Thursday, November 30, 2006

Bicycle hijinks

So, my bike was stolen. I've had it for a year and a half - pretty good by osaka standards actually where a bike is stolen every 2 minutes or something. Anyway, I was sad. I pimped it out with a hello kitty bell and an umbrella holder thingy. And my bike was one of those ones that folds in half if you want to carry it on the train or something. *sigh* I guess I'll have to buy a new one eventually.

So I was getting over that. Rich and I have been riding the other bike we have (otherwise known as the family car). It is a piece of crap bike that we paid $30 for when we first arrived in Japan. I love it. Its green and rusty and carries us both (reasonably) comfortably. We also added an umbrella holder on it and put pegs on it so the 'passenger' can put their feet up, or stand on them.



Then, we lost the key. We have been walking our asses everywhere for the last week.

Then, I discovered that you can go to a bike shop and have them take the old lock off and put a new one on for about $15. And you can buy a lock that has 3 keys.



Back on the family car!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought there was no crime in Japan. Or very little. Guess I don't know much about Japan.

karaoke queen said...

Hehe. There are only 2 things that will be stolen from you when living here. Your bike, and your umbrella. Anything else will be personally hand delivered to you. A cashier will chase you down to give you 1 yen. Wallets included - cash intact. My friend lost hers on the train and when we stopped into the station masters office, they already knew who she was. She got her wallet back with everything in it. They only opened it up to get her name.

It is a little weird, but apparently bikes and umbrellas are not really considered as personal property.

Anonymous said...

did you have a lock on your bike?

karaoke queen said...

But of course! Keeping in mind that those locks can be removed with a screwdriver in about a minute or broken by whacking it a couple of times :D

Anonymous said...

ahh...i meant a real lock. Im surprised it even lasted as long as it did with only the cheap-o one

karaoke queen said...

We only use the crappy cheap lock on the family car. Who would steal that piece of junk? :) My foldy bike had a real lock though....

Only takes a minute with some wire cutters I guess.

Anonymous said...

oh yea...thats what i meant. Thats too bad then =(

Lol we had a similar bike (not the foldy one but a junky one). Half the time we wouldnt even bother with the cheap lock because it was so rusted it hardly ran anyhow

karaoke queen said...

Hehe. Thats kind of like the family car. No one would bother to steal it so the cheap ass lock is fine. My other bike though......

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your bike. I still get sentimental about the locked bike that was stolen during Junior High School one day while I had detention. Talk about a salt in the wound. Although, I guess it could be worse. Check out this photo on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/degerstrom/182277516/

karaoke queen said...

LOL! I don't think anyone will be riding that bike anytime soon :D