At around 11:20 yesterday, Wednesday 11/13, a huge crowd had gathered on the south side of JR Nishinomiya Station.
(Info provided by Aya)
Here↓
There were people packed all the way to the stairs at Frente.
There were still lots of people over on this side too, and it looked like they were waiting for Motohiko Saito to arrive for his speech~
The campaign car came into the rotary in front of the station.
After getting out of the car, he shook hands with Nishinomiya City Council member Yoshito Kawamura, who has been supporting Mr. Saito all along~
He gave his speech from the top of the campaign car. I didn’t know it had a ladder like this~
That angle!
The speech began~
So many smartphones and cameras! He’s definitely getting attention~
Someone from “Fukumaro Net News Channel,” which livestreams almost all of Mr. Saito’s street speeches, was there too~ They’re really famous, so lots of people were talking to them~
From the station side, it’s a little far away and hard to see, but there are people watching.
This is what it looked like from the station side.
Lots of people were also watching from this side of Frente.
Here’s what the speech looked like from this side of Frente.
This yellow rope is what separates the viewing area from the walkway.
The view from the Frente stairs. The rope was being used to keep a walkway open~.
He spoke for about 30 minutes.
He came down~~
After that, he interacted with people through handshakes and photos. Looks like he’s writing something like an autograph.
Oh! This is the autograph. Does it say “Motohiko”?~
There were really so many people, and it felt like quite a crush.
The person calling out, “Please don’t push, it’s dangerous~,” was Nishinomiya City Council member Kento Mori, who has been supporting Mr. Saito from the very beginning~
And there was a camera between Mr. Mori, who was supporting him, and Mr. Saito!!
Looking closely, it said ytv, so it was probably a camera from Yomiuri TV. Nishinomiya might show up in the TV news.
Ah! That’s Miyatan. It’s the one people who have already voted can get. That must be what it means. Got it!
It kind of looks like one of those cheering fans for idols. There really are all kinds of supporters~
Oh! It’s a portrait of Mr. Saito~ It looks like him!
Ah. NHK was there too~ They were also filming video, so maybe it’ll be on TV~
After interacting with everyone, he went back up onto the campaign car again. And the way they’re passing the microphone through the gap is kind of funny.
He gave a final greeting~
As the campaign car left, everyone was waving~
JR Nishinomiya was a scheduled speech location, but…
There were also surprise speeches~
Apparently there were surprise speeches at Koshienguchi Station and Hankyu Imazu Station too, and when we heard the sound of a campaign car from the Nishitsu office in Shukugawa and went to take a look…
There he was again~~~ (It’s like Nishinomiya service day~
It seemed like someone who may have been his senior from his student days was there, and they were shaking hands and taking photos in a really nostalgic atmosphere.
After the speech ended, he was taking photos with a boy who was probably around high school age~
At the end, he said goodbye to everyone who had been listening~
And then, surprisingly, he went to Kurakuen-guchi Station next~
After the speech ended. The way people gathered around him felt really homey. I wonder if that’s just the character of Kurakuen-guchi. It had such a warm feeling.
There was a man whispering to him from really close like this~
