Stopped by the Tokyo Police! Minowa, Tokyo Japan

I met a Korean girl, fluent in Japanese at the Lyhpard bar. Through introductions made by the owner we ended up talking the night away. We kept chatting away and drinking until the closing time at which point we both wandering outside.  Jung Hee was riding her bicycle home and I explained to her that I had yet to ride a bicycle while I was in Asia (something I do regularly in Montreal).  She offered me her bicycle to ride and I offered to walk her home (I didn’t have any where to be the following morning and the neighborhood had it’s fair share of homeless drunks. It didn’t take a lot to convince me to join her for the trek home!).

I did a few laps on her bicycle while we started walking towards her apartment. I got off the bicycle so that we could both walk and talk at the same time. After 10-15 minutes of both of us walking I gestured to the bicycle and then to both of us.  Despite me not being fluent in Korean we managed to get the idea across. However she answered that one rider was ok but two was not allowed.

I thought this to be ridiculous and I explained to her that I had seen many Japanese people riding “double” as we call it in Canada.  She smiled and said “ok” and we both got onto the bicycle, myself driving and her sitting on the basket like holder above the rear weel.

All was going pretty well until I heard some Japanese spoken to my left, looked over and saw a Japanese officer on a bicycle!  I slowed down, got off the bicycle and actually started smiling.  I used my phrase book to indicated to the police officer I was sorry about riding double and he explained with his hands “1 ok, 2 no”  He did this by showing me 1 finger and then two and crossing his arms.

I looked over to my Korean friend and apologized in Korean.  She opened up her phone typed a sentence into her translator and showed it to me saying “quichana” (it’s ok).  I took the phone looked at the screen and saw written in English “I am fierce”.  It turned out the police officer just wanted to make certain the bicycle wasn’t stolen.  I believe each bicycle in Japan has to be registered so Jung Hee showed her id to the police man and we were off on foot again.  I also think that our mix of English, Korean and Japanese that was spoken might of surprised him a little.

After walking for ten minutes or so Jung Hee suggested we get back on the bicycle and I couldn’t resist!  We rode the remaining distance to her apartment.  She had school the following morning so i wished her a good night, thanked her for the excellent time riding around on the bicycle and walked back to the hostel.  When I finally got back the sun was coming up and for the first time while in Tokyo there wasn’t a soul on the streets to be found.