June 24 Protest in PM Noda's Hometown in Chiba

For those of you who live in the Tokyo Metropolitan areas, there's an event to go to Nishi-Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture and demonstrate there on Sunday June 24.

Why Nishi-Funabashi? Funabashi is Prime Minister Noda's hometown.

People planning this has a site "Datsu Genpatsu Suginami (Moving away from Nuke in Suginami)". They are going to Noda's constituency to protest against the restart of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant.

The titles of the posts announcing the details of the event are really funny. The message is humorous, too.

「6.24 そうだ、船橋行こう。電車でＧＯ！野田退治デモ！！！再稼働はダメなノダ！」
"June 24. Oh yes, let's go to Funabashi. Let's go by train! Demonstration to punish Noda!!! No to restart!" (Well, the last bit is impossible to translate, as the Japanese verb ending is also the name of the Prime Minister..)

(Or "Restarts? Noda rling.." H/T reader Beppe)

Anyway, the details:

• Date: Sunday June 24

• Meeting time and place: 2PM, in Nishifuna Kinrin Park (西船近隣公園), right outside the North Exit of JR Nishi-Funabashi Station

• Meeting starts at: 2:30PM

• Protest march starts at: 3PM

• Protest ends at: Ten-numa [I think, not sure] Benten-ike Park (天沼弁天池公園), north side of JR Funabashi Station (2-hour march)

The route map is on their post.

The organizers suggests you wear something yellow, and take the JR Sobu Line to Nishi Funabashi because the Sobu Line trains are yellow. They say they just decided yellow is their color for anti-nuke protest. The Tozai subway is OK, they say, even if the trains are not yellow. From their post on the trains, the timetable is reproduced here; the left column is Sobu Line (with train number), the right column Tozai Line (subway):

総武線（列車番号1258B）		東西線（黄色くないけど）
12：43	三鷹 Mitaka	12：38	三鷹 Mitaka
12：48	西荻窪 Nishi Ogikubo	12：43	西荻窪 Nishi Ogikubo
12：50	荻窪 Ogikubo	12：45	荻窪 Ogikubo
12：53	阿佐ヶ谷 Asagaya	12：48	阿佐ヶ谷 Asagaya
12：54	高円寺 Koenji	12：49	高円寺 Koenji
12：57	中野 Nakano	12：54	中野 Nakano
13：00	東中野 Higashi Nakano	12：56	落合 Ochiai
13：04	新宿 Shinjuku	12：59	高田馬場 Takatanobaba
13：15	飯田橋 Iidabashi	13：07	飯田橋 Iidabashi
13：22	秋葉原 Akihabara	13：09	九段下 Kudanshita
13：28	錦糸町 Kinshicho	13：14	日本橋 Nihonbashi
13：48	西船橋 Nishifunabashi	13：48	西船橋 Nishifunabashi

At this point, it seems Japanese people are less afraid of speaking up against the power that be, and of sticking out by doing unusual things like joining a protest. I just saw a bit of live video from Hirosaki City in Aomori Prefecture where a handful of people gathered on the street corner and protested against nuclear power plants and the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (located in Aomori Prefecture). No matter how small, they were there waving signs, and there was someone (Yasumi Iwakami's IWJ volunteer, most likely) who captured it live on USTREAM. Hundreds of people viewed the live stream.

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