Transportation woes

Think Japan and you think Transportation. After all this is the birth place of the cars that most of us drive daily - Nissan, Toyota and of course Honda, just to name a few. In Jamaica you know I had to depend on my parents wheels but God is GOOD. In Japan I have managed to get some wheels of my own and it’s called Bicycle- major brand over here. Yes it only has two wheels but I’m giving thanks.

The other day I even got my ride pimped. I got a new basket for the back, for those supermarket runs, and a place where the umbrella can be held, so when it rains I just get wet, not soaked. :) You can just imagine how my black bike look good.

This bike takes me most places but on Friday I had a seminar in this far out place called Abiko and so I couldn’t ride. I was running really late that morning though so I just jumped on my bicycle and pedaled away to the station, parked the bike where I have parked it dozens of times before , jumped off the bike (literally) pulled out the key (yes it have key too) and I flew up the stairs to the catch the train.

Anyway at 9:00 pm. I returned to Eiwa Station and went downstairs for the bike and I didn’t see it. I said to myself “OK. Maybe someone moved it somewhere down the line” because sometimes they do that to create a bit more space for other bicycles. So up and down the row of bicycles I went and I still didn’t see my bike. After I looked and didn’t see it I started thinking that somebody “T’ief mi bike” (after all, hog mummy always tink him pickney pretty and my bike nice so I coulda kinda understand if you woulda want it - lol) However before reaching a conclusion I decided to look on the ground where the bike had been parked and there lay a pice of paper taped to the floor with the date on it. This was beginning to look serious because the paper looked very official. I also noticed too that others were probably there earlier and had been taken up so I proceeded to tear it from the floor only to realize that there was a sign close by which had a bicycle with an red slash on it – Ladies and gentlemen it did’t take me long to figure out that I shouldn’t have parked my bicycle there and finally that my beloved bike had been towed. Anyway I took the sign to someone who could explain it fully to me and they confirmed that indeed the bicycle had been towed and that it was going to cost me 2500 yen ( 20 USD) to get it back. Now, as far as I know is car you tow not bike – but you live, park in the wrong place and learn.

I friend of mine drove me to the place where the bike was (which by the way was quite a distance form my apartment) When I reached I realized that this thing is probably big business because there was a sea of bikes in this lot. Some old men were in charge of the lot and had a good laugh when I put down a fake bawling as I drew the money from the my wallet to pay them. At the end of the whole thing they said that is should come back soon a request that I am sure will not be granted because I will make sure I park the bike in a safe place.