Demonstrating, Japanese Style

Friday evening as I was walking home after my delicious macadamia latte (and, by the way, it does occur to me that perhaps I should just change this into a blog evaluating local coffee shops, as I would probably post more often), I got to the intersection across from the plaza in front of Sakuragicho Station.  As it was about 7pm, it was already dark and I noticed that there was a large group of "crossing guards" clumped together across the street from where I was standing, waiting for the light to change.  I call them crossing guards, but probably they were policemen.  They wear nifty blue uniforms with white trim, fancy hats, and carry lighted red batons.  They don't look like policemen in the US, that's for certain.  And they do resemble the attendants you see at the entrance of every parking garage that come out to stop traffic (both vehicular & pedestrian) whenever a parking customer exits the garage.

Anyway, there were probably about 20 or so of these 'crossing guards' standing across the intersection from me at the edge of the plaza, waiting for the light to change.  But when it changed, actually all the lights went red.  And then a very, extremely orderly group of about 30 people carrying professionally printed banner-flags came marching across the plaza and then out into the intersection; they were chanting as they went, but in a rather restrained manner - Japanese loudphones, in my experience, tend to reduce voices rather than amplify them!  As they moved forward, the 'crossing guards' dropped into alignment and marched along as an encircling box escorting them.  When they reached the far side of the intersection, everyone stopped in formation and waited on the shoulder of the road, so the cars could pass before they proceeded further.

And that was my first experience with a Japanese protest demonstration.

Oh, and what were they demanding?  The shutting down of all nuclear power facilities across the country.  They were anti-nuclear power demonstrators.  But very, very quiet and very, very polite ones.