Entries this day: Bicycle_parking Work late_night_story

Bicycle parking

11:14am JST Monday 15 March 2004

Today I've been productive already. Got my address changed on my gaijin card at the ward office (far easier than I suspected; they just write it on the back of the card), mailed the old apartment key back to Nova (had to improvise an envelope with a piece of paper obtained from an English speaking woman at the post office), and went to get my bicycle parking pass.

On Saturday (my convenient day off), I went to the bike parking lot to see how to get a monthly pass. I rolled around the parking lot, looking for what could possibly be the identifying feature. I found the pattern after a while; each bike had either a piece of paper wired to it (day pass) or a red tag hanging from it. (interestingly, the red tags, although more resistant to weathering, were usually less effectively connected to the bicycles. some red tags were just loosely tied to the handle bars.) I went to the booth and tried to describe what I wanted to buy. "ちさい　あかい　タグ" (small red tag (or maybe "eat my shorts")) but he wasn't getting it. So I was like, "来て下さい" (come here please) and was like one of these, pointing to a tag on one of the bicycles in the parking lot. He was like, "oh!!" and gave me a small sheet of paper to fill out. I figured it needed my address, so I said "okay　わかった" (okay I understand).

Awesome. I thought.

Today I still had no idea how to fill out the form, so I went back and was like, "わからない" (I don't understand) and the guy filled out my shit, given my newly changed address on the back of my gaijin card, and then he was like, "wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka" and showed me a stack of papers like the one I had filled out, putting mine at the bottom. I was like, okay, you've got a lot of papers and he showed me specifically the date on the top paper (14年) and I'm like, aight, you've been collecting them for 2 years and I pulled out my money to pay.

They were like, "wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka" and I was like, ?? "いつ" (when), and they were like, "one year half" (one and a half years).

WTF?

I won't even be here in a year and a half (probably). And they're just sitting on their collective asses making more money by *not* processing the month pass requests, thereby forcing everyone to pay 150 yen per day instead of 2100 yen per month; what a beauracratic nightmare! (fuck I still don't know how to spell beauracratic (and my internet is still down so I can't look it up... oh wait it might be in my electronic dictionary (but I can't find it so nevermind)))

I rolled around a bit and found another bike parking lot. The guy was like, "wakka wakka wakka" and I'm like, "じてんしゃ　てっきを買い たい" (I want to buy a bike pass) and he's like, "自転車てっき?wakka wakkaニ三年ぐらいwakka" (bike pass? wakka 2 or 3 years wakka.)

Dammit. I realize now that was my perfect chance to say "うそう" (really??) (though it may be only fit for casual speaking), but I was like, "wow. なんで" (why?)

"wakka wakka いっぱい自転車" (wakka many bicycles)

He then explained "wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka マクド ナルドス wakka wakka 左 wakka wakka wakka" (..... McDonald's .... left ....) which I took to mean, go to the McDonald's turn left and you may have better luck there. I think he also explained the history of the problem. He pointed to a rather large apartment building and I took it to mean either I could park there, or when the apartment was built, a quagmire of bicycle riders moved to the area.

So. Musashi Kosugi is so crowded that we can't even easily park bicycles.

Work

2:18am JST Tuesday 16 March 2004

I'm really happy with my new job at Gaba!

late night story

2:18am JST Tuesday 16 March 2004

Went downstairs and hung out watching TV with the guys who were down there. One guy from NZ, a guy named Ryan from the states it sounded like, one guy who seemed English but with apparently fluent Spanish, and a couple others.

They all left and a dude who looks to my ignorant brain like he's from India, and speaks English with the accent I associate with people who I think are from India, yet is named Roger, told me his story of how he's lived in Japan for 16 years and just recently has been separated by/from his wife, who has taken their 7 year old daughter. Holy fuck what a story that I'm thankful to not experience.

My biggest concern is that I still don't have internet access, but that will apparently be resolved on 18 March. Holy shit that's Maggie's birthday!!!!!!!!!! And I haven't gotten her anything! And Molly's birthday toooo!

Oh crudola on missing birthdays. And that means Colleen's is just around the corner. 26 March. Yep. The day I left for Japan last year.