This story starts out on a beautiful Friday morning.  Eric and I had decided to go on another little moped trip.  So I headed out to meet up with him in another town.  I'm driving along at the same speed as everyone else on the road.  All of a sudden....pewwwwww bewwwwwww pewwwwwwww bewwwwwww....here comes the po po.  He gets off his bike, and ask if I speak Japanese. I said a little....right after i though.....DOH, should have said no, maybe he couldn't give me a ticket.  But he starts speakin quite a bit of english, so it wouldn't have mattered.  Then he says to me, I was going a little fast.  BLAST! I was goin the same speed as everyone else.  But apparently, you can only go 30 on a moped and I was goin 49. 

 

He asks for my passport and foreigners card.  I give it to him.  And he starts callin it in and sayin a bunch of stuff in Japanese.  I have no idea what he is saying.  After a while, he comes to me and says my international license is only good for one year.  I tell him I know, and that it started in August of 2006.  But he isn't getting it.  Finally, I figured it out, somehow he mixed up 2006 with 2004.  Then we have to go to a convenience store and he starts talkin to me about his trips to America.  He is just goin on about this.  I am trying to be nice, thinkin maybe I can get out of a ticket.  All in all, he talked to me for an hour, made me completely late, and was WAYYYY too happy to give me a ticket.

 

Tell me this. I drive in the US for 6 years, and have hardly ever got pulled over.  But I am in Japan for 3 months and I get picked up....How do you give a guy on a moped a speeding ticket!?  Moreover, how does someone drive a car for 5 years and then get on a moped that tops out at 60 kmph and get a ticket. 

 

In conclusion, I will be acquiring a full helmet that covers my whole face so cops can't see that I am some whacko foreigner.