Maybe I shouldn't be riding bikes anymore 9_9

Aw, man, super lame, guys, so the last entry I posted here in LiveJournal totally did NOT GET IMPORTED to my Facebook account when I first wrote it, right?? So I went ahead and copied and pasted it over, but then like the day after I did that the entry magically appeared on there in its imported form, except oh wait too bad people already commented on the imposter entry I had pasted in its stead. +_+ What should I doooo?? Delete the imported AUTHENTIC entry and keep the FAKE entry, or delete that entry instead with the comments that I'll never really care to read for a second time??

Yes, apparently these are the greatest concerns of the moment in my life. 9_9 Don't bother answering the question; it was basically rhetorical, and I'll probably just delete the fake entry after enough time has passed for the people who had commented earlier to forget that they had commented, and thus not realize that their comments had been deleted. ;o

Anyway! Today David and I took a field trip!

Police Station!

TO THE POLICE STATION!!!

So, there are these two bikes that are always outside our dorm. Hibino-san, my landlord and the priestess of Kayadera Temple, gave us the keys to them at the beginning of the year. Apparently the bikes are registered under the temple's name.

Today, I had plans to go meet up with some people in Akihabara. David was over at my place already so I suggested that we ride the bikes over, 'cos it'll be faster. So we do that, but like, 10 minutes into the ride we pass a Police Box, and one of the policemen stopped David to check his registration--pretty standard procedure, what with being gaijin and all. Of course I stop next to David as well, which was when the policeman realized that I too was a foreigner.

So we both had to show our registration and stuff, but then he asked us whom our bikes belonged to, to which I replied that both were borrowed from the Kayadera dorm which I stay at. He said he just wants to check our bicycle registration real quick, so he rang up headquarters and read to them the license numbers.

...aaaand it turned out that NEITHER of the bikes were registered under Kayadera?!

DETAINED!

The policeman kindly told us that it's cold outside so please! Just come into the police box and take a seat, it won't be long at all! As soon as I sat down I quickly called the temple, and Hibino-san's sister Megumi-san picked up. After explaining to her our situation, she asked to talk to the policemen, and she explained to them that the bikes are registered under somebody else's name because they were donated to the temple by them. Okay! No problem!

Except for the fact that, um, only ONE of the bikes was registered under the person's name she gave, while the OTHER bike--that is, the blue bike I was riding--was registered under somebody completely unrelated! And not only that, after they did a check on that bike, it apparently showed up that it had been reported as missing years ago!?

After Megumi-san first got my call, she had her sister drive over to clear things up, so Hibino-san soon arrived outside the police box to save our asses. But then the cops tell her about who the other bike was registered under, and she was like, "...EH??" So she was there dialing back to the temple asking if anybody knows what the crap was going on and who this other guy was whose name was listed as the owner of the blue bike, while David and I were just sitting there half rolling our eyes and half laughing on the inside at our situation.

But when the police van came to pick up the bike to take back to Headquarters ALONG WITH DAVID AND ME... well, either our inner laughter got even louder, or it got shut up right there. I'm really not sure which it was.

Entering the police station

So we were taken to the Police Station in the police van with the bikes, Hibino-sensei following behind us. And then after we got there, they put me and David into separate rooms for QUESTIONING. Which mostly consisted of them just asking me where I was from or what school I go to, and then them stepping out of the room to discuss amongst one another while I text people on my phone being all "lol I got arrested."

Guilty David?

It wasn't until one of the cops brought a certain form into my room that the situation's true degree of WTF hit me. I gathered that it was something they wanted me to fill out and sign, but Hibino-san was in the room with me, and as soon as she got a single look at the form, she turned livid (well, as livid as Hibino-san could get) and snatched the paper from the policeman, exclaiming, "WHAT IS THIS?!"

The cop insisted that it wasn't a big deal and "Don't worry about it, give it back," trying to pry the piece of paper from her hands, but Hibino-san refused to loose of her grip, and somewhere down the line she stated to them that "I AM NOT HAVING HIM SIGN THIS." She further went on to say that David and I have nothing to do with the bike since we couldn't possibly have known that it didn't belong to the temple since SHE's just discovering this fact herself, and since we were just riding it, SHE should be the only one who should T-TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT, and stuff??

