yakuza: beep, beep.

Saturday was the last night of Nebuta, and I was out with the new Rob to watch the parade and take some photos. Having walked alongside the parade for a while, we finally reached the post-parade route, where the dancers broke formation, and the floats proceeded to their home for the night. In this area lots of people still lined the sidewalks for the chance to take pictures and meet up with their friends, and the streets were quite full of the dancers and flute and symbol players who were sticking with their groups. Good times.

From a tiny side street that crossed the parade route came a hectic "beep beep beeeep" and a shiny black car rolling along at maybe 20 mph toward a crowd of people with their backs turned. Everyone managed to get out of the way as the car turned into the parade and sped up very quickly as it honked its way into another crowded of people, and having produced a lot of screams and frightened maybe 40 people out of its way, it disappeared down another side street. While the car was hesitating, a police officer talked to the driver, seemingly tell him to be careful, and that the road was actually closed.

Then from the same street comes another series of beeps and a big shiny SUV. This time one cop stands his ground in front of the vehicle, and the SUV rolls to a stop. At first, the driver of the car tries to nudge the cop out of the way (yes, actually deliberately strikes a cop with a car), but as more and more police gather around (maybe 10 in all), the driver seems to understand that he's got no choice. He sits for maybe five minutes listening to the cops tell him that the road is actually closed and that he ought to be careful before violently turning the car around, and beeping his way off in the other direction, nearly running over some other people.

I tried to get some pictures of the guy, but by the time I had though of it, the cops were so swarmed as to make it hard to get a picture. Sadly, this is the best I can offer:


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