罪と罰 (Crime and Punishment)
Just like everyone else who's ever been a victim of crime, I never thought I'd be a victim of crime. Especially in Japan, where the overall crime rate is mad low. I've left my car unlocked with very expensive electronics in plain sight sitting in the passenger seat, and nothing's happened. I've left the apartment door unlocked all night multiple times, and nobody's run up in the place and jacked our shit in our sleep. Hell, I accidentally left some shopping bags in the middle of the busiest street in Harajuku a couple of years ago, and when I came back to get them an hour and a half later there were still in the same place with everything in them.
OK, so if you pick up a newspaper you may read about some kid getting stabbed with a sword, or some guy killing another guy over a woman. Recently some kids were arrested on multiple counts of arson. But that stuff is rare. You're a lot more likely to see the headline, "Drunk Old Dude Fondles Girl's Hips".
So, color me surprised when I bolted outside to grab lunch with my co-workers and found my bike not where I left it. The bento lady, who had set up shot right next to where my bike should have been, hadn't seen anything. Sometime between the time I got into work and the time the bento lady put out her wares, my bike had been stolen from right out front of my office building.
An office building that's about 50 feet from a police box.
A trip to said police box with one of my co-workers produced no results whatsoever. Come to find out, bikes in Japan are supposed to be registered with the cops in case something like that happens. When you buy a new bike this is done by the store, but when you buy a used one you are supposed to register it yourself. Little did I know...Of course, without the registration, they had no proof that the stolen bike was, in fact, my bike. No proof other than my pictures of the bike in front of my apartment door...but you know. This is Japan. Everything's gotta be official, sign, sealed, inkaned to death, by the books and shit. But they sure didn't have a problem pulling me over with no reason several years ago (except for being a foreigner, I suppose), or questioning me outside of a Lawson's (again, for being a foreigner)...
Based on the time and place of the theft, I think the bike thief may have been either a drunk guy, a homeless guy, or a high school student guy who may play sports (likely baseball). I'd say the bike is probably within a 5 mile radius from where it was stolen (that leaves other parts of Naha, Ginowan, Urasoe, or Nishihara). For all my peeps in Okinawa, it's small, its black frame has A Stag Beetle written on the side, the handle bars are white, and it no longer has the white cup holder it originally did. Oh, and it's probably mad dirty too. If you see it, holla at your boy.