The Sounds Of Tokyo
The Sounds of Tokyo
Mournful ambulances and clanging fire engines. These are common sounds in a huge city like Tokyo with its more than 11 million people. Sickness and tragedy strike often. More cheerful and welcome events are made known in other ways.
A cozy sound heard about October--that lasts through March-- is the minor key of the man who goes through the neighborhood calling, "Baked sweet potatoes for sale." He either pulls his cart or sits on a powered one. It has a stove, complete with a smoking stovepipe, where rocks are kept hot. Into these hot rocks he keeps putting sweet potatoes, shuffling them around so they get baked. Then he's ready to sell them to hungry passers-by, young and old alike, after weighing them on a little hand scale.
The periodic clapping of two small slabs of wood is a sound relegated to cold, crisp winter evenings. Neighbors take turns at this job. The clapping is a specific warning: "Be careful of fires! Be careful of fires!" Fires are especially feared where wooden houses are so close together.
To find out the reason for the long, drawn-out, cheery, periodic bugle call in the air, you look for a man on a bicycle. He has a big wooden box on back and his call draws housewives from their homes all along his route. For them he stops, opens the lid, and brings out "tofu" for sale. Each piece is about the shape of a half a pound of butter. It's made of bean curd and is almost pure protein. Tofu can be prepared in many different ways.
Not to be forgotten is the man who drives up and down small streets in a truck announcing that he will trade bathroom tissue for your newspapers. And one garbage collector's loudspeaker boomed out the music of "Shall We Gather at the River."
The Bible has something to say about sounds, too, one of which is, "If the trumpet gives forth an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself...?" In other words, if we who claim to be Christians don't live like we should, who will we influence or help to realize the wonderful, happy sounds of salvation?
Mournful ambulances and clanging fire engines. These are common sounds in a huge city like Tokyo with its more than 11 million people. Sickness and tragedy strike often. More cheerful and welcome events are made known in other ways.
A cozy sound heard about October--that lasts through March-- is the minor key of the man who goes through the neighborhood calling, "Baked sweet potatoes for sale." He either pulls his cart or sits on a powered one. It has a stove, complete with a smoking stovepipe, where rocks are kept hot. Into these hot rocks he keeps putting sweet potatoes, shuffling them around so they get baked. Then he's ready to sell them to hungry passers-by, young and old alike, after weighing them on a little hand scale.
The periodic clapping of two small slabs of wood is a sound relegated to cold, crisp winter evenings. Neighbors take turns at this job. The clapping is a specific warning: "Be careful of fires! Be careful of fires!" Fires are especially feared where wooden houses are so close together.
To find out the reason for the long, drawn-out, cheery, periodic bugle call in the air, you look for a man on a bicycle. He has a big wooden box on back and his call draws housewives from their homes all along his route. For them he stops, opens the lid, and brings out "tofu" for sale. Each piece is about the shape of a half a pound of butter. It's made of bean curd and is almost pure protein. Tofu can be prepared in many different ways.
Not to be forgotten is the man who drives up and down small streets in a truck announcing that he will trade bathroom tissue for your newspapers. And one garbage collector's loudspeaker boomed out the music of "Shall We Gather at the River."
The Bible has something to say about sounds, too, one of which is, "If the trumpet gives forth an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself...?" In other words, if we who claim to be Christians don't live like we should, who will we influence or help to realize the wonderful, happy sounds of salvation?
posted by Lila @ 12:36 PM
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