unbelievably

Last week,
A friend and I were on our way to an organized race/ride. We had decided to ride the easy 10km there
through the Sunday, 7am. Fukuoka traffic...peace of cake, right? Wrong...

As we were on our way there, not 200m from our destination a car decides to cut out in front of us
from a convenience store parking-lot. There where actually two cars involved. The first one, I saw
and reacted by slowing down. Not to a stop, but I did yield. There was a car behind the first car that decided
to try to blow through us...well.

It all happened so fast...I'm locked up and sliding up to the passenger side rear corner, manage to gain control, but did manage to loose composure...
BamBamBam, I responded with a closed fist to the window.

I know he knew I was there from the get go. We had actually made eye contact before he decided to
dart out in front of. My guess is that he was startled, because he took his eyes off the road and immediately slammed into the car in front of him. You have to remember that all of this took place within 5m, from the parking-lot exit to the impact sight.
The car in front of him had stopped. Turns out that they were friends.
Together. Heading to a baseball game.(wonder if they made it on time?)

My friend and I roll up to the red and next thing I know, dude is in my face...I have a feeling that he was shocked that he was confronting a foreigner... we roll around and in my limited Japanese,
I tell him to call the police. Which they didn't do for the next 20 minutes.

We'd assumed that they thought it was in there best interest to do so. They encouraged us to leave,
knowing full well that they would give their side of the story resulting to 10-15 police coming the races start area to find us, we chose to stay.

Dude gets in my face again. I hate being in situations like these.
I'm a family man. I don't fight.(anymore)...well, unless I'm touched, poked or pushed.
Luckily, none of which happened because there were 4 of them and 2 of us.
Cops finally show up 30 minutes from the initial incident. I ask him if I need to stay. He says I need to be interviewed...we wait another 5 minutes and give my side of the story. He asks my name and wants to see some I.D. I have none and tell him so. He then proceeds to try to pat us down which is a big no-no.
We were not involved in a crime nor was we under arrest. I give him my home telephone number and he had the audacity to try to trip me up like some kind of 10 year old. I had written my name and number an a note pad. He turns it over and asks me to recite it...here, telephone numbers are 10 digits long so,
I'm figuring he thought that if I was not being truthful I would have stumbled...

He calls the number and as I told him, there would be nobody there, because I was "here".
He tell us we can leave. I then see that he is passing the driver a piece of paper that I second guessed as the information that I had provided the police officer. This info. being none of the drivers business was no going to be given up easily. I turn around and go up to the driver and take away from him. I look at the cop and ask him if the folded piece of paper was my name and number???

He tells me that it is and that he is giving it to him because perhaps the driver would like to contact me at a later date. I tell him that he has no business to contact me and that maybe if he wishes to call to offer his apologies that then, I would consent to him doing so. He agrees...
I now use this comfort zone that was now in as a chance a being provocative...
I asked the friends of the driver if they had called a wrecker because there was no way they were
leaving in the car that rear-ended the other.

After the race, I called my wife and explain the situation.
She called the cops to discuss the situation and find out what had boiled down from "their" prospective.
Story was rather clear cut and as it happened. My wife's only concerns were of our violations of the illegal search and of the officer giving out my information.
The officer that conducted the interview was a young and nervous young man. My guess is that he had never been so close to a big white guy before...

Good thing we didn't get knocked off our bikes...

mloywhite

Maybe you could expand/expound a little more, I think you really cut it kind of short... Just kidding. I am glad you were not injured, and no fight broke out.

Szczuldo

I thought japan was a friendly place...but more and more am i hearing stories about near fights breaking out against cyclists.

jsmithepa

Joe Biden? is that you?

unbelievably

It seems that when drivers in Japan get behind the wheel, they become aloof.
What is the norm in the west, you'd think that from a culture that prides itself
on respect for others and those around you...
It all goes out the door when they get behind the wheel.

ir0nfist

tl;dr

waterrockets 

WTF is up with Japan? Is it like Lord of the Flies over there? Are they just factory process drones or something?

Nomad never had any stories like this (that I've read).