Okinawa-rama

It's a beautiful day and I'm sitting inside enjoying it. We do have the windows open, so I'm getting some interaction with the outside world. Right now I hear the perky voice of a Japanese woman over a loadspeaker. Probably a politician. While campaigning, Japanese politicians and their supporters take to the streets in little vans with big speakers, driving their message home (if you will) to whomever is within earshot. It's quite annoying, but I imagine it would be even more so if I understood what the heck they were saying. There is one method of campaigning over here that I quite enjoy though. It's when the candidate and their supporters stand at busy intersections bowing to everyone who passes by. Usually they wear identical windbreakers(yellow seems a popular color)and stand in evenly spaced intervals down the side of the road. Whenever a car approaches there is a flurry of smiling, waving and bowing. I love driving up to them 'cause I'm like, wow, they're so happy to see me! And then I find myself waving and bowing right back at them. Often the people wear white gloves, which lends a certain panache to the waving. I've gotten to the point where if I come upon a group not wearing the gloves, I grow suspicious. In fact, I don't think I would support a non-glove wearing candidate, if I were Japanese that is.

I'm gonna go. Must stop Joe from watching the whole season of "Lost" without me.