go team!

So, here we are, the "cheerleading squad" for Shigeo Tsuzuki's election campaign. One of my students, Kenji, asked if I wanted to come and help out, and there was no question in my mind that it would be a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience. . . The student I'm with here is actually Kohey, one of Kenji's good friends.
I think this is such a classic picture -- makes me think of royalty, or Evita, or some other great address. . . the background is a little ironic, though. . .
Seriously, it's almost as deserted as the prairies. . . we got so excited when we actually saw someone outside that everyone started waving and Shigeo would go over, shake their hands, do a little PR, he even started playing catch with a little boy (what a guy!) Had to put this one in so you would catch the "sash" idea.
This is our group on a street corner, one guy reading out the campaign philosophy about how Shigeo is going to make this community a safer and better place for families, the sound pumping out of the little portable speaker (they had to do the announcement twice at this "intersection" to catch both directions ;-), and us yelling "Thank you for your support" in response to the little speech.
Making some connections -- just to justify the picture quality issue here. It wasn't really a "picture-taking" atmosphere, so these were all taken as I "inconspicuously" held my camera around my waist and tried to catch what was going on. . . :-s

Quite the experience, I must say -- the headbands have "Certain Win" written on them. They let me keep the band, not the jacket. . . Thanks for the memories Kenji, Kenji's dad, Kohey, and everyone else. . . and congratulations on making it as a Toyota city councillor. . . yours truly, the hippie in neon.