Disaster on Wheels!

Nagoya residents love their bicycles. The terrain is relatively flat (given that 70% of the country is mountains), and the sidewalks are not as jammed as other cities, like Tokyo. The Japanese will ride a bicycle no matter what...

--wearing heels

--wearing a skirt

--holding an umbrella

--talking on the phone

--carrying an object 5 feet wide

--carrying an object 5 feet long

I've seen it all in just a few shorts weeks, and now I will join their ranks!! Today for $55, I became a proud owner of a used bicycle!! This thing this is awesome. Like some kind of act of fate, they brought me a red one. This weekend at the 100 yen store (like a $1 store), I bought a red basket bungee cover (not pictured, sorry!). The bungee basket cover would be used in most cities to protect you from getting your purse stolen while you zoom by, but Japan has really low theft so I intend to use my bungee basket cover from keeping my groceries from bouncing out of the basket and onto the ground every time I hit a bump!

KG and her sweet new ride!

For everyone out there who remembers my previous bicycle "incidents", no need to worry. I received my official Japanese health care card today, which means if I happen to break any bones or require stitches (again) from some freak bicycle accident, I will be covered :)

By the way, possession of my Japanese health care card means that I passed my health check-up a few weeks ago, and they're going to let me stay. All results were positive, except that I'm a fatty. My BMI is too high--I vaguely recall the Wii Fit giving me similar results about a year and a half ago...