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March 28, 2003
反戦争
Anit-War Demo's Everyday it seems that I read in the paper that some thousands of people gathered in a busy part of town that I usually hang around in... But some how manage to -always- miss these... 
I ran into this small demonstration in Shinjuku last weekend however. There were less than 20 demonstraters, but they were able to draw a decent crowd. There were lots of people just standing around staring at them... These people were lying on the street with signs stating that they killed in the war. Protesting the loss of innocent lives. [Edit March 30] 
[/Edit] Posted by Harvey at March 28, 2003 11:23 PMComments
In country where people are so passive and afraid of leaving the flock to express independent opinions, I find that even this small protest is incredibly admirable. I can't tell you how many times I've seen an elderly person in tokyo in need of help (falling down), a person falling on the train platform who needed help, etc. and I (a gaikokujin) was the only one on the scene offering help. Also, no matter what the injustice, even some of the coolest young japanese people I hung out with balked when it came to actually standing up for their rights. BRAVO to these brave japanese leaders in the making. Posted by: bahx on March 30, 2003 01:28 AMGood points Bahx. Japan is weird like that. It seems that people make an extremely great concious effort to not get in each others business. I felt this the other day when I was on a train and this ojiisan was looking around trying to figure out what trainstop he was at. I didn't know what he was looking for by what he said.. he didn't say anything, he was just looking around frantically to make sure he didn't miss his stop. No one around him was saying -anything-. It was as if he didn't exist... I told him what stop we were at, and he said thanks, and that was it. I think the same thing reduces th eeffects of the protests in Japan though as well. Most people do their best to ignore the protestors and walk right on by... The new picture edit was taken right at Shibuya station near Hachiko, Bahx. Your old stomping grounds! Posted by: Harvey on March 30, 2003 02:05 AMYou know how in Japanese they tend to shorten everything they can? Demonstration is one of them. So instead of Anti-war Demonstrations, or... protests... They san, 反戦争デモ。 hannsennsou demo. It's stuck in my head. :-) Posted by: Harvey on March 30, 2003 09:38 AMActually, I was talking about "anit" though "lonley" I guess is also bad (from the forum.) Posted by: vvx on March 30, 2003 12:20 PMAh... that wouldn't be because I forgot English... but because my spelling sucks. I'm from the spell-checker generation ;-) Posted by: Harvey on March 30, 2003 09:53 PMIt's great that they are not afraid to deviate from the masses but too bad they are standing up for the wrong cause, i.e. protesting Operation Iraq Freedom Posted by: True on April 4, 2003 08:10 AMI hope this thing is over quickly... Posted by: Harvey on April 6, 2003 11:53 PMI'm looking forward to FranceNewbie.com! Posted by: Ben on April 12, 2003 04:38 AMNo FranceNewbie.com coming here! I'll do something on Japan stuff in France if anything :-) Posted by: Harvey on April 12, 2003 05:51 AMWith respect to your comments on everyone keeping to their own business in Japan: Comment?
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