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 all the way up to the stairs at Frente.
There were still lots of people over this way too, apparently waiting for Motohiko Saito to arrive for his speech~
The campaign van came into the rotary in front of the station.
After getting out of the van, he shook hands with Nishinomiya City Council member Yoshito Kawamura, who has been supporting Mr. Saito all along~
He gets on top of the campaign van to give his speech. So it had a ladder like this~
That angle!
The speech began~
So many smartphones and cameras! He’s really drawing attention~
Someone from “Fukumaro Net News Channel,” which livestreams almost all of Mr. Saito’s street speeches, was also there~ They’re super famous, so lots of people were talking to them~
From the station side it was a bit far and hard to see, but there were people watching from there too.
This is what it looked like from the station side.
Lots of people were watching from this side of Frente too.
Here’s what the speech looked like from that side of Frente.
This yellow cord separates the viewing area from the walkway.
The view from the Frente stairs. The walkway was kept open using the cord~.
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, it had a packed-in feeling.
The person calling out, “It’s dangerous, so please don’t push~,” is Nishinomiya City Council member Kento Mori, who has been supporting Mr. Saito from the start~
And there was a camera right 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 on the TV news.
Ah! That’s Miyatan. It’s the one people who have already voted can get. That must be what’s going on. Got it!
It kind of looks like a fan uchiwa for an idol. There are all kinds of people showing their support~
Oh! It’s a portrait of Mr. Saito~ It looks like him!
Ah. NHK was there too~ They were filming video as well, so it might possibly air on TV~
After interacting with people, he went back up onto the campaign van. And the way they’re passing the microphone through the gap is kind of funny.
He gave his final remarks~
When the campaign van left, everyone was waving~
JR Nishinomiya was an announced speech venue, but…
There were surprise speeches too~
Apparently there were surprise speeches at Koshienguchi Station and Hankyu Imazu Station, and when we heard the sound of a campaign van from the Nishitsu office in Shukugawa and went to take a look…
There he was again~~~ (It was like Nishinomiya service day~
It seemed like someone who might have been an upperclassman from his school days was there, and they were shaking hands and taking photos in a really nostalgic mood.
After the speech, 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, amazingly, he went to Kurakuen-guchi Station next~
After the speech ended. The way people gathered around him felt very homey. Maybe that’s the local character of Kurakuen-guchi? It had such a warm feeling.
There was even an older man whispering to him from super close like this~
