Not a lot to report for today, as it was
kind of a relaxing recover-from-the-trip day. Also it gave an
opportunity to put together the extensive coverage of yesterday's
trip. But the writing was interrupted about 1:45 by vocal
protesting outside on a loudspeaker. I'd heard this same kind of
thing last Sunday, so I was wondering if it was a religious exhortation
or a scheduled protest. We took a walk toward the speaker which
was in the direction of the office.
There were police in riot gear outside the office, including the
helmets and big plastic handheld shields. As we sat at Starbucks
awaiting the activity, police buses with metal grating over the windows
and red lights drove slowly down the street with a crowd behind.
I'll include a video later once I trim it down (it's 65 Meg). One
word on the red signs was something like "Zengaksan", and we believe
these were Koreans. We were also unsure whether the police were
followibg closely next to the protesters to keep them from going into
traffic, to keep them from straying outside of their parade route, or
to protect the protesters in case any outsiders got angry. They
headed north toward the Imperial palace.