Tobi-dasu Chui!

Children are well protected from hazardous traffic throughout Awaji Island. Here is a standard issue factory made "Watch Out for Kids Flying Out (into the street." However, someone felt two signs are better than one, so they simply made their own, added the hand lettering (same warning message.) A few winter flowers in the flowerbed, held in with concrete blocks, and there you go. Three narrow roads, one of which carries traffic to the local large jinja complex, intersect here. Are these signs the equivalent of the roadside stone jizo of old, who continue their wayside guardianship of travelers, women, and, yes, eternally heedless children?

1. Time has not been kind to this "Tobidashi" kid sign. Now horribly corroded, the original model may well be sporting his first gray hairs. However, he may pass this sign and remember his yellow and black baseball uniform, and how much fun it was to run out into the road while trying to catch that high fly pop ball to right field.

2. A future bad-boy scowls out from the backroads of Shizuki. Pretty soon, there will be a pack of cigs in that rolled-up sleeve, and a punch-perm instead of that bike helmet. He will still love his mom, though, and help little old ladies cross the dangerous roads.

3. Along a roadside from the island interior, a handpainted ode to reductionism. What happened to this white little tyke's neck? What kind of weird hat is that? This tight-fisted tobidasu boy, sporting a buttonless, collarless shirt, is sprinting towards your car. Watch out!

4. I regretfully observe that not every sign is a piece of art. This one stands in the small village of Yagi. From the ice cream cone shaped hands, the extreme simplicity in the clothing, the strictly color-by-numbers application of paint, to the hideously botched face, this one ranks as a paragon of simplicity gone awry. I hesitate to call your attention to the highly dubious placement of the rusting bolts. Even the usual warning signs have been dispensed with, completing this homage to symbolic form over explicated message.

5. In starkest contrast, this newly minted and launched elementary boy prepares to warm the hearts of passing drivers with his jaunty, knees-together trot into their pathways. Forever frozen in mid-stride, eyes permanently crossed, his stylish three blue jacket buttons match his laced shoes, and his hair is neatly trimmed. A loving portrayal of oblivious, childhood. What about those two bolts? Their placement suggests that this childhood is fleeting, and soon enough the spectre of future teenage skin and "down there" problems will have their way. Along Hwy 28.

6. A carefree little elementary girl sports her blue bookbag, floppy sunhat, jumper and bloomers as she "runs" cheerfully down the stairs and straight out into the busy road in Fukura, at the southern end of Awaji Island. "Please be careful!" pleads her little banner.

7. Sumoto is Awaji's only official "city" and as such can boast of a few factory made kid signs. This little charmer with pink sakura cherry blossoms in her hair, trots cheerfully out in her yellow rain boots. The red warning, "Warning! Kids Flying Out!" is unceremoniously plastered across her pink jumper. She is securely anchored into a hefty base that is usually seen supporting laundry poles. This sign isn't going anywhere!

8. The tiny island of Nushima is full of thrifty, hard-working fishing families. However, I really think there is something deeply, deeply disturbing about this only slightly weathered tobidashi chuii sign. A freckled-faced kids with no whites to his eyes, and a disarming smile, has been literally dis-armed in some horrible accident. I came back a week later to take a better photo, but he had vanished. Perhaps others felt this was too gruesome even to be left propped up in the back alleyway.

9. Along coastal Highway 31 on the west side of Awaji, the local Parents Teacher Association (PTA) produced this unusual sign. A boy's boy in jauntily askew yellow baseball hat, he throws both hands up in your face with all the confidence of a slightly naughty young boy. He is rather rotund, don't you think? More running is in order, but not out into the street, you little brat!

10. In contrast, here is a clean-cut kid in fresh white t-shirt and forest green pants. Look at that winning smile! He is Aisatsu-kun, or the Greetings and Salutations Kid. Welcome to our little corner. Please enjoy the town and please don't wipe out any kids while you are at it. When I grow up, please vote for me!

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12. kidsign koi Yagi-e -07 06mar10.jpg

13. kidsign near Izanagi Jingu hwy 28-1 8jan06.jpg

14. kidsign Mihara 16 06feb14.jpg

15. kidsign OLD yagi shogakko-2 06mar03.jpg.

16. kidsign Yagi-e -04 06mar10.jpg

17. yagi new signs -8-06mar17.jpg

18. kidsign red 2 06feb14.jpg

19. sumoto kidsign wave -7-06mar23.jpg

20. A classic tobidasu chuii kid sign guards koi pond of Yagi Elementary School. Please do not run over the koi, the kids, or this kids-sign.

21. The hefty koi in the Yagi elementary school pond reflect their guard-a kid sign!

22. A modern kid-sign. More coming! I will have to split this page up though. What do you think about these signs?

Japlish Corner

"BE A MAN AND SERVE" - high school motto proudly displayed on a high school sweater worn by a very cute high school girl. She confirmed that boys and girls wear this sweater at the school but no, she did not know what it meant. This motto may take the prize for the Most Problematic high school motto.

© 2008. Comments to Patricia Yarrow
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