Fucked Gaijin points out:
Every national culture has its weird obsessions, and it seems as if Japan’s oddball closet is more crowded than most ? Pokémon, Elvis Presley and Hello Kitty are just a few of the country’s most famous fixations. But perhaps most peculiar of all is the Japanese passion for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, especially the “Ode to Joy” passage of the fourth and final movement. An amateur pastime in Japan for more than 50 years,
Which then led me to this cute little video about the stations on the Yamanote Line. Its been a year since I rode it-and I sometimes, in my somber moods-despair of getting back. Till then-sing along!