The Bicycle Thief

The food here is good,
Although it can't fill me up.
They eat lots of rice.

Like many people in Tokyo, one of my roommates has a bicycle. Much to everybody's surprise, her bike was stolen last Friday. I've always heard Tokyo is a really safe city, and it's largely true. So like I said, we were all surprised when it happened. (although she left her key in the lock of the bicycle, so she was basically asking for it). Anyway, so my roommate called the police. In Tokyo when anybody buys a bike you have to register its unique serial number with the city. Even though the odds are slim, she was hoping they would be able to do something for her. When she got to the police station, they had already found her bike without her even reporting it stolen! So then they asked her to fill out some paperwork, but she doesn't speak Japanese. She's from France and she also speaks English, so they had not only a French interpreter explain everything to her, but an English one as well, just to make sure that she understood everything. Then, when they were all done, two police officers took the back seats out of their car, put the bike in and drove her home. It's nice to be living in a city where the police have nothing better to do than spend so much time over a stolen bicycle.

Things are going well here. I still have moments of culture shock, usually when I'm out shopping, just because things are so different. Last night the program coordinators took a group of students out to a German beer hall. Earlier in the day I had issued an open challenge to Tokyo to really fill me up. The food here is great and all, I just don't find it all that filling. Anyway, I thought that if it would ever happen, it would happen at the beer hall - German food and the professors were paying. Sadly, it didn't happen...I was disappointed again. A bunch of us went out after dinner for a few drinks. I've definitely been acting more like I'm on vacation than studying abroad, but that's partially because I really am on vacation (sorry Mom). It's been a lot of fun so far, and I'm really looking forward to this weekend. We're planning on going to Harajuku, which is supposed to be the epicenter of girls in crazy costumes. I've heard that Sunday is the day when the most people are out in costume, so that's when we're going. Ok, that's all for now, I've got some postcards to write.