I've been camped out here all day. I'm demonstrating against the recent change in an old Japanese tradition. I'm protesting the closing down of Japan's beer machines.
All across Japan, liquor shops have voluntarily been closing down their vending machines to support efforts to stop underage drinking. We have two such vending machines on our island where you could once buy canned beer, two-liter jugs of beer and hot or cold sake. But now the machines have their oracles duct-taped over, victims of social pressure and group harmony.
People under the age of 21 are a minority on this island. The nine toddlers on the island aren't tall enough to reach the coin slot and I can't see them escaping from their houses at night with Hello Kitty ladders to buy booze from the vending machine. Nor do I think that the 34 elementary school kids are going to spend their allowance on moonshine. The dogs on the island like beer, but dogs don't have any money. That leaves 22 junior high-school students and 27 high-school students.