Coming Of Age Day
We went to Shin-Yokohama (the nearby International Stadium was the site of the World Cup final) to watch the festivities. Yokohama has 40,000 kids eligible, the highest number in the country.
The girls dress up in very traditional kimonos, while the guys tend to wear suits, although the more outgoing ones will wear male kimonos. Bizarre hairstyles, lots of makeup, lots of talking on mobile phones are some of the things the sexes have in common, though! They were jovial, but the line of riot police at Shin Yokohama was definitely unexpected. The People In Charge in Japan must not think a lot of the youngster's ability to stay in control - the riot police had the full helmets and shields, ready to crack down hard on any kid jumped up on his first legal beer!
The black vans of the rightists were in full display, too, driving round the block and blaring their right-wing views over the loudspeakers. I gave them a big ironic wave, and was rewarded with a "Thank you very much!" over the loudspeakers. The guy behind the wheel was cracking up laughing - given their general anti-foreigner rhetoric, I guess it was a bit of a giggle.
In recent years, there've been a few 'incidents', with kids having to sit through lectures and speeches from dignitories, when all they really want to do is talk to each other and celebrate their new freedom. We didn't see any problems in the crowd - which is amazing given the number of people in the area.
