What on earth are these construction workers doing? They are taping a battery powered, blinking light stick to the hand of their colleague—the mechanical flagman whose head and helmet are visible in the upper right corner of the frame. I guess his must have burned out; he’s not really able to just grab himself a new one.

Mechanical flagmen are pretty common, but they don’t seem to take jobs from the human ones. Walking through this construction zone near Roppongi last night, there were six men pointing the way along the already well marked paths around the site.

The flesh-and-blood flagmen bow and ask you to be careful as you walk. They apologise for the inconvenience they’re causing. Quite a contrast from the wolf whistles you’d get in the States… Posted by kuri at June 13, 2002 07:56 AM