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As a preface I'm just going to say this is a super white-people-first-world-problems whine post. And this is mostly going to be about motorcycles. You are warned.
Japanese people love parking lots. I don't know why they love them or what they really do there, but for some reason that is far beyond the reaches of my understanding they definitely do love parking lots.
I've recently taken an interest in racing motorcycles. I have a small entry level sport bike that I've been having a blast on but as I continue to improve my riding ability I found myself facing a barrier. To be specific, a mechanical barrier. A motorcycle can only be leaned so far before it begins dragging things on the ground. First it was my boots so I adjusted my technique a bit and that problem went away. Next I had the fun experience of dragging a footpeg for the first time, which was altogether a much more terrifying experience. Unfortunately it is also something that cannot be overcome without either modifying the bike, or fundamentally modifying the way I ride it. As someone striving to improve as a rider, naturally the latter option is the one I chose.
The next step for me is learning to hang off the bike. This is a skill every professional motorcycle racer has mastered and utilizes on pretty much every single turn on every single track. Hanging off moves the center of gravity of the bike/rider combination inwards and down (in respect to a corner) which in turn means you need less lean angle to navigate a corner at a given speed. Perfect, a way for me to both corner faster AND get my footpegs off the road. Let's do it!
Wait, not so fast. As you can probably imagine public roads are really not the safest place to just go out and start attempting to drag my knee around corners. There's old people, old people on bicycles, and even old people in cars, all of which pose a potentially deadly threat at every encounter. Ok, so how about a parking lot instead? You guessed it. This is how I discovered that Japanese people love parking lots.
I set about searching for a suitable parking lot to practice in. Fortunately about a 15 minute ride outside of the tiny town I call home on a relatively barren coastal road there is just the type of parking lot that one aspiring to drag a knee would dream of. It's set back a mile or so from the road by a small access road, it's in the middle of goddamn nowhere without a house or building for 20 miles in any direction, and as far as I can tell it doesn't serve any point other than providing a place for people to park should they chance their way down the unmarked access road and want to wander aimlessly into its surrounding forest. To put it simply, there is no reason at all for this parking lot to exist, and on top of that it's quite large and has no curbing or obstructions to get in the way of my practice. But of course there's a catch. There's always a catch.
For some reason I absolutely cannot fathom people just fucking love this parking lot. Every day after work I get on my bike and ride the 20 minutes out to the parking lot, and every goddamn day there is a car or two parked in the dead center idling away as its passengers invariably enjoy a movie or poorly dubbed episode of Spongebob in the back seat. To make matters even more mysterious it's always different people in different cars. I don't see a single car on the road for the 20 minute ride out or back, but every day without fail there is a new car idling away happily and ruining my day. I thought I struck pay dirt today when I came down the access road to see an empty lot but my victory was short lived as within five minutes of arriving not one but two new cars pulled in, stopped dead center in the lot, and idled away as their passengers enjoyed a nap or DVD. I left for about an hour to go riding elsewhere, stopped in again on my way back and sure enough both cars were still there, and both cars were STILL idling their engines.
After about three weeks of this I am utterly puzzled. Can someone please explain to me why Japanese people love this goddamn parking lot so much?
 
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I know, it's far fetched, but...
I would figure the people who are parking there could explain their reasons.
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I assume it's because a car in an abandoned parking lot is one of the only places you can go in a Japanese city to be by yourself. Have you ever been in a Japanese family's home?
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On June 20 2013 22:33 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
I assume it's because a car in an abandoned parking lot is one of the only places you can go in a Japanese city to be by yourself. Have you ever been in a Japanese family's home?
i think you are dead on, you don't get a lot of privacy when the walls of your apartment are paper thin or you live in a big family.
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I never thouhgt a parking lot to be a good place to practice motorbike riding. At least here in spain, it is pretty common for the riders to go on curvy roads that go up or down some hills/small mountains, where they know there will be not a lot of car traffic so they can ride them undisturbed. Maybe you should try to find a road like that nearby and just drive that up and down as much as you can to improve.
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On June 20 2013 22:33 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
I assume it's because a car in an abandoned parking lot is one of the only places you can go in a Japanese city to be by yourself. Have you ever been in a Japanese family's home?
This should be pretty spot on, as a teenager I would go just chill in a random parking lot with a book and some music just to get away and out of the house even if none of my friends were available. That said why the fuck are they idling their cars for multiple hours!!!! Cars are meant to be running so they can get air flowing through the engine, I wouldn't be surprised to learn they have fucked their cars up if they do this regularly.
