Naked guy encourages booze buying at Koenji’s Awa Odori

Just over a week ago, Koenji had its fantastic Awa Odori festival, and I took many photos of participants, food & booze sellers, & other attendees. I’m going to post them over a few posts and a few days.

This barely legal guy literally has the price of beer scrawled across his naked back. I love the very DIY, un-hemmed red fundoshi he’s sporting, and the brazenness of his pitch. Check out below where this customer is juggling his cigarette, man-bag, and wallet to get boozed up as quickly as possible. This is Japan when it’s not working.

Efficient train clean-up of puke

One of the only dangers of urban life in Tokyo is being in a crowded train and being barfed on or about. Last week we were riding the rails, and just entered this car when we saw two uniformed rail workers spread out some sawdust and quickly sweep up the puke. Wow! It probably took less than 2 minutes.

Would this happen where you live? In the US, I can’t believe they would take care of it before the train reaches its final stop. With our reduced expectations, we would not be terribly surprised if the puke stayed until the end of the night shift or beyond.

I am frequently disgusted by how alcohol abuse is tolerated, encouraged, and denied. As someone concerned about being puked on or near, I was delighted to see this rapid remediation.