The Japanese are building a new building for their air defense branch-I guess their only military-and it is of course right next the US headquarters building. So there is fenced off construction site there, and from the street, all you can see are the cranes. There is a Japanese workman waving traffic at one entrance, and at the end of the day the construction workers pile out in work jumpers or baggy pants and tabi shoes. I don’t know if they are steel toed tabis, but I have heard that safety regulations in Japan are not quite as stringent as in the US. I suppose that is why asbestos are still being found in recently built buildings, and the regulation and abatement area is a burgeoning industry.

Anyhow, all during the day you can hear a woman’s voice over a loudspeaker, giving some sort of announcement or warning. The voice is always preceded or followed by pleasant chimes. Once in a while you hear music. Chime music. As we have been spending more time near the site, we noticed that the music accompanies the crane’s movements. There are tunes for lifting, lowering, and turning. One tune is definitely Itsy Bitsy Spider. Today we watched as a rebar basket was being lifted and moved, while the most pleasant version of that song played. There is no other way to describe this, but cute. We did work on the roof of the Headquarters building and we could see the entire construction site from above. All I could think about were the Doosers? Doosiers? Doozers? Do-zours? The little industrialists in Fraggle Rock. A recent discussion concluded that these little guys were refining ore into some sort of addictive/nourishing crystal substance. But that’s another topic. The Japanese site was neat, with neat, clean cranes and machinery. The visible workers were all in work jumpers and hard hats, and no one was sitting around. Not one person. The chime music was playing, and that woman’s voice was pleasantly cutting through the light drone of the equipment. It was the cutest construction site I have ever seen.

Along the lines of announcements, every day in the afternoons, a loud chime rings out and a woman makes some sort of announcement. About 9pm I notice another one. Last night I slept at about 10pm and had nightmares punctuated by what I swear was something being broadcast outside. I don’t recall hearing the announcements that late, but this morning when I spoke to one of my coworkers here, she heard it too. We finally asked the Sergeant escorting us around the Headquarters about it. He had been stationed here in Yokota since 2005 or so, a long time, and he said that the Japanese announcements are off-base, and the afternoon one tells kids it’s time to go home. The later evening ones are along the same lines, but more geared towards adults. Get home, or be safe, etc. I wonder if it is because of the military base in their city, or if other cities have similar announcements. It is odd. Cute, though.