I'm reading Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki. I'm not very far into it, but it's set in Tokyo and I'm having flashbacks right and left. Early in the book the main character, who is telling the story, mentions rajio taiso. Radio calisthenics. It's a radio exercise program that plays every morning at 6:30. The guy tells you what the next exercise is then does the count to just the kind of music you would expect for an early morning radio exercise program. "Ich! Ni! Ich! Ni!" over and over then on to the next exercise. Those two words nearly overwhelmed me when I read them. My first apartment in Funabashi, near Tokyo but considered inaka, the country-side, was across from the local city office. Or rather, the back of the the city office and there was a big paved area where people could gather and kids could play. My first summer there I was really looking forward to my month of holiday in August. All of the schools shut down for the entire month. I had been burning the candle at both ends teaching English in the early mornings, evenings and all day Saturday and going to Japanese class every weekday afternoon for 3 hours. I was beat and looking forward to sleeping in late. I could still do that back then. The first Monday morning of my vacation I had roused early from habit then rolled back over still mostly asleep, happy in the knowledge that I had nowhere to be and could lounge in bed, snuggled in my futon for hours yet. I didn't have air conditioning, but I slept with the widows open and there was a light breeze drifting through the apartment. I was well on my way to glorious slumber when a blast of sound catapulted me from my futon and to the balcony door to witness the horror that had befallen me.. There ,in the little square at the back of the city office, were at least a couple hundred little kids along with their mommies being led in radio taiso. The music was being blasted out of 2 huge speakers set up against the back wall of the building directly facing my apartment and the canyon created by the towering brick and concrete walls that formed the courtyard, along with the paved ground, created a perfect shaped to channel the agonizing cacophony directly at my apartment and into my poor, discombobulated brain. I staggered away from the window, feebly trying to pull myself together enough to close the windows a block out the booming of the radio announcers "ICH! NI! ICH! NI!" I succeeded and the sound reduced to a mere calamity. It went on for 10 excruciating minutes. When it was over I made myself a cup of tea to calm myself and sat in silence, hoping to recapture my earlier peace and go back to bed. It was futile. And so it went for the rest of the month, 6:30 in the morning, 5 days a week. I was told that they did it to keep the kids active during the summer holiday, to help them get their day started. I supposed it served the same purpose for me.
