Thursday, January 03, 2008

 

New Year/Japan's finest

Visited a temple for New Year: Kourien's Narita-san which commands magnificent tailbacks up route one. Fortunately, I went by bicycle and thus was exempted from said traffic grievance.

Narita-san is a pretty cool temple situated uphill from Kourien station. The whole neighbourhood was full of vendor stalls and suchlike, not to mention hordes of 364-days-a-year atheists.

Best of all, a fight kicked off down the steps from the temple's car park. This was absolutely brilliant entertainment, as there was about five minutes' worth of push-and-shove foreplay before the two protagonists actually managed to kick it off (I think their mates just got bored of holding them apart.) From my elevated vantage point just outside the entrance to the temple, I honestly could have sworn it was two girls fighting, except for the gruff yells.

Having watched the kicking and scratching for several minutes, I decided that the most civic thing to do would be to inform the relevant authorities, this apparently having not occurred to the several hundred other witnesses. I wandered over to the car park and grabbed the nearest Charlie Sheen.

Oi, kenka aru de.
Oi, there's a fight going on, you know.

E?
Eh?

Kenka aru de. Kaidan no shita. Kite koi.
There's a fight going on. At the bottom of the stairs. Let's go keep the peace, you lazy bench warmer.

The two policemen shuffled along after me to the top of the stairs like two men going to their execution. Pausing at the top and surveying the brawl at the bottom, two guys throwing fists in a crowded area with women and children nearby, they did what policemen always do in this country: they radioed for back up. Whilst they were killing time at the top of the stairs waiting for their eight mates, they weren't spared the scorn of the local youths for their lack of heroism.

Eventually, a bunch more of the boys in blue arrived, at which point one of the assembled Doris Days had a brainwave, accosted them and told them there was a fight in progress (good work DD- why do you think there were eight of the goons marching in this direction)

The whole posse waded in to put an end to the entertainment. The VMM waded in with them and stood there as cool as a cucumber, snapping photos on his mobile phone whilst the police separated the combatants.


***
NOTE: Image to follow, provided courtesy of the VMM. Next time I'm in a real net cafe and not the damn Apple store.

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