Tokyo trip, part 2 (>tfw no hubcap)

In retrospect, the accident was my fault. At the time of booking the car, I had the option to add additional drivers onto the rental, for free. However, I didn't want to be too much of a bother to anyone else, so I elected to drive the entire time. I could've also put my foot down at the service area and said that I would like to rest for a few hours. But once again, my try-to-be-a-good-先輩 portion of my brain decided to kick in. Regardless of these missed opportunities, it happened anyway, and I only have myself to blame.

It was around 0230 hrs, and we were in Shimogo, about 20 minutes south of Aizuwakamatsu. I wasn't necessarily falling asleep at the wheel, but the fatigue was slightly starting to kick in at this point. As we were rounding a slight curve in the road, I took the curve way too close. Next thing I knew, I heard a scraping sound, and felt the car move up slightly to the left, so I pulled the car back onto the road and stopped the car immediately, then reversed it off of the road into the parking lot of a defunct restaurant. As it had turned out, I had not only clipped the curb, but I'd also knocked into one of the reflector posts lining the side of the road. The post was still standing, but the reflectors were knocked out of the post.

The car took some cosmetic damage. The corner of the front left bumper had a dent in it, with the black plastic piece covering the fog light hole knocked in. There was also a slight gash on the front left hubcap, and the rear left hubcap was gone, along with the rim slightly bent in one area. Normally, this would be a cause for a serious meltdown, but I had already thought of this ahead of time. I booked the rental car with the "Super Safety Package", which meant that in the event of an accident, I would pay absolutely nothing for the repairs to my car, another party's car, or any property damage. There were, however, two major caveats involved for the insurance to kick in. The first was calling the police and the rental company hotline to report the accident. Bit of a bummer for me as this will now give me an accident record on my license.

The second was that all of the car's hubcaps had to be present. We'd checked along the side of the road, where the impact had happened. It was gone.

                                        
     _______     ___  ____ __________   
     `MM`MM'     `M' 6MMMMbMMMMMMMMMM   
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____MM9  ___MMMMM9  MYMMMM9   _M____    
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  ____MMM9                 ____YMMMM___ 
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6M'    `                    MM       M  
MM                          MM       M  
YM.                         MM       M  
 YMMMMb                     MM       M  
     `Mb                    MM       M  
      MM                    MM       M  
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__________   ____  ____     ___MMMMM____
MMMMMMMMMM  6MMMMb\`MM'     `M'     `MM'
/   MM   \ 6M'    ` MM       M       MM 
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At this point, I was starting to get very nervous. Oono-san kept trying to calm me down as the police took down our information and asked us questions. I told one of the policemen that I was not falling asleep at the wheel, as I wasn't in the first place. All I did was take that corner too close. He had no objections to my testimony, and told me to be more careful next time. While we were outside waiting, a neighbor came outside to check out the commotion. As we had learned from her, I wasn't even the first person to have an accident on that particular corner. Apparently a truck driver also had an accident there a few years back.

The policemen took various photos and measurements in the road and of the car. At each of these locations, in what I thought was a shaming attempt, I was asked to stand next to the damage and point at it as they took three different pictures. Thankfully for us, another policeman found the hubcap, which had somehow made its way deep into the yard of someone's house on the other side of the street. However, because he'd found it there, we had to wait first until the owner got up to confirm that the hubcap was indeed ours and not his. (It was the same size and design as the other hubcaps; we were sure of it.)

At one point, my friends decided to take over for me, offering to drive the rest of the way back to Aizu. I agreed to it, and retreated to lie down in the third row while one of my friends got into the driver's seat to start the car. It didn't turn over. The battery had died due to us using the defroster and wipers without running the engine. We had to wait for JAF (Japanese AAA) for a jump start , which just added to the shame of it all. We then went back south a bit to a convenience store so that some people could use the restroom, and then we drove back to the scene of the accident. The owner of that house had finally woken up and came outside to confirm what we kind of knew all along. From there, we went back to Aizu. Along the way, I got carsick, and ended up chucking in a separate convenience store parking lot.

