World Wonders

Since the beginning of time, our time in Japan that is, we have witnessed an incredible sight. Every morning for about a year on our walk to the train station, we saw a true rarity--

SHOVEL TRUCK!

This is a jeep with a detachable shovel of various shapes and sizes instead of a spare tire. The uses of this special tool are entirely innumerable. A regular truck is just a worthless pile of metal next to the magnificience of SHOVEL TRUCK. ("it can't be helped" but to write the name in capital letters it is so powerful!) What would a regular truck do if a difficult situation arose? How would a regular truck move a pile of rocks blocking its path? Or how about an avalanche of snow? How would it dig a hole if the need came?

But a time came when we saw SHOVEL TRUCK no more...and many days passed without a sighting...until one day, last Saturday, while riding bikes....





There it was, in all its greatness!! Not the original, but SHOVEL TRUCK nonetheless!! Tucked deep within the gravel side-streets of Hirosaki, it lay waiting...waiting for the time of action...waiting to dig a hole!


But wait, the story is not finished!!

Last night, Tuesday that is, just three short days after our long absences without SHOVEL TRUCK, there upon our walk home from singing our hearts out at karaoke for 4 hours, the beauty, the amazingness, was before us again...this time with twice the greatness. Check it out for yourselves, although the video doesn't do justice, viewers beware, this might knock your socks off.......






We thought this was also a nice picture.