First of all, you’re probably wondering what a fun bus is. Well, I’ll tell you (that’s just the open kind of bloke I am :-). If you live in Japan - specifically the large cities, you’ll have probably seen them, but if you live outside Japan you maybe not have heard of them.
Basically, they’re the busses of the various Nationalist parties in Japan and a few smaller racially based groups. Let’s be straight here - every country has racism in some shape or form, and anyone who believes that’s not true is either blind or dangerously ignorant. One more thing before I get into this - racism is about people, and the changes therefore come from people - sitting back and thinking ’that’s how it is’ and do nothing just perpetuates it.
There are a few things in Japan which are LOUD, and one of them is the way people try to get political points across, no nemawashi here, just decibels. I remember being woken up on many a Sunday morning by raging local politicians yelling out of small vans with Blues Brothers-esque PA systems strapped to the top of them. And there’s a point to this yelling. “Yaaaa Maaaa Daaa Deeessssssuuuuuuu Oneeeeeegaaaiiiishhhhiiiimmmmmmaaaaaasu uuuuuu”. That’s it -’ here’s my name … please vote for me’. No policy, just vote for me so that I can get down to serious back-handers and discretionary funds abuse…
Getting back on topic, imagine instead of a Hiace full of LDP wannabe’s, imagine a 50 seater coach…now darken the windows and put some good old fashioned nationalist ‘propaganda’ on the side - and of course, as many PA speakers as you can fit on it.
Now you’re getting the idea. Of course, all those speakers are wasted on just telling foreigners to go home, so it’s a good idea to just pipe some music through them, and make sure it’s bloody awful. I have to say, that if I was locked in a room and forced to listen to that music 24 hours a day, I’d probably want to leave Japan within 20 minutes. Imagine if the UK National Front made you listen to (Sir) Cliff Richard…damn..that’s got to hurt.
You have to ask yourself where they get these busses, and where the driver gets his license to drive a vehicle - imagine the insurance form or the license application - “Reason for applying for license: To drive bus full of racists around Tokyo playing nasty music really loudly.”. The other thing about that bus … is what the hell is inside, because at best there’s about 5 men on that bus, and I’m pretty sure the stereo and amplification equipment required a large amount of internal modification, but I’m wondering if they tore out the ‘silver seats? (Those seats on Japanese transport systems reserved for the elderly). Mind you, if they’ve got all that stereo gear, someone probably decided to stick a nice big TV in there and a good DVD player. Hope so. Fridge and drinks vending machine might not go amiss either.
But what about these men. Whoa! was that sexist there? Nope, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a woman on one of these buses or on the little platforms they sometimes set up. The reason why? I dunno, but I’m guessing it’s because most women have got better things to do than listen to all this crap and drive round in a bus. That means you’ve got 5 lonely men driving round in a bus together day after day, and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. However, 5 men alone in a bus with a DVD player. Let’s face it, they’re watching porn in there, and seeing as they need to understand the enemy, I’m pretty sure it’s featuring hot blondes from Sweden.
Some people might say that I’m not taking this seriously, and you know what? You’re right. And the reasons I’m not taking this serious are as follows:
- They aren’t even making me think about leaving Japan, in fact I look forward to seeing them.
- What a waste of a good bus/stereo system. Music for the masses, that’s what I say. I’d drive that thing around giving people free lifts, and serving beer to whoever wanted one. I’d just get UK Radio 4 playing though that stereo…but The Offspring would sound a whole lot better, but I guess you could always take requests.
So what’s the point of this rant? well, I guess it is that you shouldn’t waste your time on this racist rubbish and accept that life in more fun when you look for people to love instead of hate. (Although you can still buy Swedish DVDs if you like).