Scoot, Scooting.

15 May 2011

We wake up determined to find sheets. Harry gives us directions to a place called Izumiya, but we must go by moped, on a busy street. Eek! But we must just do it, it's really the only way. After a couple spins up and down our own street I'm ready to brave the big street, with real cars and trucks even. "I'll follow you" I tell Rob, but of course I don't go quite fast enough. He goes through an orange light and I'm left behind. There's no more turns to make so I'm sure I'll just catch up or see him at Izumiya. Just as I'm thinking to myself that it seems I've gone to far I spot the sign! I've arrived, and it was so simple! I park my scooter, which takes me a minute as, of course, I can't figure out the kick stand. Stupid foreigner. It's strange though, I don't see Rob's scooter anywhere. Maybe he parked somewhere else. No. Maybe he passed Izumiya without seeing it (but the sign was so obvious). No. Well, I decide to wait. He should be here shortly. No. Of course, he has our only cell phone and of course I forgot to write down the number so that I can't call him. I do have Harry's number though, I can call him and ask him to give me my own phone number. (So silly.) Finally, after waiting about 30-40 minutes I decide to go looking for Rob, a.k.a, go home and see if he's there. Just to make things all that more complicated I can't make a right turn very easily and have to go further up the street and down another small street into some farmland to turn around and get going in the right direction, which adds extra minutes to this circus routine.
At last I'm home, and I really started to enjoy cruising around town on my scooter, so many smells to smell and sights to see. This is great!
Shit! Where is Rob's moped? Not here. Where's Rob? Not here. I might as well go pee while I wait and think what my next step will be. About 3 minutes later he shows up, and we laugh.
His story:
He thought he passed Izumiya, turned off the road and went to a mall he thought was it. He parked next to what he thought was my scooter. Once he realized he was in the wrong place, he got back on the moped, which took several minutes to start, had the same experience I had in trying to turn around and made it to the real Izumiya. Seems as though I had left moments before he arrived and when he saw I wasn't there decided to see if I was at the apartment.
The point is we discovered a new great place to shop, conquered the scooters (and driving on the left side of the road) and all and all had a grand adventure in doing so.