S-so the policemen talked amongst themselves for a bit more, and finally they brought her back a different form for her to fill out, all the while Hibino-san reconfirming that I won't be signing anything there at the station. After they gave her a definite answer, she calmed down a little, and a different cop asked the both of us some general information such as our name, height, weight, blood type, shoe size?, and a description of what we were wearing...?

After that was done, I asked Hibino-san for a little bit of clarification, and she responded that she thinks the bicycle that was reported as missing is probably the work of a student from some years ago who must've mistook the bicycle as the temple's property, since it turns out the bicycle belongs to somebody who lives in the neighbourhood so it's possible that the bike was left in front of the dormitory building. She also briefly went on to say that "they gave me the wrong form and I got really angry" in English, but before she could elaborate, the policemen let us out of the HQ, albeit one bike short, two and a half hours after this whole incident began.

The offending bicycles

Hibino-san drove David back to the dorm while I followed on the remaining bike. After we met up again and Hibino-san went back to the temple, David told me Hibino-san had told him in the car that the form they originally wanted me to sign was a confession of theft.

asjdlk;fdafha;fjkla

I-I don't know what the second form they brought Hibino-san was after the whole hoo-hah concerning the first form, b-but um. Th-there were, uh, FINGERPRINTS involved, and uhjjaskdl;fj jalsd;kf;jda

OH MY JESUS CHRIST I THINK GOT THE PRIESTESS ENTERED INTO THE CRIMINAL RECORDS JLSK;JFSDAK;FDAHK;FJDLSFAFDJAF


GOODBYE POLICE STATION.

I need a break from winter vacation. :(

9 Comments

*referred here by the latest DoD update ^^* I'm glad to hear you're still planning on working on the comic (and that you're not dead or something o_o)--even if it's not for a while, we all can be patient while treasuring our copies of volume 1 (well, that's what I shall do, anyway ^^;;)

Also, that whole story is hilarious and EH?! at the same time ^_^ I didn't even know you could register bikes in such a way (only in Japan?).

...

Sounds like either dumb or corrupt cops, myo!

Or prejudiced against "lol those foreign kids lol," myo!

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Good to hear you escaped with nary an Accidental Confession, myorow!

By the by, I patiently await Alatus trivia updates...

...Myo.

wth... registered bikes... well that's new xD
only in japan

they must hate gaijin that much... well 'cept for the hilton sisters (from what i've seen from vh1, and if my info are wrong, sue that station D=)

but man, thank whomever you beleive in to that you have someone like hibino-san to protect or something like that. made me hate the police people in japan D=

Okay, seriously Hanz, you are my hero. Who gets arrested for riding a bike? Hanz does! xD You are seriously amazing!!! Not even kidding. ;p

Are you going to Anime Expo in CA again this year?

A friend of David's here.

Holy crap... Hanz, you got saved there for sure. I've heard about horror stories with police in Japan, but never knew if to believe them or not.

This makes me angry just hearing about it and knowing what you both went through. I'm glad you didn't sign that crap. Let Kazaoka-sensei know about that immediately. (I assume your in the CSU waseda program too)

Late comment. But wow. I had no idea bikes were that serious of a deal in Japan. I'm in Tokyo now and I was curious why I would even have to register something so simple as that.

You really had some bad luck there.

Can't believe they tried to get you to sign for theft.

(btw... i like your comic!)

HANZ!!!! Delys told me about your blog and about this =O!
Im glad you're out alright! @__@;; *hug*

勉強して、がんばって!HANZ!!!! Delys told me about your blog and about this =O!
Im glad you're out alright! @__@;; *hug*

勉強して、がんばって!

ha, arrested for riding a borrowed bike, that original. Surely anyone would be mad for what happened to you, by what you tell, i can see that the police has everything controled there, better security. Where i live you lose your bike and i assure you would never see ir again.

i'm sorry but i just can't stop laughing (from the way ur telling the story)! i'm just glad that ur alright and still in one piece.

i'm planning to go to japan, but i think i might change my mind