Today I met up with a friend of mine that I met while working in Alberta. It was really great to see her again, and nice to know she’s still the same ol’ silly girl I knew then. Only… skinnier and with double the hair length. Aaah, why can’t I do that? Haha
The Boy and I had trouble figuring out what to do with her. The first idea we all had was to get together with a mutual friend of all of ours who lives just a few hours away from us. But he failed with the communicating, so at the last minute we had to change plans. The Boy, this week, works nights so I was only mildly surprised to be woken up by my extremely loud cell phone jingle (I still haven’t figured it out completely… There will be a post about my cell phone some time in the distance future about it. Because you’re all interested in hearing about my cell phone, right? But if I say it’s a super advanced cell phone from Japan that’ll get your interest, eh?) at three am and then shouts of “MONKEY CENTER” in my ear. But I was majorly confused, being half asleep and dreaming about giant chobit robots with laser eyes bent on destroying Japan. (My dreams are awesome… some days.)
So I text my friend at 3am saying the plans have changed. I assumed that she wasn’t sleeping (My knowledge of the girl from Alberta was that she liked to party and stayed up super late talking with people and alcohol) but even if she was the plans had changed once again (The second plan had her come to the station near this town at 1pm, and the third had her wait at a station in a different town at 11am.) and she needed to know so that she wouldn’t oversleep.
Fast Forward through the happy greetings and small talk. Again, because I’m a lazy bum, and it wasn’t all that interesting anyway. Broken bones, Potatoes and Gay couples eloping in Mexico. Boring stuff, you know?
The Monkey Center is located on Awaji Island, if you want some more info, here’s a website (Don’t worry; It’s in English)
My friend has been to Awaji island before but she never knew there were monkeys living there, so it was a new experience for her. Which was a good thing, since I wanted all of us to have a good time.
I geared up with my touristy sunglasses, my stylish hat and expensive camera and decided before I left the house that day that I would become the best Photographer ever for one day, and like magic, it happened. I took some super awesome photos.
But because one day I will sell these photos to super rich snobs for thousands of dollars I can’t upload them here, you understand right? Hahaha.
Okay, maybe just one photo.
You can’t deny the monkey baby it’s cuteness. :3
After we saw all the monkeys it was time to head back home. It was a long drive there (100KM one way) so, obviously it was going to be a longer drive home.
Unfortunately my friend wasn’t wearing her seatbelt (A common thing in Japan for those sitting in the back, I’m guessing… since everyone I know who sits in the back never wears one). And the police caught her. We were driving on the bridge connecting the island to Hyogo when the police drove up beside us and started yelling at us through a megaphone. I couldn’t understand, but the two native Japanese people could and were confused (at first) why we were being asked to pull over (After getting off the bridge).
When we did, a policeman with the face similar to a bulldog tapped on The Boy’s window and asked to see his license (I’m assuming he did) then asked him to get out of the car. He said something to my friend as well before leading the Boy into the police car.
Now where I come from the police make you sit in your car and the only reason why you are asked to sit in the police car is if you were going to Jail. (I don’t think I know of any other reason why you’d be in the back of a police car) So I was panicking for a moment or two because my mind was telling me The Boy + Back of Police Car = Big Trouble. But then I remembered Oh yeah. I’m in Japan. Everything is backwards here.
So my friend and I were talking about things while she kept apologizing for not wearing her seatbelt, so I pointed out to her that there was no buckle for her to use. This was another small thing that made me think that not wearing your seatbelt in the back seat was okay. The fact that our car hadno buckles. But our car was sold to us from another person, and the interior was covered in some sort of foamy leather thing. The buckle is probably underneath it. Yet the fact that there is a cover that has no holes for buckles sold in Japan, and that it is being used just made me believe all the more that it was a rule kind of like how bicycle helmets are supposed to be worn all the time when you bike, yet 80% of people don’t and because of the sheer amount, the police turn a blind eye.
All my life I’ve been told to buckle my seatbelt, so it became ingrained that I had to get it done before the car started moving. So when I came to Japan and saw people not doing it I thought Okay. It’s Japan. Everything is backwards. And just when I was getting used to it, this happens. I guess not everything in Japan is backwards.
