I'm waking up, the house is very still. It's a beautiful, quiet, sunny morning. My window is open and I hear a faint voice getting closer. It's a van with a loudspeaker on top. A voice talks matronly to the silent neighborhood, like the airport lady asking you to keep an eye on your luggage. The voice then chants a few intelligable lines in singsong fashion before it repeats. I don't know Japanese very well, but it sounds like an appeal. The effect is eerie - I feel like I'm in an Orwellian world where people cowering in houses listen fearfully to condescending exhortations from the state.