Jul. 5, 2022
I went to the License Bureau in Makuhari this morning. My driving license was up for renewal. I woke up at 7:30 am. way earlier than I usually do. I left home around a quarter past 8 on my Kawasaki Vulcan S into heavy morning traffic. A 45-minute ride took me to the Bureau. There were already long queues at 9:00 am. in the Bureau waiting for a series of procedures required before listening to a mandatory lecture on traffic safety.
It was 10:15 when I finally showed into a lecture room. An instructor played a DVD. It started with an interview of a mother who lost her beloved son in a traffic accident. After his death the mother found seeds of morning glory hidden inside fake 'kagami-mochi', offertory rice cakes in the altar. The mother took the seeds to the principal of her late son's school, and asked him to sow the seeds and grow the morning glories as a symbol for traffic safety.
The instructor then shared some traffic data. According to him more than 60% of traffic-related deaths in Chiba involve elderly people. He mentioned some unpredictable nature of elderly behavior which was interesting to me. For example, in one accident, a man was driving down a quiet lane when an elderly woman suddenly came out from between two cars standing on the opposite lane, and she was hit by the car to death.
The instructor also mentioned drunken driving and pedestrian crossing. At a pedestrian crossing with no traffic lights pedestrians have the right of way. Drivers, motorcyclists, and even bicyclists, must stop and let her go when they see a pedestrian trying to walk on the crossing. So often do we tend to ignore them when we see pedestrians trying to walk on a crossing. From now on, I'll always stop and let the pedestrian go first when I see one waiting to walk on a crossing.
At 10:45 I received my new license. I was hungry because I had nothing but a few spoonfuls of yogurt before I leflt home, so I want to a rather shabby convenience store inside the Bureau to buy a cup of instand noodles for a quick bite. I had to eat something soon, because I was going to give blood at the Red Cross across from the License Bureau. They sometimes won't let you give blood when you have not eaten for a while before blood donation.
It was my 54th donation. I need to give myself 3 months before I give another donation. So my next soonest timing is September. Should I give blood then, my number of blood donations will be only 1 short of my age, which will have been 56 by September. My short-term goal is to make the number of donations the same as my age. If I donate blood twice more this year, I can achieve that goal. We'll see.
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