It was just under two years ago, October 1st infact, when I wrote about the school’s 2006 festival. However, unfortunately, the various redesigns of this blog have left that post somewhat tattered. But worry not! I attended both days of the festival this year, saving you the trouble of reading that ancient post!

Pictures in this update were taken by the current volunteer Mike. They are all copyrighted and officially owned by a man he met in a dream once. If you wish to use these pictures, please jump in a well.

Some of the...more interesting dancers

I have no idea what these guys were doing, to be totally honest. Notice the guy in the suave hat in the audience too. Everyone was truly dressed to kill. Well, except the guy with the horse’s head…

外国語部's performance of The Wizard Of Oz

The English speaking club this year did a very shortened version of The Wizard Of Oz. It was great, with just the right amount of crazy and the right amount of cardboard houses. Notice Barney on the far left and Erling (current volunteer) on the right! I think being British/American is cheating in the English language club, though.

I met Junten's pet lion!

He was around two years ago, although the last time it was a male student inside. This year a girl played the role of “Mr. Lion”. Good stuff.

Sorry this update is so short, I just wanted to get one more done before my flight tomorrow. Oh, that reminds me, I should probably pack…

OK, this is a scary post. Matt and I just waved off this year’s volunteers, they fly back home to the UK today and another set of volunteers come in September.

I remember leaving last year. I just need to look at my post about it to remember everything. The flat is as clean as it was when we left last year, all the goodbyes have been said, the copious amount of bye-bye alcohol consumed… it’s like stepping back in time a year. Only without the guy from Back To The Future.

But of course, this has bad implications. Rather than being the super cool ‘Last Year’s Volunteers’, we have turned into the much worse ‘Volunteers from two years ago’, or at least we will in a few weeks. Furthermore, the next set of volunteers have a ‘Mike’ as well, the third in three years, so I turn from ‘Old Mike’ into ‘Oldest Mike’. 古くなりたくない！

But of course, there’s good news too. Meeting the new volunteers will be exciting, and of course I’m still in Japan until September 25th of this year so I still have plenty of time to explore. Matt is here for a year for study so it really, really is just like the good old days. Except we’re a little taller, a little poorer, and even more sunburnt.

(For those wondering ‘why is he writing all this nonsense, where did my funny go?!‘, I’ll do a new Translation Station in a day or two…)

This story broke over the last week and now we know more of the facts, I wanted to take a look at it and offer some fresh insights on it. This will not be a comedy post at all – this is a serious issue and it needs to be treated as such.

The Facts

At about 12:30 p.m. JST, the assailant attacked a crowd with his vehicle, running over three people, then stabbing at least 17 people using a dagger (initially erroneously reported as a survival knife), killing seven people.

This is lifted from the Wikipedia article, which uses various news sources as references. Whilst I am aware it’s not professional to use Wikipedia I am going to in this case as it does give a good general overview of the facts.

The assailant, Tomohiro Kato, posted messages on an internet forum stating things like “I’m going to kill people in Akihabara” and so on.

Blog Response

7:10 To Tokyo posted this update quite soon after the news broke (explaining why the title is ’5 dead’ not 7) and was originally the best article I could find on the subject. He explained something I’d not heard of before called “Daredemo Yokatta attacks” which literally means ‘Anyone is good’ – the idea being the assailant had no particular targets and just wanted to kill randomly.

One part of the article in particular struck me;

I don’t fear becoming the victim of an attack most of the time here in Tokyo because I’m confident in my ability to take care of myself. It’s like I told Spartancus one time on a crowded Tokyo train with a tense atmosphere, “If someone comes at me, he’d better have a lot of heart because I do.”

I wanted to post this again because it’s important – whilst we need to learn from the massacre and accept that Japan is not this amazing “100% safe” country, Japan should not plunge into a climate of fear.

It seems other people agree, too. A nice message and an excellent recap on what is one of the most horrific stories of the year.

My Opinion

How do you write a take on such a horrific event? I guess you look at the facts and try to draw what you can from it. So that’s what I’ve done here – if you think any of them are wrong please comment - I am very interested to see what people are making of this news story.

1. Whilst I agree 100% with 7:10 To Tokyo’s view that you shouldn’t live in fear of an attack, it seems that, with these Daredemo Yokatta attacks on the rise, something needs to be done. It seems impossible due to the nature of the attack – you can’t protect the victim, because you have no idea who the victim is going to be. So perhaps:

2. These internet threats, which have been posted more than once before attacks, need to be taken a lot more seriously. Sites like 2channel and so forth should have some sort of system for people to report posts they think could hold some darker meaning. I am aware this challenges the point of the anonymous posting feature 2channel offers, but it may be a necessary step.

3. That said, I’d hate for the net, or the sites, to get a reputation for housing killers. There are many more well-adjusted people out there – let’s not jump to conclusions.

4. I hope the Akihabara Massacre goes on to be remembered not as a tragic event but as something we can learn from – in every country in the world you need to be continually aware of who’s around you. Japan is not some overly safe country where nothing bad happens.

So there you go – I hope this article is useful. I want to spark some discussion, which is why I added my own opinions at the end. Please use the comments section of Japan Is Doomed if you’re interested – I will get back to you.

Hey guys, prepare for the most boring blog post to date! (I know, how can I top some of those classics…)

I’ve pretty much sorted this blog out for my return to Tokyo now. You can now subscribe via RSS and by email through the ‘Subscribe‘ link in the top right of the blog. Don’t worry if you can’t be bothered to go all the way over there and click, though! Here’s a handy shortcut!

I’m really hoping to get a post every few days whilst I’m there, internet access allowing. Of course, I’m not willing to sit down every night and write huge articles with image editing and what have you in them, but I do want to keep this thing going, partly for you guys but mostly so I can remember what I was up to! The camera is coming with me again, so there will be plenty of photos to gawk at!

I’ve got a project or two lined up whilst I’m there – little things like going back to Yokohama to take more photos of graffiti, and also a video project in the works, but that’s very hush hush right now – mostly because I have no idea what exactly it will entail yet.

If anyone who reads the blog or is involved with JapanSoc or whatever is around in Tokyo, get in contact with me and we will get some Karaoke going or something.

That’s about it. If anyone has any questions do let me know. Now, to save this from being an entirely useless post, I went back through my archive of photos and dug out a few favourites I’ve never posted before and used the magic of iPhoto to make them pretty. Enjoy! (In case you’re wondering – this will probably be the last time I recycle old photos for a while. Probably)

Taken from the bank of the river that runs through Oji. I saw this little guy walking around quite a few times but he never made it into the blog until now. This surely is the start of his career in showbiz.

[From: Two Parks In One Day] Taken in Ueno Park. The trees give the most awesome shadows. I actually posted this picture in the original update, but having played with it I think it looks way better now.

[From: Atami Part 2: Teaching & Eating] Quite similar to another posted photo. I like this one because it’s the only one where all the kids are paying attention. Nearly – notice the kid in the brown shirt at the front. If I see him again I’ll force him to read my entire blog. That’ll show him.

[From: Gentlemen, Start Your, Uh, Engines?] No idea who these guys were, but they won! So good for them!

10 days to go!