On Aug 7, 2:01 am, mtfes...@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
> The 2-Belo <the2b...@msd.bigremovethislobe.ne.jp> wrote:
> > We have a report from the fj.life.in-japan Dynamics Officer that
> > mtfes...@netMAPSONscape.net has exploded. Flight director confirms that:
> > >John W. <worthj1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> On Aug 5, 8:17?am, mtfes...@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
> > >> > Jean-Marc Desperrier <jmd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> > > mtfes...@netMAPSONscape.net wrote:
> > >> > > > I'd heard Shibuya attracted a much younger crowd than when I worked
> > >> > > > there (it was pretty much a salary-man's section)
> > >> > > How long ago were you working there ???
>
> > >> > 1989-1991.
>
> > >> Otherwise known as "The good old days" (even though they're a couple
> > >> of years more gooder than my good old days).
>
> > >One thing I've always regretted; the morning of Hirohito's funeral (the
> > >day was a national day of mourning) I was in Shibuya at about 10:30.
> > >There was literally not another person outside, not a car on the road,
> > >nothing. It was like a sci-fi show where The Last Man On Earth wonders
> > >where everyone went.
>
> > >And I didn't have my camera...
> > (Totally off topic but) So you remember this moment?
> >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrF7Tk9DNoU
> > As a history geek it would have been hugely interesting, in a morbid sort of
> > way, for me to have been here at that point in time; alas I didn't make it here
> > until 1992. I watched the funeral on TV though.
>
> I didn't really watch that. But I DO remember that everybody assured me
> that Hirohito wasn't going to die before January 1; it would be terribly
> expensive to retroactively change "Showa 64" to "Heisei Gannen". By hook
> or by crook, he was going to make it to Jan 1.
>
> Mike

...plus a few more days to make sure it didn't look contrived, and
also that all officials were back at work after the New Year. And on a
Saturday so that the full day of mourning would be on a Sunday, to
minimize disruption to the working week....

At work on that Saturday (our contract guaranteed 104 days off each
year, so we had to work some Saturdays to make up for public
holidays), some time after the minute's silence, I overheard someone
wondering whether he had actually died some time before and the
announcement had been delayed suitably.

And the manufacturers of nengajo didn't look disrespectful for
printing Showa 64 cards.