Room for thoughts

"Watch your thoughts, they become words/ Watch your words, they become actions/ Watch your actions, they become habits/ Watch your habits, they become character/ Watch your character, they become destiny."/ by unknown writer.

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See this room.

There is the tatami flooring, 3 people sharing, a TV set, little cubicle toilet, a wash basin.

Not bad don't you think?

Considering you pay nothing for it. Not even an hourly charge or a mininal rent.

It's free, with good food provided 3 times daily and best of all, you need to be qualified real bad to be in this room.

Koubo extract detoured

I am giving the answer for the entry below.
The thing is, all the trash in Japan that you dump at the designated point-of-collection belongs to the government. Nobody (not even the public dumpman) and they mean it, Nobody has the right to claim that trash. So, the answer to the question is obvious here.

Aluminium and steel prices is high right now. There are many public things made of steel being stolen right under people's nose. Huge steel bells in front of shinto shrine, village emergency steel alarm-bell to warn villages of houses on fire, drainage covers, manhole cover and even unused railway tracks are now victimised. The thieves sell the stolen steel to be melted down and the payment is quite worth the trouble.
Every Thursday of the week, is the collection day for aluminium cans and such. There is this old man who make sure to come by before the public dumpman come to claim the treasure. This old man with an open air truck would go around the neihbourhood pincing those aluminium cans.
But you must remember same as the money found earlier, these aluminium cans are government property. The government recycle and sell them to the aluminium can manufacturer. The sale money collected would add some income into their budget for future upgrade on machinery and equipment.
So, what I am trying to say is the old man is stealing government property by pincing all the aluminium cans.
I just remember as I write this, years ago when I was about 6 years old. We didn't go to any kindergarten or the likes because there were none around. We kids used to be left on our own in the daytime and we just go around in groups doing nothing. Those time there were no phobia on rapist or child molester.
But, there was this boy who had a brilliant idea. He suggested we go around collecting bottle caps, those aluminium type, like the ones on beer bottle now.
So, we went to the river banks and all over doing our collection. We had no container to put all the caps and my dress ended up as a bowl to carry our priceless collections.
We collected for about a week and had like 5 rice bags of bottle caps, then we all went to the karung guni shop. The karung guni apek looked at it and said, "ah, ini tak tak guna punya balang, tak boleh juan lor."
See how silly we were, first thing we should check for the value of the caps. We were really disppointed because I had already planned to treat myself a big air batu kacang with the sale money.
You see, I was willing to wade in the dirty and muddy river with mouse carcass and the lot to get the caps. I smelled terrible at the end of the day and my legs was bloated with pekung buta, yellow with pus from the river infection. I still have bisul marks on my legs till now and am looking at it while writing this, hahahaha!

Actually, I wanted to write on koubo extract, something happened to me with koubo extract and I detoured. I promise you beautiful readers, I will do that koubo extract next round. Ok kan?

Dump money

Things are not going pretty well with me lately. The weather is slowing my life down and I am chasing crickets away from my garden as the hot air is covering our atmosphere now.

You may think coming from me, this is weird but I hate the sounds of things coming from my front and back garden. I don't really like the chirping sound of birds too loud or too near the house. I get quite distracted. I don't mind them so much when I'm in one of my light and easy mood but nowadays that sort of mood is hard to come by.

Here is the gist of the entry for the day.

A gangster group or some crazy, rich, dying person threw some lumpsome of money in the dumpster.
The dumpman who who works for the government, collects the money and claims it to be his after the claimable period of 6-months. In Japan, whatever you find on the street and report it to the nearest authority, if not claim, will be yours after six-months.

The money is big to Malaysian standard, a little over a million ringgit.
The sad thing is the dumpster man who found it cannot claim the money even after the 6-month waiting period is over.

Well, you think hard and reason it out. He found it, he reported it and he waited for 6 months but still he cannot claim it.

Why?

Jumpa duit

Tempat: Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa.

Tahun 1983, waktu itu saya ke pasar, ternampak di tepi jalan wang kertas diterbangkan ke arah saya. Saya kutip yen 5000 itu. Lalu saya bawa duit itu ke koban atau pondok polis yang berada 200 m di depan. Saya diarah mengisi borang dan jika duit ini tidak diklaim dari pemilihnya selama 6 bulan, ia menjadi hak milik saya. Polis pondon itu akan menghubung saya untuk memberikan wang itu jika tidak diakui dari pemiliknya.
Malanya selepas 3 bulan dari kejadian ini, saya berpindah ke Singapore. Tidak ada harapan saya untuk mendapatkan duit itu sebab kalau saya tidak pergi ambil sendiri duit itu, ia dimasukkan ke tabung kebajikan.

Seminggu lepas, ada kes orang buang duit sebanyak yen 2,800,000 atau RM980,000. Wang kertas itu dibalut rapi dan dimasukkan dalam kotak. Pengangkut sampah yang terjumpa duit itu berkerja dengan Pengangkutan Awam dan buat klaim ke atas duit itu.
Macam kes saya diatas, duit yang dijumpai di jalan awam akan menjadi hak-milik sendiri lepas 6 bulan.

Dalam kes pekerja itu, adilkah dia buat klaim ke atas wang itu selepas 6 bulan kelak jika tidak ada sesiapa klaim?

