4 Years in Japan, with 6 months in Kyoto city, I guess I was about ready to get randomly stopped by Police. I didn't however expect it to be in the middle of a bright sunny day with hundreds of passers by watching my questioning with delight. Still, thankfully it was a sunny day, and I was in a great mood.

Cycling along Shijo street I noticed ahead a stopped Police car with a policeman standing next to it. Nothing unusual, I smiled at the man and he smiled back, however he was also waving his hand motioning me towards him. My heart pace picked up a little, as it generally does in these situations.With a big smile, the policeman said in English "Your bicycle?", to which I replied "Yes", then he: "Oooooh!" He quickly gave up on this mini English conversation and switched to "日本語話せますか？" to which I replied in English, still smiling: "Yes I speak a little Japanese"

He asked if I had 登録した my bike, which I took a wild guess at "register" and it turns out (as I just checked this second) I was close enough, and I replied "no". (There was a little panic as I just realised I had blindly answered no to a policeman without knowing exactly what I was denying... the question could have been about registering myself in Japan, registering my Visa, anything... but I continued to smile)

The Policeman himself was actually a pretty damn friendly guy, asking about my purpose and time in Japan, and seemed genuinely impressed that I was a teacher here rather than a student like he guessed. Anyway, he then asked if I had bought the bike in a shop, to which I gave an entirely unsuspicious account of the origin of 'my' bike:

"er... I bought it off a friend who lives in Yamashina... he's in Australia now... I think it was his girlfriends, and maybe she lives/lived in Shiga... and I'm not sure where she got it..."

To this the friendly policemans face turned a little bit less friendly as he tried to work out what I had just said, and whether it was true or could be a big pack of bullshit (and rightly so to be honest...), but soon after a grumpy voice came out of the Police car (good cop bad cop) that the registration was OK, which I guess means not reported stolen, and the back-to-friendly-mode one warned me of the many bike thefts in the area and sent me on my way. Then the policecar drove off... which I assume means they stopped specifically to talk to me. ラッキー！