Today, 7/19 (Sat), a huge crowd had gathered around Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens.
But before that~~, I happened to be in Hanshin Nishinomiya for a different story~
Around 2:30 p.m. They were getting ready for a speech by Kada-san of the Liberal Democratic Party, who is running for the House of Councillors in Hyogo Prefecture~
The person standing on top of the car is House of Representatives member Kenji Yamada. The person on the right is Kada-san.
*This photo is a clipped frame from an Instagram Live video. I didn’t expect the quality to turn out this low. Sorry🙏
Kada-san. She even came over to shake hands with Shachomi in a blond cross-dressing look~~~~. So kind~~~
The people listening to the speech were mainly in the shaded area around Ebisuta and along the shaded side by 7-Eleven.
And then, around 3 p.m. outside the 1st floor of Gardens
Sooo many people had gathered. I thought maybe there were a lot because it was shaded, but then…
Even the fully sun-exposed “Takamatsu Hinata Ryokuchi” was packed.
It’s Tachibana-san, leader of the NHK Party, looking like he’s gotten a bit tanned~~. That Trump hat with clothes in this color is a pretty funny combo
It was 35 degrees that day, and this spot was in full sun. Even though it was hot, tons of people were there without even using parasols.
There was a mix of people quietly listening and people opposed to him. It was amazing how completely different the scene felt from Nishinomiya’s usual calm atmosphere.
During the previous governor’s election, this spot also had a huge crowd, didn’t it~
What was different from the previous governor’s election was that this time there were several police officers, and they seemed to be keeping a pretty close watch on the situation. Whenever things looked like they might turn into trouble, they responded right away.
Fukumaro-san & Minimaro-san, who also did live streams on YouTube during Saito-san’s campaign. Minimaro-san was Saito-san’s campaign announcer, and the two of them apparently had a surprise whirlwind marriage~. Woohoo.
Fukumaro-san is a nice guy who even gives me advice about my livestream connection that keeps cutting out~
Also, the deck leading from the station to Gardens was overflowing with people, and many were watching from above. About the left half of the photo shows people heading toward Gardens.
According to Mori-san, a Nishinomiya City Council member who was there, Yoshimura-san of Nippon Ishin no Kai, the Osaka governor known for saying “social insurance is way too expensive,” had also come a few days earlier. But today, there were apparently about 3 times as many people as that day!
There were also people from the opposition side shouting loudly and making it hard to hear the speech, but just the fact that they came out in this heat is honestly impressive. They were really giving it their all! I felt like I’d end up with heatstroke.
Also, there was a monk chanting sutras at the speech venue, and overall it was such a chaotic election speech scene unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It may be inappropriate to say, but honestly, it was interesting🙏 Still, I think it’s amazing that it drew so much attention.
According to Matsushi @ Nishitsu reader, there were apparently a huge number of people voting early today at LaLaport Koshien~. (By the way, it seems that early voting became available at LaLaport Koshien thanks to a proposal by Kawamura-san, who serves as chair of the Nishinomiya City Council.) Oh, and this is an older photo~
Apparently there was some kind of election discount too.
So with that said,
Tomorrow is voting day. Please check the candidates once more~
And make sure to get the 100th anniversary limited “Miyatan voting certificate”✨
