Propaganda On Wheels

Apparently there is an election coming up very soon in Uruma City, the town in which we live. They're voting on a new mayor, I'm told.

Now, because I speak precious little Japanese, I did not learn of this circumstance by reading one of the many...many...MANY political posters currently plastered all over every flat surface in Uruma City. To the untrained eye (such as my own) those posters could just as easily be announcing the opening of a new Andrew Lloyd Webber show as trying to persuade voters to select this mayoral candidate over the other. (They take posters very seriously here. I'm quite sure that the dude that walks his bull every day down by the sea wall could even be persuaded to hang signs off of his bull.)

No, we learned about the election by way of these delightful little vans that drive around ALL FREAKING DAY broadcasting propaganda from giant loudspeakers. And I do mean ALL DAY.

It's kind of amusing at first. Given where my apartment is located in relation to the main drag, I can hear them loud and clear when they're passing within a block or so of the base gate. Prior to getting that close to the gate, it starts out as the tiniest, shrill squeak, crescendos to an ear-splitting filling-rattling roar, then again tapers to the shrill squeak before fading into silence. It's similar to the effect of a very loud car zooming up on you and passing you by:

quiet quiet louder louder FUCKING LOUD not so loud quiet quiet...

Except instead of the roar of an engine (signaling that the driver is obviously compensating for some sort of tragic anatomical shortcoming), it's a very high-pitched sing songy voice shouting...well...I don't know what she's shouting because it's all in Japanese. And it happens very, very slowly. This is doubly aggravating when you're stuck driving behind one of the vans. They're sloooooooow and the roads are to narrow to pass them...plus, one of the loudspeakers (four on top of each van) points directly behind the van, giving the unfortunate driver behind them an unmuffled dose of Uruman Mayoral Propaganda.

I'm not sure when the election is. Since the vans have been passing us by at an increasing frequency - we're up to twice an hour or so now - I'm assuming that it's coming up soon.

Gotta love Japan.

I am going to paint a sign in Japanese and stand quietly outside the base urging voters to cast their vote for whichever candidate had the least active Propaganda Mobile.