So back in early 2006 I moved from the middle of two somewheres to one of those somewheres, Osaka. A month or so before I moved I managed to find a mostly working bike in the trash. After a short stop at the bike shop to fix the tire it was back on the road. Once I moved I wanted to move the bicycle as well, but this was much more difficult than it might seem to someone not in the area; there’s a small mountain in between the two locations and, if you don’t look closely, it looks like the only way to cross the mountain is on the highway. Many people do ride bikes here, but you’ll be hard pressed to see someone riding a bicycle on the highway.

After some searching, I found a road to the South that would take me over the mountain to where I wanted to go. On one of my days off I left early in the morning on my bike and took it over that mountain. It did take quite a while, but it wasn’t very difficult after I got to the top. I make my way to the new apartment and go on with my life.

The police here don’t have much to do so a lot of their time revolves around bicycles – preventing theft, tracking down stolen bicycles, impounding bikes parked illegally. Everyone gets stopped at some point for one reason of another and it usually doesn’t take longer than 30 seconds before you’re on your way; you show them your registration and they immediately know that the bicycle you’re riding is your own. So a week or so later after taking my bike over the mountain, I’m biking around the area when I’m stopped by the police. They ask me about the bike and I tell them that I found it in the trash, fixed it, and started riding it. They are very interested in this and we go back to the police station to talk about it.

They give me a printed map and ask me where I found the bicycle and I show them. Things move very slowly and I get to spend some time chatting with the young policeman that is learning English in his free time. After a while I find out that the bicycle I was riding was stolen in Kyoto and ditched in Ikoma, where I found it. They found out where the owner lives, gave him a call, and told me to wait for him to come to the station after he’s finished working. There really isn’t much for me to do besides chat with the police officers, so I do. I’m constantly taken aback at how they act and how they’re treating me even though I’ve essentially committed a “bad” crime. They don’t have a perfect record, but their attitude is definitely better than some places.

Long story long, the owner comes and doesn’t press charges. He gets his bike back (repaired by me) and I get a story.

The diet in Japan (Japan not being a part of America, like everywhere else that isn’t America), although scary at times, is quite good at what it does. Now, I’m not talking about the older diet that they had before recent times, but the current diet. Yes, there is a rising worry about overweight children because of McDonalds and their brethren, but people here are more fit than what I’m used to. This is what things should be like and you don’t really know there’s an issue unless you live in/move to somewhere sans America.

An anecdote: I’ve lost some weight when I first arrived in Japan and I was expecting that. When multiple variables move from a less healthier diet to a healthier one you reasonably expect some weight loss. However, I haven’t weighed myself for around a year, if not more. Recently I was wondering my weight for no reason than the last time I weighed myself was such a long time ago. My expectation was to be around what I was before, which I only had a faint memory of – this wasn’t close. After getting the scale to work, I found out that I had inadvertently lost a lot of weight (I’m now 71.3kg), even including my winter hibernation (less activity and more eating). Now, my current eating habits are not very good, so if one were to actually try to lose weight in this country (or any number of other countries) it might seem like a crash diet to someone back home. Yes, it’s true that some women here do go overboard and strive to be way too thin like people in many other places do, but this really has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the diet.

The food scene is Japan is nothing short of amazing. I was happy when I had some cuisines from other countries in DC, but the sheer number of great places to choose from is astounding. Immigrants (forced or not) from Korea, China, India, and other places have helped the establishment of restaurants of those countries cuisines. Include the Japanese obsession with food (you can start to understand it if you have watched Iron Chef) and you get a great combination. I’ve gone to a bunch of restaurants in Osaka and many of them were quite amazing. They don’t have everything, Mexican is available but sorely lacking, but what they do have is great.

The police here are nice, if you don’t want to say neutered. Most of the time their job involves something bicycle related, but sometimes they actually do something a little more important. But this really isn’t the reason I like them, it’s because they are nothing at all like America. Now, it’s not like Japan is a bed of fucking rose petals, it’s not; but having been around officers, their actions and attitude are startlingly different than one might see on COPS. Even their definition of crackdown is different. Weed? No swat team, no MP5′s, no silent raid. They knock on your door and ask you to come to the station to talk, that’s all (most of the time). What happens next could be severely bad for your future – signing a confession equals time – but you’re not worried that they’re going to shoot or taze you.

The transportation system in Japan gets props from just about everywhere else. As opposed to a country where it’s possible to do without a car in only a few locations due to suburbs and a lack of any decent mass transit (guess the country?), Japan is heaven. Not only have I spent my time here carless (though I did ride in a car two times) there was never a time where I wished I had a car, it really is that unnecessary. From where I am, I can go pretty much anywhere I want to in this country without needing a car; and this time isn’t wasted waiting endlessly for busses or trains (which are extremely punctual compared to some places).

If you live more in the country it does become an important item to own, but it’s not required until you go very far out. There are many suburbs here that are still quite walkable (and definitely bikeable) given their layout. That the areas that have been built recently are not so suburban as America/Canada/UK is something to be thankful for.

So yes, there are some reasons, but maybe there are some more as well?