Quirks and perks

Every night when I walk home from work, I pass the local police station. Ordinarily one would probably not find passing a police station to be very interesting, but of course, this is Japan and the Japanese have found a way to make everything interesting. They have succeeded in jazzing up the police station by installing an armed guard outside of the station entrance at night. What is he armed with? A stick. Okay, to be fair I think it would actually qualify as a pole. Still, each time I walk by I just can't help but think how ridiculous it is. I mean it's true that you could severely injure someone with a giant wooden pole, but if a person was really that intent on invading a police station, I think there's a good possibility that they'd be carrying a gun. Then what is the cop going to do? Whack the gun out of his hand with the giant stick? I also get the feeling that if I ever decided to approach Mr. Stick Man, there's a good chance that I would be whacked just because he'd know that it would be the most excitement he'd have for the entire evening (the police men never look very happy while standing out in the cold with their poles). Tonight I tried to make eye contact with the guard standing there, but he freaked me out so I looked away. They always look so serious! Because everybody knows that guarding a police station with a stick is very serious business... Grrrr.

In other news, I paid my first Japanese bill yesterday. It was an electricity bill and I paid it off at the local 7-11. That's right, in Japan you can pay your bills at convenience stores... it is freakin' awesome. Actually, they're not usually called "convenience stores" here, they are called "conveenies" which I think is rather cute. You just bring your bill up to the cashier at the conveeny, she/he scans the bar code, and you pay it off in cash. I think this payment process should be listed in the dictionary under the definition of convenience, because it doesn't get much easier than that. I suppose writing out a check isn't that difficult either, but if you are anything like me, then there is always the stamp issue. I never, I repeat NEVER, have stamps when I need them. This results in the obnoxious task of driving to the post office in order to buy one measly little stamp to put on the freakin' envelope. None of this would ever happen in Japan, however, for a couple of reasons: 1) I do not have a car in Japan, so it is impossible for me to drive to the post office, unless I hail a taxi 2) There is no such thing as personal checks in Japan, so I would have nothing to mail in the first place. Ahhh Japan, there is no way in hell I would live here forever, but temporarily I am enjoying its quirks and its perks.