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#51
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Cycling to work banned
"James Annan" wrote in message
... All is not lost yet, however, and I do have a couple of ideas up my sleeve. The first is to play the cute gaijin and write back to him directly in my limited Japanese. Unfortunately, this might be your best response if your main goal is to continue riding the tandem. The big red tandem makes you stick out -- this is really your crime, not any letter of any dusty law that may or may not be enforced. I think if you really wanted to continue to ride the tandem, playing the gaijin card would be the most effective.It would go something along the lines of, "I'm already exempt from Japanese rules of propriety because I am a gaijin. Please forgive my oafishness, but really, I can not help it, it is my inner nature." The problem with the gaijin card is that, at least every time I saw it played or when I resorted to playing it is, it confirms the Japanese notion that gaijin are at best, Not Civilized. If your larger goal is to be accepted by your fellows as something better than subhuman, you should keep the playing of the gaijin card to a minimum. Also, we may try to get a set of training wheels. The law clearly applies to 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles only. I suspect this might not go down well but it's worth considering. I don't think this really solves the loss of face issue. I think the best solution is to ride most of the way, and stash the bike, as has been suggested. While someone may indeed tattle on you (you are not conforming, damn it!), if you aren't waving the bike in his face, he can just ignore the tattler and ignore you, and everyone can pretend that you aren't riding the tandem any more. Strange as it might seem to readers from flj (and maybe the other newsgroups!), tandeming to work every day is an important part of our lives, it has figured very highly in all of our job and house choices and we are not keen to let some petty bureaucrat take it away from us without good reason. As someone reading this from rec.bicycles.soc, it does not surprise me. For quite a while my husband and I were able to bicycle together (on singles) to work about once or twice a week. This can really be quality time for couples together. The teamwork involved in tandeming would also help further the bond between you.I was also very surprised, when we got to riding together on some centuries how the teamwork we had developed riding to work made for such a great experience during the event. -- Warm Regards, Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist: http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky My bookshelf: http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Cpetersky "To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner was you." |
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#52
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Cycling to work banned
James Annan wrote:
John W. wrote: While I think the entirety of your post is a good idea, it's not very practical in Japan, particularly in that situation. My guess is that the core of the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual riding of the bike, but perhaps the size of the bike. Perhaps somebody complained that the bike sticks out too far, maybe someone bumped into it, something like that. Well, the message I received referred explicitly to the issue of a crash on the way to work. However when discussing the matter with some friends at work, one person who I do not know well did chime in with "Ah, you are the ones with the big bike. Someone told me that it takes up a lot of space in the bike park" (or words to that effect). There are also a few motorbikes that take up a huge amount of room (and only carry one person each, rather than 2) but it wouldn't surprise me if this was the reason that someone thought to mention it in the first place. We often leave the bike outside the covered park, leaning up on a fence, for precisely this reason. But I don't see this working as a permanent solution now that someone has got his knickers in a twist over the law. I think this is the beauty of you and your wife seperately riding a tandem. It would draw the real issue out into the open without raising any sort of fuss or causing a scene that could have negative consequences. If the other party wants to be a jerk, let him be one, and let everyone see what the real problem is. As a lifelong cyclist, I can understand your passion for the tandem (though I've never ridden one). To preserve a peaceful work environment you might have to break down and get single bikes. But first I'd ride individually on the tandem just to see what happens. John W. |
#53
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Cycling to work banned
I apologize for following up on my own post, but I had a thought further on
this topic. "Claire Petersky" wrote in message news:AJZPb.102894$sv6.452347@attbi_s52... The big red tandem makes you stick out -- this is really your crime, not any letter of any dusty law that may or may not be enforced. I think if you really wanted to continue to ride the tandem, playing the gaijin card would be the most effective.It would go something along the lines of, "I'm already exempt from Japanese rules of propriety because I am a gaijin. Please forgive my oafishness, but really, I can not help it, it is my inner nature." I'm thinking that, if you went this route, you should have an intermediary apologize on your behalf. The best person for this would be someone at your mutual workplace who is above the both of you in the hierarchy. This person would explain that we need to excuse the gaijin for his eccentricities, yes, strictly speaking it's against the rules, but let's just turn a blind eye for now, after all, he's only a gaijin, and he's valuable to this organization. -- Warm Regards, Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist: http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky My bookshelf: http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Cpetersky "To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner was you." |
