Work takes me to Akasaka (Tameike-Sanno) about once a week, and on those days I hop on my bike, ride over to 武蔵小山 and jump on the Namboku Line for a one-shot, no transfer ride across town.
Unfortunately, I share this habit with about 1,756 other people, and the only place for all these bikes is a narrow little spit of land along the tracks that would normally accommodate somewhere in the vicinity of, what, 200 bicycles?
And how does the local municipality respond to this dilemma? Why they hire three オヤジ to cram the bicycles as tightly as possible into the available space, all day every day, creating a hellish scene that looks like this:
That’s right. And that’s right where my bike was two days after I left it there. It took me twenty minutes to clear away enough bikes to get to my own, and then 10 more to extricate mine from the bikes directly atop or beside it.
And this not 300 meters from the local municipal office, which sports a large sign out front saying, “この社会、あなたの税がいきています” (This society, your taxes at work [alive]) Shyeah right. They should change it to read, “This society, dismal urban planning our specialty!”
Hmph.