Only in Japan

I was standing in front of the Shinagawa Station, waiting for a bus not too far from the traffic light. The light has just turned red when a white Toyota Prius sped to run past it. Immediately I could hear the high pitch of a whistle, and at the same time, I saw a policeman running fast to catch the offender. The Toyota Prius stopped, opened its window, and was directed to the side to be cited.

"Only in Japan," I had titled this entry, because the driver was honest enough to stop after violating that traffic law. Elsewhere in the world, with a police equipped only with two legs, the car would have sped off like a space shuttle breaking out into space.

Only in Japan, too, that perhaps the police was quite fit. Sure, Krispy Kreme Donuts might have invaded Tokyo a few years ago and managed to stay in business with eternally long queue, but I had yet to see an obese police officer in the years that I lived here. It sure is comforting to see your law enforcement officer so fit as not to have a heart attack when he has to run fast and hard like that.

Wow!

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has won the elections in a major landslide, taking 302 of the 480 seats, leaving the main opposition party (and the de-facto party since 1955) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) with just 112 seats (the rest of the seats going to smaller parties). DP leader Hatoyama Yukio (pictured) is slated to become the next Prime Minister as Aso Taro had stepped down in defeat.



[Bloompy has been away, true, and has yet to come up with a replacement blog now that he lives away from Japan; perhaps this one should continue to cover things Tokyo and Japan.]

Of Course There's a Difference

Do you see this picture? Cute how JAL (Japan Airlines) differentiates wheelchair users between those flying Economy and those flying First/Business Class.

iPhone Calling

It may be milder and underwhelming compared to the American counterpart, but the anticipation for the first iPhone sale in Tokyo is enough to get Apple enthusiasts to start lining up for one when it becomes available tomorrow, July 11. Pictured above is the first of the line at the Omotesando-dori Softbank, and the guy proudly announced his number-one-ness on a nearby board. Hiroyuki Sano, the first guy in queue and who came from Nagoya, had been camping there since Monday night (and it is now Thursday night).

At the eve of this launching, the line stretches only half a block, but Omotesando-dori, known as the "Champs Elysees of Tokyo" has a wide sidewalk, providing these people with ample amount of space. And Japan being Japan, it seems that perhaps Softbank had provided security by posting officers every few feet. Luckily for them, the weather tonight was excellent for a Tokyo summer: breezy with hardly any hint of humidity; best of all, it was not raining. Two different groups of TV crews were seen interviewing some people in the queue.

I did wonder how popular iPhone will be in Japan as this country (along with Korea) is way far ahead of everybody else in terms of phones with great features and usability, although none of them matches Apple's sleek design and level of status symbol.

Sayonara Sale

Wow, what a surprise. When we moved here in 2004, we had way too many things from the US, so we started paring down our belongings. We asked around to see if there was such a thing as Goodwill to whom we could donate them, but a colleague said that it was rather rare to find such an institution in Japan as Japanese tended to take care of themselves and not rely on anyone else's charity. We then called up our friends to see who wanted what, and after they had their picks, we simply left a whole lot of other things by the alternate door to our complex. We left for dinner and was surprised that an hour later back home, we found many things had disappeared; people had taken most away. We simply put the remaining in the dumpster.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when we decided not to bring our entire belongings and opted to do the traditionaSayonara Sale, a sort of garage sale staged by departing expatriates. I took pictures, posted them in an online site, advertised for the sale at the free weekly English magazine Metropolis, and within a day, calls started calling. It was a feeding frenzy, with people wanting to secure certain items, mainly the big ones, such as furniture. Each advertising renewal puts another fresh jolt to the bidding. It was fun to see the process. Had we known how wildly popular this was, we would have done this years ago when we wanted to get rid of some things.


Click HERE to go to the Sayonara Sale site.