#54
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Cycling to work banned
John W. wrote:
James Annan wrote: John W. wrote: While I think the entirety of your post is a good idea, it's not very practical in Japan, particularly in that situation. My guess is that the core of the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual riding of the bike, but perhaps the size of the bike. Perhaps somebody complained that the bike sticks out too far, maybe someone bumped into it, something like that. Well, the message I received referred explicitly to the issue of a crash on the way to work. However when discussing the matter with some friends at work, one person who I do not know well did chime in with "Ah, you are the ones with the big bike. Someone told me that it takes up a lot of space in the bike park" (or words to that effect). There are also a few motorbikes that take up a huge amount of room (and only carry one person each, rather than 2) but it wouldn't surprise me if this was the reason that someone thought to mention it in the first place. We often leave the bike outside the covered park, leaning up on a fence, for precisely this reason. But I don't see this working as a permanent solution now that someone has got his knickers in a twist over the law. I think this is the beauty of you and your wife seperately riding a tandem. It would draw the real issue out into the open without raising any sort of fuss or causing a scene that could have negative consequences. If the other party wants to be a jerk, let him be one, and let everyone see what the real problem is. As a lifelong cyclist, I can understand your passion for the tandem (though I've never ridden one). To preserve a peaceful work environment you might have to break down and get single bikes. But first I'd ride individually on the tandem just to see what happens. If you don't fancy pushing two tandems there and back every day along the route you show in your website, you could consider stashing one close to work and only do the solo riding into and out of the company gates.... __________________________________________________ ______________________ Louise Bremner (log at gol dot com) If you want a reply by e-mail, don't write to my Yahoo address! |
#55
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Cycling to work banned
"James Annan"wrote...
Well, the message I received referred explicitly to the issue of a crash on the way to work. As some others have suggested, I believe the core problem may be one of insurance for employees of the institute. However, there may well have been a 3rd party that raised the issue with the bureaucrat in the first place. Perhaps he wanted to ride his donkey to work or who knows what, and being rebuffed, complained of the double standard for the gaijin couple riding that ridiculous tandem monstrosity. In retrospect, I think the best thing would have been for you to shelve the tandem at the very first hint of trouble so as to give the bureaucrat some face, and then in a week or two find a discreet place for it before entering the building. On the other hand, you might consider that one of these days you'll probably try driving down that sheer rock-faced hill on your off-road commute and take a spill. Then you'll be saying to the same bureaucrat "What do you mean the insurance doesn't cover my skull fracture!?" %-) Finding a good place to park one's bicycle is not only problematic in Japan. I had a heck of a time doing that at my former workplace in Manhattan. I could freely ride the entire way downtown on a bike path next to the river, but if I locked the bike up outside the office pieces would soon be missing when I came back out. One day my front wheel was missing and the valve caps had been replaced with caps that read "Your bike sucks". After 9/11 with their headquarters destroyed in the WTC, the FBI relocated to a few floors below my employer. This resulted in the streets around the building being barricaded and red-neck-looking guys prowling around with automatic weapons. Nevertheless, one day I come out and my bike seat was missing. I was pretty hot under the collar by this time, but finally, the word came down we could park our bikes in the parking garage of the building. This was A Good Thing as my former boss was fond of saying, although I once got into a heated argument with an FBI agent who almost ran me over with his black Suburban as he exited the garage the wrong way onto a one-way street. Still, my bike always remained intact in the parking garage and I was grateful. But this happiness was short-lived after the 9/11 chaos subsided, and another company in the building re-claimed the bicycle rack space in the garage, so it was back onto the street. I departed to Japan not long after and tried to sell the bike (which admittedly sucked bigtime) for $50 to a crowd of Chinese bike delivery guys. They barely took one look at it before dismissing me. I finally left it in my building's storage room and don't know what happened to it. But I digress. Best of luck in finding a harmonious solution, Hibijibi |
#56
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Cycling to work banned
"Tony Raven" wrote in message ...
