Saturday, October 29, 2011

A community announcement. Only in Japan?

It is a cool rainy Saturday night (6:30 pm). I just heard some guy driving around in his car using a speaker to say something. I couldn't understand so I asked my husband about it. Apparently, he was saying things like "turn off the gas (heater/ stove) before you go to sleep", "don't leave things (like your laundry) outside", "when you are sleeping, don't leave your windows open", "look out for criminals" .  I thought maybe some guy had escaped from jail but no...this was just a community announcement.

Now, as a Canadian I think this is pretty funny and strange. My husband said "but there are a lot of old people in this community". Since when does old=stupid?  And as it was being said outside on a cool, rainy evening, chances are the "old" people didn't hear it as most won't have their windows open like we do and they will be watching TV or listening to  music, or cooking etc. And they might even be hard of hearing. I just don't get it.

I'm guessing this is "only in Japan", right?

6 comments:

Valerie said...

I've heard about this sort of thing in Japan, started to help prevent fires, as many of the buildings were made from very flammable materials. Someone would go around reminding people to extinguish candles and other fires, so their paper and wood houses wouldn't accidentally be set on fire, since it could take out a whole neighborhood or town. Adding the other announcements, about closing windows and taking in laundry, though sounds unique.

It's kind of nice though, that someone is looking out for the community, I guess. :)

John Green said...

Thanks for sharing the love, from America

Kathryn said...

Arrghhh those trucks with loudspeakers should be banned. Too damn noisy.

Japan Australia said...

Don't like the trucks with loudspeakers blasting out political messages in Japan, but this is a good community announcement, which makes Japan so special.

Japan Australia

Kevin said...

Usually, I get the truck driving around on Saturday mornings asking for non-combustible large waste (electronics, bikes and chemicals).

Kari said...

We get announcements like this in our neighborhood too. Usually it's to let people know there is a fire somewhere or traffic accidents around town.

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