Except the people who have to march in one.
Back in the day, when I was young, trim, and a strapping symbol of virility enrolled at the Fortress of Learning, we used to pray weekly for the heavens to open up on the city of Charleston each and every Friday that there was a parade. God, as I remember, batted barely 190 on this one……………
But I digress.
Saturday night, I got a phone call. ” A bunch of folks have canceled out for tomorrow. I’ve got tickets to the SDF parade up in Saitama. Do you want to go with us?”
Yea, I don’t doubt that a lot of people canceled out. It was only raining cats and dogs outside because of the the typhoon 100 miles off shore. ” Aren’t you worried about the rain?”
“Nope. This stuff will be gone tomorrow. Besides they only do this once every 3 years.”
Oh what the hell- I can play golf some other time. “Sure, we’ll go.” ( After consulting with the birthday girl-who as it turns out wanted to see a parade.)
The next morning we are up early, lunch packed, bottled water with us and on the road up to Saitama. Sure enough the weather had cleared and it was glorious. And thanks to the large number of fair weather Gaijins here- there were some great seats to be had along the parade route.
The parade is an event scheduled to honor the anniversary of the founding of the Self Defense forces. It was an all service affair with units from the JASDF, JMSDF, and the JGSDF forces as well as the special schools: The Medical Academy and the Nurses School. All in all 4200 people participated.
As you can see it was great day to line up the hardware:
The Navy, er excuse me, JMSDF was there:
Can’t have a parade with out a band:
Or the Prime Minister!
Yes, that is Fukuda-san himself!
In an arrangement that warmed my heart-but would no doubt outrage American feminists-they put the women in their own companies. Wearing skirts, high heel shoes, and matching purses. As it should be. 🙂
You go girl!
There were even flyovers:
Yes, that is the S.O.’s flag waving hand in the way!
And tanks-lots of tanks:
The Airborne Soldiers lead the way!
Can’t forget the Field Artillery!
Finally it was over and the Prime Minister was ushered to his limo-carrying top hat and all.
Three hours later (plus the time we had to sit in the parking lot waiting for all the cars to get out) we were home. All things considered a good time was had by all.
Except the poor bastards who were probably up all night before hand trying to keep the rain from washing away their hard work………….Something tells me all they wanted was beer and a decent nights sleep!
Post script: On the way into Akasa (JGSDF base where they held this) we say lines, and I do mean LINES, of riot police. Pretty soon we found out why. There were literally dozens of right wing speaker trucks shouting out the glories of the “old Japan”. Not to be out done the Communists had brought trucks of their own. No riots ensued and judging from the number of shields and billy clubs the police were carrying, nobody wanted to start one. I’m sure having the PM there added to the security as well.