Two of my friends parted ways with us there. From there on, I felt confident enough to drive us back to campus. While the others waited in the car, I went back to my room and slept for about an hour and a half. Then I got back in the car, drove it to a nearby gas station for fuel, and then drove back to the rental agency. My friends explained all the details that weren't included in the news from the main office, and the shop attendants assured me that because I had done the right thing, I wasn't going to pay anything extra. I messaged a colleague at work to come get us, and he came and picked the three of us off, dropping the other two people off at home first. As we were leaving my friend's apartment building, I had to chuck again.

My colleague dropped me off at Somei House, and I went inside, collapsed on my bed, and proceeded to sleep for the entire day. I mean this literally, as I woke up once in the afternoon, and then once late at night to shower. Even getting up this morning was a challenge. I was physically and emotionally drained, and I made myself look like a fool in front of my friends, who kept patient looks on their faces while probably internalizing their rage towards me for making them late to return home.

The damage, in better lighting

Thank God I was paranoid enough to book the top-end insurance

All I can say now is that I've learned my lesson. Take longer rests, and/or book extra drivers on the rental. As it had turned out, I am not as endurant of a driver as I'd originally thought I was. I've decided since then that I will be cancelling my plans to go to Hiroshima this summer, as I just don't think I have the capacity to go on a trip like that anytime soon. I could drive halfway and rest a night on my way there and back, but I just don't have the time or money. I'll just stay on campus and work on my research for my vacation. At the very least, I'll be less of an inconvenience then.

In the meantime, the next challenge is being able to look my friends in the eye again. That part may take a while.

-wp

Tokyo trip, part 1 (>implying traffic)

Monday was the big trip to Tokyo. I, Oono-san, and two freshmen left Aizu shortly after 0600 hrs, with the goal of meeting a fifth person in Ochanomizu. I was responsible for driving us into the largest metropolitan area on the planet, navigating a network of different expressways and complex streets.

As it had turned out, it was the best driving experience in my life so far.

The expressway drive was something else. Elevated roads and tunnels snaked around tall business buildings and apartment complexes. There were reminder signs everywhere reminding people to, above all else, drive quietly at night to avoid waking the people below and around. All the signs were bilingual, so I was never really confused as to where we were.

We arrived in Ochanomizu a bit behind schedule, and while one of the group stayed behind to wait for the other person, I started looking through the stores on the main street. This section of Tokyo is home to many musical instrument stores, especially guitars. They were also much more narrow on the inside as I had originally thought; every single square centimeter was accounted for. I purchased some sax accessories here.

Akihabara was located right next to Ochanomizu, and I decided to head back there before lunch to try to look for a PS2 game that I have been wanting to buy for a long time. This was not my first trip to Akihabara; two years ago, when I first came to Japan to look at colleges, I went through most of the vintage game stores here looking for the game, but could not find it. But I was able to take a look at some of the game stores and electronics resellers around the area. Even with all of the branch locations for major media retailers like Sofmap, the side streets still had that same hardware and computer component spirit that was to be expected of the area.

For lunch, all of us [with the exception of one person who went to meet another friend for lunch] met up at a restaurant called Hero's, located in Akihabara, which was a recommendation from Saitou-san. The restaurant sold steaks sized by the pound, including a three-pound sirloin which was advertised as a dare to the patrons on the street and in the restaurant. A former member of the wind ensemble, Nagasaka-san, met us here, and treated us at the end. As for the steak, my time in Japan has reduced the amount that I can eat at once, so instead of the three-pound steak, I went for a two-pound chuck steak. I said to my friends after I swallowed the last piece of that steak, in Japanese, "Don't mess with an American's stomach." When Oono-san asked me if I could eat a three-pound steak in one sitting, I told him that unfortunately, I couldn't, because I wasn't from Texas.

After lunch, we went to one more electronics store called Mandrake to see if the game was there. Alas, it was not. That makes me 0 for 2 now, which means I'll have to order it online. But we still saw the rest of the video game floor in the meantime, and take a look at the ridiculously overpriced game collection that they had to offer.

