Parking Ticket

November 22nd, 2007
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Ha ha ha ha. Got a complaint from a parking cop for the first time. Thought I’d share my red card warning. Ha ha. It says – as near as I can read – 「どうしてこんな所にバイクを置くんですか？」 or in English, “Why did you leave your scooter in such a place?” Ha ha ha. I love it. There’s just the slightest bit of annoyed mother in the tone of the message. Yes, it was likely written by a policeman, and yes, I parked in a questionable area. As I left for an out-of-prefecture trip (lasting 4 days) I was dismayed to find the Imabari Station bike parking lot jam-packed and spilling into overflow. I parked as close as possible to the entrance without blocking it, and not in any of the “no parking” designated zones. I just love that he took the time to chide me with a little red card note, but didn’t issue me a fine or something. Maybe he can’t technically, so this is just some low power slap-on-the-wrist social enforcement? Usually the bike parking cops literally re-organize parked bikes. Scooters, not so much. I found 2 other scooters with red cards wired to their handlebars nearby, so I wasn’t alone. Anyway, I’m sorry for grieving you, Mr. Policeman, and I acknowledge my questionable parking. Thanks for the note! I’ll watch it next time. :-D

Note: I have just activated the Comments Luv plugin on this site, and if you add a comment with a URL included, it will try to link up to your last blog post. Test it out if you like. That’s what I’m doing – trying to decide whether or not to keep it. Feel free to offer feedback.

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  • Lina -
    Welcome to the site! I hope you've not quit the quest to become literate in Japanese. I know it's insane. Sometimes I feel like quitting too. Ugh. Ha ha.

    Tori -
    Yeah, I'm keeping Comment Luv for now. We'll see if it becomes a good thing or a plugin that attracts stupid comments from people seeking links back to their own sites. I can see the potential danger, you know? Spam from real people is somehow worse than spam from computerized operations. Also - I'd feel like a moron driving a scooter in Tokyo. I could get anywhere on the trains or in a cab when I lived there. No need for personal transport other than a bike. ;-)
  • Did you come to a verdict on the "comment luv" plugin yet.
    Seems like a good feature to me.

    I've been doing a bit of wordpress tweaking too lately.
    I still haven't added things like recent comments and popular posts yet, I've got to catch up! Also I'm going to look for a tag cloud plugin and better navigation between posts (links on the post page to next and previous posts). So much to do.

    btw,
    I think if it had been Tokyo your scooter might have been impounded. I know they remove bicycles that are illegally parked (the ones that aren't already "borrowed" by your friendly neighborhood drunken salary man).
  • it's handwriting like this that made me wanna give learning to read Japanese LOL
    my annoyed mom wouldn't have chided me that way. she'd just shove my scooter out of my reach

    lina's last blog post: Ultraman : Raimie's Movie Collection
  • Michaels
    Ha, well haven't you seen my Gravatar? That's not an enormous bum over my eyes. :P
  • Ha ha ha - you just wanted to insinuate what a genius you are, Michaels! I'm onto you...sneaky...
  • Michaels
    Well, they do say unreadable handwriting is a sign of intelligence - seems to have something to it, in my experience. For example, my dad has incredible handwriting but couldn't solve a Rubiks cube or riddle to save his life (am I sounding harsh?). My handwriting however, is simply illegible to most people, even myself sometimes. Must be the ole' left/right hemisphere dominance thing.

    Judging by that note you probably encountered a Japanese Einstein in the wrong line of work.
  • Actually, I think that it means you don't need good penmanship to write tsk-tsk notes to people not technically guilty of breaking the law...but who did park in questionable areas... Ha ha.

    PS - Seems the plug-in doesn't like apostrophes. Fixed it manually that time. So everything's cool.
  • You don't need good penmanship to enforce the law, it would seem.

    Alex's last blog post: Who's your favorite character in The Office?
  • Thomas - Let's stop using our URLs in parentheses when commenting on one another's sites. Whatcha say? I just think it's tacky. Especially since my blog now links to your site in any comments you make, on the "Recent Comments" list on every page, and on the Japan Blogroll on every page. That's at least one link constantly on every page, and 2 on every page if you make a comment, 3 if you're reading the post with said comment. Whatcha say? :-P Deal? I promise to stop if you will...

    As for your question...I actually stood there trying to read it through my helmet, which fogged up as I debated what to do. I wound up stuffing it with my gloved hands into my pockets and taking it home. Then I sat down with a powerful light and a dictionary and it took around 7 minutes. (That sounds like no biggie - but this was one sentence.) Ha ha ha.
  • How long did it take you to read that red tag?

    Thomas (nihonhacks.com)'s last blog post: How To Find Cheese In Japan Part 2
  • Kathy - Yeah...took some guessing, like I said 2 seconds ago. I was also confused trying to figure out the で for the last copula and whether or not the を was part of the kanji it preceded. Ha ha. Freaking chicken-scratch. (Says a chicken-scratcher.)
  • Kathy
    Wow. I can see most of it but how is 所 even discernable to you?? It looks nothing like the Kanji...you just guessed it by context, didn't you?
  • クレイトニアン - 前回のＬＵＶはもう消してしまった。ごめん。昨日ちょっとフォーマットを確認していた間にコメントを書いたから、プラグインを正しく好きなように設定したらリセットしたかった。今からちゃんと保存しておく。 :-)

    Nicole - No kidding! I laughed when I saw it. Took some studying and a few kanji guesses to figure out the 置く(おく) because it really doesn't look right to me. Plus, there are some stray marks in the middle of どうしてand right before こんな. Ha ha. He must have been in a hurry to get the other scooters before their drivers came back.
  • wow. that handwriting is attrocious. Miffed Japanese Policemen have Western Doctor handwriting eh? Or maybe he was just SO irked that he couldn't control his hand from shaking in anger....

    Nicole's last blog post: Toothsome Turkey Thursday
  • 前回ＬＵＶを気づいた。それを保存してください

    claytonian's last blog post: bread and butter (lesson script)
  • This is a test posted by Deas with a junk email address just to show the Comment Luv plugin at work. If things go well, you'll see a message linking you to a post called..."agent smiths" on I Can Has Cheezburger. ;-) Did it work?

    Lolcat's last blog post: agent smiths
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