Police encounter

Hello there,

i haven't told you yet that i got a bicycle. Nice and practical.
When you get a bicycle here in Japan it is very important that you also register it. Meaning that you have to pay 500 Yen and register it to your name. If you buy it in a shop, like i did, the people selling you the bike will/have to take care of that, you just pay and show them your ID. If you get it from a private person, you need something proving that you are the legitmitate owner and register it at the police (?) yourself.
There will be a sticker with its registration number on your bike.

The reason why this is sooo important is mainly that when the police stopps you, you might/will get into trouble if the bike is not registered to your name.
So here's what happened to me today: riding home from the supermarket, i passed a contruction site with a police station close to it (gotta blog about those lightsaber dudes as soon as i have a good picture of one). So, much personnel standing around, waving with their lightsabers. I also saw some policemen getting on their bicycles while i was waiting to cross train tracks. Anyways, i pass by the contruction area and some meters further two policemen suddenly are next to me on their bicycle and wave somehow, gesturing me that i should stop. All very friendly and smiling. I stop and they stop in front of me. All smiling and speaking in a very friendly tone. I actualy understood most of what they said :) but not completely. Third line of them was the question if i understood Japanese, to which i answered a little. Given the Japanese way that you would never say you are really good at something - maybe unless you are an absolute master - they might've assumed that my Japanese is already better. Didn't really matter, i could see from what they were doing that they just tried to read the number on my registration sticker. And one of them asked me if it's my bicycle, i think. While i was trying to tell them in Japanese that yes, it is mine, one of them was already talking on his radio set, telling the number to someone. Then he asked me for my name. Guess whoever checked the number in the registration system told him the same name, because they were very content.
I almost wanted to get on my bike and ride on, when the one on the radio very politely, almost embarrassed, asked me if i could also show him any ID :D they both looked very curiously at my alien registration card and said something like "oooooh, オーストリア"(oosutoria=Austria) and one of them asked me if i was a student. I told them that i was a student at Tokyo daigaku and pointed in the direction of the nearby campus where i live. That seemed to please them.
Well, in the sense that they seemed happy. Like you can encounter many times here in Japan: people are very curious and happy to talk to foreigners, and their asserting ways while listening to you seems like they are really interested in what you say. No matter what you say.

So, that's that. Much ado/text about almost nothing, my first and rather uneventful encounter with the Japanese police force. Very Japanese (friendly and smiling).

And by the way, about the legal alien thing: yes, i am a legal alien again. And since i am working as a language assistant at the international friday lounge (sounds fancy, huh?) that i already mentioned somewhere in this blog, i had to get an アルバイト=arubaito. German speakers might recognise this word here: Arbeit =) in Japanese it means part-time job, and is mostly abbreviated to just baito.

Cheers.