~$320 for Battletoads. Battle. Fuckin'. Toads.

Following that, we walked back to the parking garage in Ochanomizu and drove to our next destination: Ginza. Ginza had a lot of high-end stores, including Abercrombie, which I especially wanted to go to. We drove to the parking garage I had planned to go to, only to find out that it was for adjacent hotel guests only. Luckily, the attendant pointed us to a larger parking lot down the street.

After walking over to the station in Shinbashi to meet up with our missing friend, we all took off to do our shopping again. In addition to the Abercrombie, I stopped at an additional two music stores in the area. One was a Yamaha-owned store, that sold both its own and competitor's products [at retail], and the other was Yamano Music, a higher-end music store with, to my surprise, a huge selection of flutes. Also on the street was a Nissan "outpost" showing off a GT-R NISMO and two different concept cars, complete with a marketing-overdosing lecture about Nissan's take on the future of driving. The main street was closed off for pedestrians due to the holiday, but reopened at about 1800 hrs, just as we were leaving the area.

As we were pulling out of the garage, we noticed that it also offered rental spots for long-term use, mainly for people who lived in the area but needed a place to store their vehicles. A man was washing his green Porsche 911 as we were driving out. We also saw a Jeep Grand Wagoneer, an early 2000s Escalade covered in dust, and yet another Mercedes G-Wagon. Truly, Ginza is where the wealthy go to live.

We were running behind at this point, so we axed our plans to go to Shibuya and went straight to Shinjuku for dinner. On the way there, we ended up passing the Diet building, which is where the Japanese version of Congress meets. There was virtually nobody on that street with us, due to Monday being a national holiday. The streets of Shinjuku were very cool, and even though we missed the turn to the garage, we still got to see the roads off of the main one when turning around. That in itself was pretty cool.

We met up with Kaneta-san, Gunji-san, and another person from our wind ensemble in Tokyo for an internship at a restaurant on the top floor of one of the many high-rise buildings in Shinjuku. There, we reconnected over Italian food, and I was able to get caught up with Kaneta-san. While he's okay with his new job, he misses his Civic, and hates the train rides to work during the day because they are always packed. I asked him where, if I were to move to Tokyo, the best place to live would be. He recommended Ikebukuro.

At the end of dinner, we were already 45 minutes behind schedule, and I still wanted to go to Tower Records to pick up a Super Eurobeat CD, as well as get gas while we were still off the expressway. (As it turned out, gas is still cheaper even in Tokyo compared to Aizu. Tokyo! Who would've thought?) It was going to be a four-hour drive home, so we had no time to waste. By 2300 hrs, we were back on the expressway, headed home. We rested for a few minutes at a service area shortly before our exit off the expressway, and then continued onwards.

I had had a fantastic time in Tokyo. I still, however, would not want to live there, because of the overall magnitude of the city. Surprisingly, Oono-san agreed with me, which caught me by surprise seeing how his hometown is not far from Tokyo. It's a good city to stay in, and certainly drive in, but I just don't think I'd fare well there. I'd had my fill of the city, and now I was heading home, making my way along the dark national roads on my way back to Aizu.

And then I got in the accident.

つづく

-wp

Review: Mazda Biante (w/ video!)

Lighting and phrasing: two things I need to work on while creating reviews.

Tomorrow I'm taking a day trip to Tokyo with friends, so we will be heading there and back together by car. I've rented this Mazda Biante to take us there and back. A one-way train ticket from Aizu to Tokyo is around $90. Five people sharing this van is about $85, roundtrip. And we won't have to worry about adhering to any bus or train schedules.

While the car is in my possession, I decided to give it a review like I did the Hijet. This time, I actually used voiceover for explaining details and features. I did the driving on the fly. In my opinion, I've gotten a bit better, especially now that I can plan out some of what I want to say before I actually say it. However, I've still got a ways to go.

Anyways, enjoy. I'll have a trip recap (and possibly action camera footage?) later in the week.

-wp