Thursday, August 24, 2006
Boom economy
There is some insane construction going on in South Korea. I think it is something like the 13th strongest economy int he world. Pretty impressive really given the fact that they were living in 3rd world conditions 30 years ago.
The first of a few shots from Korea
This is right up at the Military Demarkation Line. You are looking at the North Korean side behind me.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
New goings ons
Well, it's been a few weeks since I graced these pages with another tidbit from my life here in Japan. Well folks, wait no more, because I am about to lay another episode on you!
So I bought a scooter a couple of weeks ago. It's kind of strange, but for some reason I have to have a fire lit under me to spend that much money. (It really wasn't all that expensive, but anything over $1000 I get the heebee-jeebees over.) So Kristin, Ronan, and myself go into this scooter shop. (Sounds like the opening to a joke doesn't it?)
You have to understand that I had done research, and I already knew which model I was going to get and what-not. So I find the model that I want to buy. They have a new one there on the showroom floor. It was going for something like 193,000 yen. I probably could have gotten it for 175,000 yen. But because I have discovered that registering a Japanese only model in the States will be fruitless and/or expensive, I decided to go into the garage and see what used scoots they had. As luck would have it, they had one of the model that I wanted to buy. And it was only 141,000 yen It had 8138 km on it, but it looked clean, and the engine ran good, and the oil was clean. So I decided to enter into negotiations with the scooter-ya (putting -ya on the end of a noun denotes a shop/shop keeper/ store clerk) to buy the steed in question.
Please understand that I don't speak all that much Japanese, and these people who ran the shop didn't speak and english, so we right from the begining we were off to a fine start.
We actually understood each other pretty well though, and after doing some paper work and finding a way to tell her where we live, we were able to pay and set up a delivery location and time for the scooter. It took about an hour and a nifty translation web site on Yahoo Japan. I paid the money and we took our leave.
On Friday of the same week a little truck with my scooter in it pulled up onto the sidewalk right outside the main gate of Yokosuka Naval Base. I hopped in the the truck and we drove to the back gate, did some paperwork and off we went to drop the bike off at the yard where the MSF Basic Riders Course is taught. (Which was begining that evening.)
So that night I sit in a classroom, watching videos, and answering questions that any well trained monkey could deal with. I was there until 2100 on Friday night. Then I show up at the yard at 0730 and we begin the practical aspect of the class. Riding around in a circle, braking, cornering, swerving. We covered the whole gambit. Nothing on developing a good traffic strategy that will keep you out of trouble on a bike. But it was good. I had a chance to get to know my scoot without being on the mean streets of the lower Kanagawa Prefecture. Scooters are pretty impressive little pieces of equipment. I think a lot mot engineering goes into them than most regualar motorcycles. Especially the transmission.
At any rate that was my weekend. Yes, I had to go back for another session on Sunday as well, and take a skills test as well as a written test. It was intense!
So there I was thinking that on Monday I would get a temporary Base Only plate, ride around base for 50km and then I can go to the Vehicle Registration Office to get the registration precess going so I can start commuting. After all, this scooter is supposed to be saving me about $1000 over the course of 3 years. (difference in train fare, time spent walking to train station, ect.)
But noooo........ I have another class I have to go to. The Experienceed Riders Course. You are not allowed to drive your bike off base here in Japan unless you take both of those classes. The good thing is that they are $300+ classes back in the States (for non-military types), for military members, they are free of charge, in fact the BRC is required for a military member to ride their bike onto any military base anywhere.
So I will be spending another day hanging out with the biker dudes so I can get my freedom to ride off this prison, errr I mean island of discontent.
I'll post a picture of the scooter tonigth when I get home. Of maybe later today. I do have a camera here and I am riding the scooter from the gate to my office everyday. (About 2 km)
~Josh
So I bought a scooter a couple of weeks ago. It's kind of strange, but for some reason I have to have a fire lit under me to spend that much money. (It really wasn't all that expensive, but anything over $1000 I get the heebee-jeebees over.) So Kristin, Ronan, and myself go into this scooter shop. (Sounds like the opening to a joke doesn't it?)
You have to understand that I had done research, and I already knew which model I was going to get and what-not. So I find the model that I want to buy. They have a new one there on the showroom floor. It was going for something like 193,000 yen. I probably could have gotten it for 175,000 yen. But because I have discovered that registering a Japanese only model in the States will be fruitless and/or expensive, I decided to go into the garage and see what used scoots they had. As luck would have it, they had one of the model that I wanted to buy. And it was only 141,000 yen It had 8138 km on it, but it looked clean, and the engine ran good, and the oil was clean. So I decided to enter into negotiations with the scooter-ya (putting -ya on the end of a noun denotes a shop/shop keeper/ store clerk) to buy the steed in question.
Please understand that I don't speak all that much Japanese, and these people who ran the shop didn't speak and english, so we right from the begining we were off to a fine start.
We actually understood each other pretty well though, and after doing some paper work and finding a way to tell her where we live, we were able to pay and set up a delivery location and time for the scooter. It took about an hour and a nifty translation web site on Yahoo Japan. I paid the money and we took our leave.
On Friday of the same week a little truck with my scooter in it pulled up onto the sidewalk right outside the main gate of Yokosuka Naval Base. I hopped in the the truck and we drove to the back gate, did some paperwork and off we went to drop the bike off at the yard where the MSF Basic Riders Course is taught. (Which was begining that evening.)
So that night I sit in a classroom, watching videos, and answering questions that any well trained monkey could deal with. I was there until 2100 on Friday night. Then I show up at the yard at 0730 and we begin the practical aspect of the class. Riding around in a circle, braking, cornering, swerving. We covered the whole gambit. Nothing on developing a good traffic strategy that will keep you out of trouble on a bike. But it was good. I had a chance to get to know my scoot without being on the mean streets of the lower Kanagawa Prefecture. Scooters are pretty impressive little pieces of equipment. I think a lot mot engineering goes into them than most regualar motorcycles. Especially the transmission.
At any rate that was my weekend. Yes, I had to go back for another session on Sunday as well, and take a skills test as well as a written test. It was intense!
So there I was thinking that on Monday I would get a temporary Base Only plate, ride around base for 50km and then I can go to the Vehicle Registration Office to get the registration precess going so I can start commuting. After all, this scooter is supposed to be saving me about $1000 over the course of 3 years. (difference in train fare, time spent walking to train station, ect.)
But noooo........ I have another class I have to go to. The Experienceed Riders Course. You are not allowed to drive your bike off base here in Japan unless you take both of those classes. The good thing is that they are $300+ classes back in the States (for non-military types), for military members, they are free of charge, in fact the BRC is required for a military member to ride their bike onto any military base anywhere.
So I will be spending another day hanging out with the biker dudes so I can get my freedom to ride off this prison, errr I mean island of discontent.
I'll post a picture of the scooter tonigth when I get home. Of maybe later today. I do have a camera here and I am riding the scooter from the gate to my office everyday. (About 2 km)
~Josh
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