The Great Internipponic Umbrella Continuum

I apologize for the title as it came to me from my current watching of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy� and my listening of the older BBC radio drama. Not that that has anything to do with this, but anyway. Japan is an interesting place in many respects. One that quite interests me is its treatment and handling of umbrellas, which can be summed up in this one easy line: “Need an umbrella, take an umbrella; have an umbrella, leave an umbrella.� This being rarely posted in front of the big pile of umbrellas that is left near the entrance of every office, store, shop, movie theater, apartment, etc. in Japan, which I refer to as the Great Internipponic Umbrella Continuum.

Many people here don’t carry umbrellas on a regular basis or even if the weather report says rain, they rather wait until the rain starts and borrow an umbrella from the nearly deposit of the GIUC. The idea is that no matter who takes it and uses it they will return it to another deposit of the GIUC where umbrellas are missing from someone who didn’t have one and took it, used it and deposited it at another GIUC deposit.

While some people go out of their way to buy fancy small Totes, or very expensive umbrellas with designs and custom handles, I don’t see the point. All the umbrellas that are lost or left behind are eventually reclaimed by the GIUC and recycled. Therefore I firmly believe that no one should spend more than ¥500 on an umbrella, which you can purchase as any convenient store, of which now on my corner there are five.

So as you can see I’m never without an umbrella and I never get wet. Therefore I was hoping someone could tell me why when I was meeting two very cute girls for coffee after my lessons, the sky opened up on me and he GIUC was nowhere to help…

Wisdom of the Day: Never Trust the GIUC