Who says the Japanese are law abiding citizens?

Well, as the old Goon Show joke goes - just about everybody. But when it comes to bicycle parking - and if you'll excuse my language - fuck that shit:


This is the subway exit I have to walk past everyday on the way to work and that heap of bikes is only an average day. On a sunny Saturday the narrow passage will be almost impassable with steel frames and rubber tyres. This happens all over the city and every now and then the police come through and cart away every bike that isn't strictly within the lines but I guess people just live with it and bail their pedals out if they get nabbed. Luckily I haven't had my ride "towed" yet, but since it's not even registered (your bike should be registered, and if it's not the police can stop you and confiscate it while you're riding on suspicion that it's stolen) I think I'm pretty lucky.

Of course I also believe that my bike is currently protected by a magical charm, since after my first flat tyre a few weeks ago I happened to push my "chari" past a bike shop where they fixed the puncture for a song. Good times.

Sapica go!

Look what I got!


Babes and Bubbas, that is a Sapica - the new one touch Sapporo subway card scheme that was only started two days ago. Now that I've got one I'm just... I'm like so Sapporo. I'm cho Sapporo.

It's like the oyster in London, or the suica in London but on a much, much smaller scale. Seriously, Sapporo has regular train lines and bus routes which you can't use this on, and only three subway lines on which this is valid. You can't use it for anything else and really, the subway ticket system was pretty convenient already. So to be perfectly honest this isn't all that useful. Still never let it be said that I don't love a gimmick, and I can always hook it up to my credit card so that I never need to use a ticket machine again, or get my name printed on it or something. And now I think about it I do end up running for the train more often than you'd think so this might save me valuable microseconds.

And it's really, really cool too.

Today I ate a Sapporo Black Curry Burger, with a black curry sauce so black and sticky I thought I might be eating tar, or possibly Spider-man's alien costume. It was really nice.