Switcharoo!

Man, do I hate it when people aren't upfront about their intentions, or worse yet, use that as a tactic to try and pressure me into doing something they aren't brave enough to ask me to do straight up.

Take, for instance, the car. Its previous owner quoted me a price, which I agreed to without haggling. A month later after having the paperwork switched out of his name he sent an intermediary to tell me that he wanted me to refund the vehicle tax he'd paid on it seven months ago. After all, all Japanese do this.

I checked with my friends and my coworkers. No Japanese do this. He'd already been enjoying the benefits of the tax for over half a year, and I will have to pay the tax myself in six months. Thing is, if he had just added the amount of the tax to the price he quoted me, I'd have been none the wiser. Instead he tried to trick me (and later pressure me) into subsidising his vehicle. Unfortunately for him, my reaction was to seriously reconsider buying the car. Oops.

Then there was the snowboard wear. Its owner, who had newer cooler gear, loaned it to me in late November because he wasn't using it. All well and good. Fast forward to January, when he sendt an intermediary to tell me that he'd like me to give him an arbitrarily high amount of money for the gear, but it was totally cool if I didn't want to do that, too.

Thing is, if I do end up in Hawai'i next August, I won't need overly-expensive, ratty snowboard wear, and my plan was to return it anyway.

January headed into February, when the guy sent another intermediary to tell me he's sending friend to get it back from me since he's tired of waiting for me to pay for it. Right before the weekend, of course.

Only oops! My response was to go out and buy new, brandname wear for 1/4 the price that this guy wanted.

Thing is, I probably would have bought his set in November if he had just asked me then. But I really dislike it when people try to guilt/pressure me into doing something when for whatever reason they haven't just asked.

(>.<);;;

On a brighter note, my new stuff is cool. ( Moreover, it is awesomely DayGlo. )

That will be all.

11:29

And someone is being stopped by the cops and/or arrested right outside of my apartment building.

How do I know? Because the lights are lighting up my room like daybreak, and because the cop is on his megaphone telling the guy what to do. It's probably nothing really big; Japanese in positions of authority tend to blow things out of proportion* but all the same, there are some days I really wish I didn't live on the first floor.

Urg. Off to bed, at any rate.

*(Take for instance, the 不審者 (lit. 'suspicious person') reports regularly circulated throughout schools and the city hall. There was one circulating today at the elementary school I visited. Roughly summarised, its contents were as follows: a man was seen walking near the school grounds this afternoon.

Even yours truly may have been the subject of one of these reports earlier this year, when warnings were circulated that there were several sightings of man seen walking around the neighborhood at dusk. Which is when I take my walks, and the Japanese suffer from a righteous inability to identify my biological sex. You get the picture.)

That will be all.