Jawapannya: Tidak patut dan tidak adil sebab kaki-tangan Pengangkutan Awam hanya digajikan untuk mengangkut sampah. Sampah yang diangkut itu hak milik negara, duit yang dijumpai itu dirasmikan sebagai sampah dan sama seperti sampah yang lain, "sampah" itu hak milik negara.
Pekerja itu tidak boleh klaim "sampah" itu.

MBA, itu duit betul, bukan olok-olok. Bulan March, bulan penutup akaun syarikat.
All company financial assets will be liable for taxation by end of March (alamak, sori tak tau nak tulis dalam bahasa melayu).
Some big-shots received under-table money and by throwing away the evident, might cover their tracks from the police.
Some mafia gang got it from drugs sales and threw the money to get rid of evidence.

Anyway, this case is still under investigation. But it is quite common for people to find bundles of money on the roadside in March.March 5, 22.22

Driving

Driving in Japan is quite complicated and expensive. Those who cannot
read the language will have trouble understanding road signs. Highway
tolls are assessed at about US $1 per mile. City traffic is often very
congested. A 20-mile trip in the Tokyo area may take two hours. There is
virtually no roadside parking. In mountainous areas, roads are often
closed during the winter, and cars should be equipped with tire chains.

Foreigners should be alert to traffic on secondary roads, which does
not come to a full stop at traffic lights or stop signs. Roads in Japan
are much narrower than those in the United States. Vehicular traffic
moves on the left. Turns at red lights are forbidden unless specifically
authorized.

Japanese compulsory insurance is mandatory for all automobile owners
and drivers in Japan. Your local auto insurance taken from your own country likely does not provide
coverage in Japan.

Accidents and Liability:
Japanese law provides that all persons who drive in Japan are held
liable in the event of an accident, and assesses fault in an accident on
all parties.

Drivers stopped for driving under the influence will have their
licenses confiscated. Laws passed in late 2001 make persons found guilty of
"drunken, speeding or blatantly careless driving that results in death"
subject to up to 15 years in prison, tripling the previous maximum
sentence. Japanese police, under these new laws, will also be permitted to
contact financial institutions directly to determine an offender's
financial status to combat evasion of payment for traffic violations.

Kemalangan jalan raya

Kenapa agaknya purata kemalangan di negara Jepun rendah dibandingkan dengan negara lain. Pembayaran saman atas kesalahan undang-undang jalan raya kadang-kadang dikenakan sampai 30 tahun. Atau harus mengadaikan rumah membayar duit ganti-rugi bila tertuduh bersalah dalam kemalangan jalan raya.

Bukan pembayaran saman aje, lesen juga boleh dilucutkan dari pemandu. Untuk mendapatkan lesen terlucut itu, harus mengambil ujian memandu semula secara asalnya.

Tolakan mata bagi pemandu yang melanggar undang-undang yang ringan seperti salah meletakkan kereta atau tidak memakai tali keselamatan. Setiap kesalahan yang mengurangkan mata akan dikira dan jika mata itu habis, pemandu harus mengambil ujian memandu semula untuk menghidupkan lesen memandu.

Saya disaman atas kesalahan meletakkan kereta di depan bangunan Balai Raya. Waktu itu saya masuk ke kolam renang. Waktu saya berenang, ada terdengan pengumuman nombor kereta dan dihendakan tuan punya kereta mengalih kenderaannya. Saya tidak pasti nombor itu, padahal selepas ketahuan saman itu, barulah saya sedar nombor itu kereta saya!
Setelah habis berenang, saya menuju ke kereta tapi kereta saya tidak ada di situ lagi dan di tapak kereta dilekatkan nota, menyuruh saya ambil kereta di balai polis Naha. Kesemua pembayaran termasuk harga mereka menarik kereta saya ke balai polis dan bayaran letakkan kereta di tempat khas termasuk saman berjumlah yen27,000!

Serik rasanya dan selepas insiden ini, saya berjalan dan tidak memandu lagi ke kolam renang.

Setiap pelanggaran jalan raya, kedua belah pihak menanggung kesalahan. Pihak polis akan menjatuhkan purata kesalahan. Jika yang melanggar bersalah 70%, dia harus membayar harga kerosakan pada kereta yang dilanggar itu sebanyak 70%. Semua ini diuruskan melalui syarikat insurans, tidak ada duit tunai bertukar tangan.

The Japan Times: Nov. 27, 2003
(C) All rights reserved

SAPPORO (Kyodo) The Sapporo District Court on Wednesday ordered a woman who hit and killed a 9-year-old boy with her car in Hokkaido to pay around 54 million yen in damages to his parents.
The money will be paid in monthly installments that coincide with the date of the boy's death.

Presiding Judge Kazushi Teranishi ordered the 52-year-old woman to issue payments on the 18th of each month over a period of 30 years.

The ruling is partly in keeping with the demands of the parents of Toshihiko Doba, the fourth year elementary school student who died in the accident on Aug. 18, 2001.

Kazuhiko Doba, 45, and his wife, Kumiko, 38, sought damages of around 75 million yen.

They had also asked that the payments be made on the same date as their son's death, saying they did not want the woman to forget that a precious life had been taken.

The woman was convicted of causing injury and death through negligence and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Her car veered onto a sidewalk in the city of Kitahiroshima, plowing into four boys riding their bicycles.

The three other boys sustained injuries.

In a separate ruling in July, the Tokyo District Court ordered a 59-year-old truck driver to pay damages in a similar fashion. The truck driver caused an accident on the Tomei Expressway in Tokyo that resulted in the deaths of two girls, aged 1 and 3.