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
Maybe they are having "fun" inside their cars with the opposite sex :S
That would be the only reason i would see for people eto go to an empty parking lot miles away from anyone xD
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Just bring some of that tape that is used to block of minor roadworks and two poles, and block off the entrance with that.
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading that post. What city is this, if you don't mind sharing.
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On June 20 2013 22:07 spinesheath wrote:
I know, it's far fetched, but...
I would figure the people who are parking there could explain their reasons.
I actually thought about doing this but I live in a super super remote area where old women tend to clutch their purses tighter when they see me so a white guy suddenly knocking on their car window may very well be enough to have the cops called on me or something. This is also why I don't want to practice unless I'm totally alone there, any run in with the police is really bad news as a foreigner and a government employee.
On June 20 2013 22:33 AmericanUmlaut wrote:
I assume it's because a car in an abandoned parking lot is one of the only places you can go in a Japanese city to be by yourself. Have you ever been in a Japanese family's home?
I didn't think about this but that's totally possible. Most of the cars I see there are minivans or station wagons too which indicates they probably belong to people with families. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's middle aged guys trying to escape their screaming kids and wives for a while. I may have to peek in some windows to investigate this further. If that's the case maybe they wouldn't mind me buzzing around their car for a while.
On June 20 2013 23:12 Ender985 wrote:
I never thouhgt a parking lot to be a good place to practice motorbike riding. At least here in spain, it is pretty common for the riders to go on curvy roads that go up or down some hills/small mountains, where they know there will be not a lot of car traffic so they can ride them undisturbed. Maybe you should try to find a road like that nearby and just drive that up and down as much as you can to improve.
I do most of my riding on windy mountain and coastal roads as those are definitely the most fun, but as for practicing this new technique, I would really prefer to do it in a parking lot first. There's very little margin for error on roads even if there isn't much or any traffic around. Road conditions tend to be worse, consequences of a crash are worse, there's always the possibility of a car coming around a blind turn in the wrong lane, etc. I do plan to get my motorcycle to a track as soon as possible but until then this parking lot will have to do.
On June 21 2013 00:43 Rimstalker wrote:
Just bring some of that tape that is used to block of minor roadworks and two poles, and block off the entrance with that.
This is a really good idea. I may do this if I can get to the lot when it's empty.
On June 21 2013 00:44 Uzee13 wrote:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that post. What city is this, if you don't mind sharing.
Thanks for the kind words! I live in a really small town outside of Kushiro in Hokkaido prefecture.
Thanks for the replies guys! I think we're onto something here. I may have to start documenting the cars there to see if I can put together some sort of pattern..
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United Kingdom3685 Posts
On June 21 2013 00:46 futility wrote:Show nested quote +On June 21 2013 00:43 Rimstalker wrote:
Just bring some of that tape that is used to block of minor roadworks and two poles, and block off the entrance with that. This is a really good idea. I may do this if I can get to the lot when it's empty.
So you're going to block off a parking lot when you have no right to do so and it's clearly being used by other people as well? Does that not seem like kind of a dick move?
As others have already said, the reason seems pretty clear that there is little privacy in Japanese homes so the only way for some people to be alone (or have alone time with their significant other) is to do something like what you describe.
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TLADT24920 Posts
nice blog! I enjoyed reading it. I agree with the idea that they want some time for themselves thus going to an empty party lot 
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[QUOTE]On June 21 2013 00:46 futility wrote:
[QUOTE]On June 20 2013 22:07 spinesheath wrote:
I know, it's far fetched, but...
I would figure the people who are parking there could explain their reasons.[/QUOTE]
I actually thought about doing this but I live in a super super remote area where old women tend to clutch their purses tighter when they see me so a white guy suddenly knocking on their car window may very well be enough to have the cops called on me or something. This is also why I don't want to practice unless I'm totally alone there, any run in with the police is really bad news as a foreigner and a government employee.
[QUOTE]On June 21 2013 00:43 Rimstalker wrote:
Just bring some of that tape that is used to block of minor roadworks and two poles, and block off the entrance with that.[/QUOTE]
This is a really good idea. I may do this if I can get to the lot when it's empty.
As intimidating as old japanese ladies are I don't really understand why on one hand they seem to have made you think if you approach Japanese people they will call the cops on you for doing nothing illegal. But then on the other hand you think it's a really good idea to actually do something illegal, when you just said it's bad to get a run in with police.
I think "this white dude taped off this parking lot so he could screw around with his motorcycle" sounds like a much more realistic police call then "this white dude approached me and asked whats up"
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You'll find, in general, that the smaller the average living space is the more people will avoid spending time at home.