"the nail that stands out will be hammered down" desu-ne. *that* was the quote I was after. Thanks...saved me delving into my Josie Dew collection.. ;+) z |
#57
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Cycling to work banned
Claire Petersky wrote:
I'm thinking that, if you went this route, you should have an intermediary apologize on your behalf. The best person for this would be someone at your mutual workplace who is above the both of you in the hierarchy. This person would explain that we need to excuse the gaijin for his eccentricities, yes, strictly speaking it's against the rules, but let's just turn a blind eye for now, after all, he's only a gaijin, and he's valuable to this organization. I agree completely. In a society where they have hundreds of ways of avoiding the confrontation of saying "No", confrontation is never going to be effective. Law and logic play a minor role compared to personal interactions and peer pressure. "Gomen nasai, gaikokujin desu" with appropriate lowering of the head solved many problems for me. Even had the local police turn out in Uji to break into my illegally parked car when I locked the keys inside. Lots of light hearted despair of the "I don't know , gaijins huh" and pointing out of the no parking signs and teasing me before a grateful bowing and thanking session and being told it would be OK to leave the car parked illegally for an hour or two while we went in search of green tea. Tony |
#58
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Cycling to work banned
For what its worth, here is my tuppence worth
Logically of course this ban is nonsensical, but.. While James Annan is aware of Japanese culture and attitudes to gaiji etc, it might be better if we turned the problem on its head and imagin if some foreigner was breaking one of our laws (wherever that is and n matter how silly the law) 1. If he played the foreigner card, it would just reinforce ou prejudices 2. If he argued and played at being a smart arse, we would get annoyed 3. If he just did as he was told, we would be much happier with him an all foreigners Therefore it would be best all round to bite the bullet and use solos Now you can ignore this if you want, especially in Japan, where racia hatred does not appear to be the problem it is in Europe, but if yo were in Europe you would just be seen as yet another very rude an annoying foreigner If that's what you want the Japanese to think of you, that's fine, bu to me it looks like youare being a bit of a smartarse - |
#59
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Cycling to work banned
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#60
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Cycling to work banned
"Tony Raven" wrote in message
... Claire Petersky wrote: I'm thinking that, if you went this route, you should have an intermediary apologize on your behalf. The best person for this would be someone at your mutual workplace who is above the both of you in the hierarchy. This person would explain that we need to excuse the gaijin for his eccentricities, yes, strictly speaking it's against the rules, but let's just turn a blind eye for now, after all, he's only a gaijin, and he's valuable to this organization. I agree completely. In a society where they have hundreds of ways of avoiding the confrontation of saying "No", confrontation is never going to be effective. Law and logic play a minor role compared to personal interactions and peer pressure. "Gomen nasai, gaikokujin desu" with appropriate lowering of the head solved many problems for me. Even had the local police turn out in Uji to break into my illegally parked car when I locked the keys inside. Lots of light hearted despair of the "I don't know , gaijins huh" and pointing out of the no parking signs and teasing me before a grateful bowing and thanking session and being told it would be OK to leave the car parked illegally for an hour or two while we went in search of green tea. Tony I don't know much about Japanese culture however a similar approach has worked for me in the US a few times. "Saving face" isn't a uniquely Japanese concept. They way I've done it in the past is when confronted by a petty bureaucrat telling me I have to do something differently "just because I said so", I've played dumb and in essence have said "I'm just a geek, all I know about is how to do my job, please explain the political crap to me as if I was a child". This seems to work as it's non confrontational, and it's a bit like the Socratic method ... you think about it and you show me why your way is better. Often, they'll spew their load of dogma, and I'll catch them in some subtle point of logic (especially if it makes them look better) ... and the response will be "point well taken". I'm envisioning something along these lines: "Mr. X., please forgive my ignorance, all I am is an engineer and the only reason my wife and I ride a tandem bicycle to work is because it seems to us to be the most efficient, simple, and elegant solution to us (and give him some solid logical reasons). I know you are much smarter than us and understand the reasons why this is not so. Since I cannot understand the social reasons, could you please do me the honor of explaining to me?" Good luck, C.Q.C. |
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