off a TV or choose to not read a campaign ad, but I can't shut up the van that decided to park itself outside my window....

-Japanese noise pollution laws prohibit any noise over 80db. The loudspeakers on these vans are set to just below that.

-People have been had felony charges filed against them for interfering with the operation of these vans (i.e shouting and throwing things at them). It was decided that they were interfering with the election process.

-In Fujiyoshida you're not supposed to send out vans more than one month before an election; however, I swear there's been one van going around for two months (I heard the van and its distinctive music just about everyday for 2 months or so).

-A few candidates throughout Japan have been running on "no van" platforms. I sincerely wish them the best when the results come in.

Thankfully elections are now over and finally there will be peace and quiet in Japan. Well, until the next election, which I think is in autumn...

So Tired...

Ok, I know I never told the wedding story. The short if it is that I got drunk. Really drunk. I was on nomihodai (all-you-can-drink) from 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM at various places, and I pretty much had a drink in my hand the whole time. The only break I had was when I had to do our little skit for the wedding. I also got a lovely gift bag at the end!

But anyway, in the meantime I've been going through the end of the Japanese school year as well as spending Spring Break in Thailand. Not much to tell about Thailand really, it's become ultra touristy, especially since the tsunami. Places have had to throw themselves 200% into the tourism industry because it's the best way for them to rebuilt, but it seems to be coming at the cost of their own culture/private lives. We stayed in Ao Nang, a small town on the beach which seemed like a miniature Cancun. It's been westernized/resortitized (I made that word up) to the point where I couldn't distinguish what country I was in, and that bugs me as an Anthropologist. The only Thai people around were the waiters/waitresses, aggressive Tuk Tuk (taxish thing) drives and store owners selling designer rip-offs. While the place was nice, aesthetically, I couldn't help but feel a little depressed there. Anyways, I digress.

I'm still a little jet lagged as we're preparing to start the new school year. My favorite teacher (and one of only two English teachers at the school) left so I've felt a little out of the loop so far. The new English teacher seems pretty cool, but I've been having trouble getting to know him so far. There have been other changes in addition to the new crop of teachers. A lack of available personnel has forced the school to put some extra responsibility on me. I almost had to become a homeroom teacher, but instead I've just become an adviser to the new first year students. This means I've been having to attend meetings and work very late into the night trying to get everything prepared for the kiddies. They've also given me 7 additional classes to teach during the week. All this adds up to me actually having to work at school from now on, a concept I'm not very familiar with...

Anyway, this entry seems even more unfocused and ranting than most, so I guess I'll end it. Big shout out to Dan who just got accepted into the JET Program. Good luck, you'll need it! Bwahahahahahahahahaha.