Parking

In most big cities around the world, the question of where to park is quite a conundrum. You can't park in DC on the street during the week for more than 2 hours without DC license plates. In cities like Boston, you have to pay for your parking spot in front of your house. Tokyo and Osaka are much the same, but you park in a designated lot somewhere in your neighborhood.

How about for those of us without cars here in Kyoto?

While I lived in the hinterlands of Gunma, I was pretty much able to park freely where I wanted. Next to stores or other places, there almost always was a place to put your bike. If there wasn't, there was always a place nearby to put your motorless Harley with a basket.

Here in Kyoto, I was given a sticker to put on my bike when I got my apartment. Apparently there is also a sticker for school although I never got one and have had no problems. The parking situation came to a head the other day when I parked my bike at an apartment complex to which I had no sticker. "Oh no!" you may be thinking, but if they take away my bike, I have to take a bus down Kyoto Station and walk another 5 minutes to the compound, and then pay a little more than $20 for all of their troubles of putting my bike on their truck and storing it. When I went down to my bike to go back to school, there was a note on it with the message:

"You do not have a sticker.
Please take 500 yen to the apartment complex owner (who lives next door).
Your bike number has been recorded."

This note assumed that I was an attendant of this complex because the 500 yen is to purchase the official sticker; I think of it as a 500 yen fee to join the cool club. It is wrong and subject to penalty if caught, but I joined the cool club to give me the added freedom of parking here. My other option is to park nearby in front of a convenience store and hope the cops don't come by and take my bike to the compound....

Parking in cities is difficult no matter what form of transportation you use.