Mobility

I lent my bike out to a friend today because his had a flat. On his way to school My bike also got a flat. When he went to get it fixed, they discovered that my rear wheel was cracked. It cost him 4,000 yen to replace the tire (with the current exchange rate, about $48). I only paid 3,000 yen for it in the first place. My friend also remarked that after 5 minutes of riding my bike his back hurt. Based on this, it's possible that my bike is in fact perpetuating my back problems.

I've recently been considering getting a car for the rest of my stay here. (The bike thing is one more mark in favor of it) Apparently you can get a car for about 100,000 Yen (About $1,200 at the current exchange rate). I have my international drives license, and that would be good until I leave. It would make my travel options much more open, and over all save me some money perhaps (depending on mileage..... Or since they use metric here killometerage). I still need to talk to somebody about the process though.