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:
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"To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner
was you."

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.

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."

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!

"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

"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

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

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


-

On 23 Jan 2004 01:15:29 -0800, (zaphod)
brought down from the Mount tablets inscribed:

"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.. ;+)

That old chestnut needs to be retired on a full pension already. The
operant expression these days would be the one which makes mention of
squeaky wheels and grease.




--

Michael Cash

"I am sorry, Mr. Cash, but we are unable to accept your rap sheet in lieu of
a high school transcript."

Dr. Howard Sprague
Dean of Admissions
Mount Pilot College

"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.