ダニエルの冒険

Japanese train stations, supermarkets, and lots of other public places often have lockers available for public use. For 100-300 yen you can put your stuff in for 5 hours or so and take away a key. I left my stuff in there a little too long one day and was worried that it might be gone when I got back. But then I remembered that the chance of someone stealing my stuff was about the same as me stealing stuff from a locker I’d find open. It just wouldn’t happen. When I got back to the locker, I was expecting to find it unlocked, but in fact, it was still locked! The only difference was that I needed to put in more money (a whole 100 yen) to get my stuff back out.

I wish we’d have lockers like that in San Francisco or in Ireland, but I can imagine people breaking into them or making off with them. On the bus on the way home from the airport I got a funny smell. Some girls in the back were smoking marijuana and talking about their probation. I know lots of people who genuinely enjoy the “colourful” citizens of San Francisco but a middle-class white college kid like me can do without that…

I’m back in San Francisco now. Though I enjoy the Jamba Juice and the A&W Diet Root Beer, the city itself is no comparison to Japan.. at least in my personal experience. When I arrived home I got on BART and go off at Balboa Park Station. I got sick of trying to find the right bus so I called for a taxi and nothing came. I called again and said I just wanted to get home and said I’d pay twice the meter, but still nothing came. In the end I just sucked it up and found the right bus, after plenty of waiting in the cold. I kept remembering all those empty taxis in Japan and how I always felt that I could never get lost, as they could always bring me to somewhere I knew. But in San Francisco if you get off a main street you won’t find any taxis to help you. No matter how much money you have you’re on your own.

Today I was waiting for the 71 to take me home from downtown to 32nd and Noriega. I called the Muni phone number when nothing was coming and they said one would be along in 5 minutes, then another in 11. I waited and waited and nothing came. I called again and explained and they started to log a complaint. As they were finishing they said the next would be along in 1 minute. I asked the lady to wait with me and tell me what her screen said. Sure enough she said that the bus was arriving, and then changed to say that the bus had left and the next would be along again later. And yes, I was at the right bus stop

I love the Muni’s phone-in service but the actual service itself on the street is pretty poor. One of the guys at work is doing his best to boycott them based on his own experience but I’m pretty much a captive customer. Missing Japan