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Lol, great post. Probably a cultural cool-down spot for stressed out folks.
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On June 20 2013 23:12 Ender985 wrote:
I never thouhgt a parking lot to be a good place to practice motorbike riding. At least here in spain, it is pretty common for the riders to go on curvy roads that go up or down some hills/small mountains, where they know there will be not a lot of car traffic so they can ride them undisturbed. Maybe you should try to find a road like that nearby and just drive that up and down as much as you can to improve.
in north 'muricah, parking lots are generally where you practice your driving skillz when you are a newbie. there is that semi derelict shopping mall near where I used to live and every summer they have a motorcycle school there where they practice in the abandoned parking lot.
but that was funny. 5*
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On June 21 2013 01:57 Sayle wrote:
So you're going to block off a parking lot when you have no right to do so and it's clearly being used by other people as well? Does that not seem like kind of a dick move?
As others have already said, the reason seems pretty clear that there is little privacy in Japanese homes so the only way for some people to be alone (or have alone time with their significant other) is to do something like what you describe.
You definitely have a point. I guess my only rationalization is that it seems to me just about any parking lot would do for watching a DVD or taking a nap, and there's plenty of others along the road they could use.
On June 21 2013 04:27 Nibbler89 wrote:
As intimidating as old japanese ladies are I don't really understand why on one hand they seem to have made you think if you approach Japanese people they will call the cops on you for doing nothing illegal. But then on the other hand you think it's a really good idea to actually do something illegal, when you just said it's bad to get a run in with police.
I think "this white dude taped off this parking lot so he could screw around with his motorcycle" sounds like a much more realistic police call then "this white dude approached me and asked whats up"
Is riding a motorcycle in circles in a parking lot illegal? I honestly have no idea. But yeah, fair point.
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Hey Futility!
I've also noticed something similar. It seems that japanese people really enjoy chilling in random parking lots. Often you'll find a car or two idling in a combini parking lot. The fact is that one of the most common dating trend in Japan is to bring your loved one on a car ride. As most japanese cars now have televisions in them, it's not uncommon for them to stop in the middle of somewhere (your holy parking lot seems like the perfect place) and enjoy a movie.
But you'll also catch business men, road workers, mothers and old folk just chilling in parking lots. As someone else has said, their cars might be the only place where they can get away from their obligations. As for resolving your problem... unfortunately I don't think there is much you can do. Being a Gaijin in an Inaka town, the locals will often frown upon the bike riding white man. Then barring off the exit might not be the greatest idea... But I doubt that they would inquire beyond the barred point (As most japanese people prefer minding their own business).
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It's possible they're out there smoking weed where the cops don't patrol. Probably not, but eh... It's possible.
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On June 21 2013 00:18 Pandemona wrote:
Maybe they are having "fun" inside their cars with the opposite sex :S
That would be the only reason i would see for people eto go to an empty parking lot miles away from anyone xD
This is what I was thinking. I know a lot of kids who get "larger" cars do this in the states when they have no privacy in the house. Though, Japan isn't exactly SUV land, so I doubt there is enough room to do that  .
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Osaka27173 Posts
Cheaper than a love hotel dude.
Your town sounds pretty small, but if you have a train station there might be a bus rotary out front. After hours that would lend itself to some nice practice corners... Or an arrest.
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We actually do have a pretty awesome rotary (props to you for using the correct word for a rotary) in front of the station, but it's inconveniently located about a block away from the police station.
Quick update: I still can't seem to catch this damn parking lot empty, and based on the replies here I've decided against taping off the access road. I have noticed though that you guys pretty much hit the nail on the head: middle aged men in massive family vans seem to be the most common demographic. As I'm not entirely convinced what I want to do is even illegal I think I'm just going to disregard them and do my thing while maintaining a safe distance from any cars in the lot. My motorcycle is totally factory and Japanese noise laws on bikes are pretty strict so I don't think the noise would even really be loud enough to bother them.
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Osaka27173 Posts
Yeah because there are no loud bikes in Japan haha. Oh, except the FIVE THOUSAND of them that roar up and down my street every weekend. I often wish I had a paintball sniper rifle and black face paint.
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I have to agree with there being loads and loads of loud bikes in Japan... There seems to be a lot of them around Osaka. ^^'
I agree that a paintball sniper rifle would be nice.
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Hahaha. I didn't say there's no loud bikes in Japan, I just said the noise laws are strict  Unfortunately that doesn't prevent the bosozoku idiots from taking the mufflers off their mopeds and pretending to be badasses.
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EPT
