I'm all smug

Cyclists in Tokyo often drive me nuts. Cycling on the wrong side of the road or pavement. Not looking where they are going (into another cyclist often). Blocking a wide pavement so you cannot get passed, and so on.

Wednesday I often cycle to work as there is proper free bike parking, as opposed to my normal bung-it-down-anywhere-and-hope-it-doesn't-get-hauled-away policy. Today I got there a couple of hours after it would have opened up and it was, of course, full. BUT, I spotted someone about to take their bike out.

I got ready to pounce. I smiled sweetly and said hello to the old men looking after the bikes. I rushed. I waited. A few seconds after I spotted the space and started to rush for it and wait for it to be emptied, another women did the same, persued by her kid on a second bike. I beat her. I waited. She got ready to hedge in. I 'sumimasen'd' her and glared. The old men came up. She looked perplexed and didn't seem to be able to get her head around the fact I'd got there first and I WAS taking the spot. Or else. She REALLY didn't get it. It wasn't rocket science. It was first come first served. And she'd lost. The old men told her I was taking it. She admitted defeat.

I stopped my smug grinning after about five minutes.

The small victories are always the best!

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Yesterday a whiteboard fell off the wall in my classroom. A few times. Scary. Luckily nobody was hurt.

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Later I managed to, yet again, knock over a small row of bikes. A schoolboy rushed to pick them up. Now, can you imagine THAT happening in the U.K.?

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Also yesterday, I went to the 100-yen shop and bought a 500-yen coin tin / moneybox thing. The idea is that as it can ONLY be opened with a tin-opener, thereby allowing you to save and not dip into it whenever you feel like it. It can hold 200 500-yen coins. That's about £400. If the exchange rate ever takes a turn, it could be a lot more. That's my winter vacation (Cambodia/Laos)'s spending money. If I'm good :D