A Brush with the Law...

Today was an adventure for us... we hopped in the car and headed for our first trip to Yokohoma, a town that is only about 30 minutes away! We had a map to get to the Yokohoma Country Club for a soccer tournament - surely it couldn't be that hard, huh? Our car has no navigation system but fortunately we discovered that my iPhone has a GPS tracking system so we followed the little blue dot that somehow led us to the club! We had a great day in the sun watching Nicholas play soccer while looking at the ocean on the horizon.

We headed home and had a  much easier time finding the way - no little blue dot needed! We made it to the highway offramp and Chris decided he wanted to take a right because that way would get to our house quicker... however, there was a sign that indicated left turn only between 8 and 8 - it was about 4... But Chris said he'd "play dumb" while I said "I hope there's not a cop nearby." And we turned right, stopped at the light, and that's when I heard Chris say "Oh crap."

It's worth mentioning at this point that Chris has no Japanese license.

I look out the window and there he is, Mr. Japanese Police Man... we roll down the window and proceeded to set an outstanding lesson for our two children. The police man said something about "Nihon-go blah blah blah desu ka?" I think that meant do you speak Japanese? That one's easy. NO. He then starts pointing something about "Hidari something tomate something blah blah, kudasai." We knew that meant got to the left and stop please but worked "hard" to decipher what he said. We pulled to the left while the policeman pulled his car over - we looked at one another, and I offered Chris the best advice I knew - play stupid, we do not know Japanese, and say we're sorry -  ALOT!!

He comes to the window again and starts the same way, "Nihon-go blah blah blah" - insert look of sheer stupidity between Chris and I... no, we don't speak the language, "Gomensae" - so sorry! He asks for our driver's license, I look at Chris, he looks at me, we shuffle around, and then I pull out MY license and hand it to the man. Chris says his is "at home" - The guy tries again, then points to where we were and says "left turn only" - OOOOOOOH! We say and look at each other as if this was a surprise to us... "Gomenasai" again a few more times. Then the guy looks at us because he realizes he's getting no where - "Next time take license" he says to Chris... Chris looks again as if this was a piece of new information and says "ah, hai, gomenasai" - (yes I'm sorry!). He hands me back my license which was so helpful in this process and then moves along. And we drive away with little smirks on our faces...

That is until I turn around and see my little boy who clearly knows that we are big, fat liars. Without any discussion he said, "it's OK, I know why you did that - you didn't want a ticket." Guess we certainly set a bad example here but Chris learned a lesson... he proclaimed that he really should follow the rules of the road since he doesn't yet have his license.

At least one of use learned a valuable lesson today...