Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!yynet.tama.tokyo.jp!Q.T.Honey!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed.freenet.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!53.200.244.43.ap.yournet.ne.JP!not-for-mail From: Michael Cash Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Eric becomes local folklore and learns to be satisfied with his lame ass car, but will need to get rid of it anyway WAS: Re: Driving a bicycle - road rules? Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 20:02:22 +0900 Lines: 61 Message-ID: <54pttvsh5om17cbhe639jg2ri5j66m92d4@4ax.com> References: <3FDDE9E0.BCEDB728@yahoo.co.jp> <3FDE414F.6A71444@yahoo.co.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: 53.200.244.43.ap.yournet.ne.jp (43.244.200.53) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 1071572552 5316921 43.244.200.53 ([51151]) X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.93/32.576 English (American) Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:9017 On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 21:42:06 -0500, Drew Hamilton belched the alphabet and kept on going with: >Eric Takabayashi wrote: >>Or drive illegally, like I see many foreigners do. > >Nah, I already had one experience with Japanese authorities and >that was enough for me. > >>Contrary to what I had been led to believe my first time at the examination >>center, they didn't convert my motorcycle license along with the manual >>transmission license. I had to go back for more testing, and only held two >>days a week. More driving school. Well, I hadn't had experience picking up >>fallen bikes or pushing them in figure eights since Motorcycle Safety >>Foundation days, anyway. > >I heard that picking up a fallen bike was part of the conversion >test. Nobody ever taught me how to pick up a fallen bike or push >it in a Figure 8 in my motorcycle safety course. Maybe I'll get >lucky and my bike license will transfer right over like my car >license. I thought picking up the bike was only for the large bike license. I may be mistaken about that. A couple of months ago I had the joy of watching one of the lane-splitting kamikaze idiots in Tokyo go ass over teakettle. He was very fortunate that there was no traffic coming from the other direction. Otherwise he would have been an EX- lane-splitting kamikaze idiot. Anyway, what I really wanted to say was that he was riding one of the larger bikes. One of the bikes you're required to demonstrate that you can lift to an upright position. He demonstrated that ability admirably at the accident scene. He lifted the bike, which looked to be pretty extensively damaged on the side that had met the asphalt. He forgot to stop when the bike reached an upright position, though, and unceremoniously dropped it on the previously UNdamaged opposite side. Maybe it was some sort of inborn Japanese need to restore a sense of balance and harmony or something. I dunno. (Yes, I have jpegs). I think I already told about watching a traffic cop try to execute a superfast U-turn from a dead stop. He dropped his cop bike. It was really a shame, because it would have been a way kewl maneuver if he hadn't fucked it up. (Yes, I have jpegs). -- Michael Cash "Tom Cruise saves late 19th Century Japan from creepy politicians and creeping Westernization in "The Last Samurai," another Hollywood epic that shows that nobody embodies the nobility of an exotic foreign culture like a visiting white guy." John Beifuss