Saturday, September 12, 2009

BLOW OUT!

I began saying our second week here that I "need a cell phone so I can call if something happens when I'm out exploring." After the safety briefing to get our Japanese license, I FEARED having an accident in Japan.

While I was tooling along to the Farmer's Market this week I hit a "curb". O.K. so the curbs here on the tight, windy roads are often more like "short walls". ANYWAY.....I hit it. The car seemed fine. I kept driving.

About 1/2 a mile down the road the tire BLEW....and the car did NOT want to do what I was telling it to do. I managed to make it to the Farmer's Market.

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They were wonderful and let me use their phone. You should know that here you pay for EVERY call you make on your own phone (yes, local calls cost). I was blessed they were so helpful. We tried to fix it, but were so HAPPY when Mike was able to come help us out.

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I plan to get a cell phone on the very next day Mike has time off....because I have to sign a contract in a foreign country to get it, and I don't work etc., I'd rather have Mike in on the deal. LOL Let's face it, I'm not great at reading the "fine print" in America and it's hopeless here where I honestly can't read the fine print. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sis:

WHEW! What a number on a tire. Glad Mike was able to help. Tell Alex we say thanks for trying to get the jack to work. Is Mike going to give all of you lessons on flat tires. :):):):)

Wow, I know some folks who would never be able to have a phone if they have to pay for every phone call. :):):) Not my case tho. I sometimes wonder why we even have a land line. Our Cell's however get good use.

love/prayers --- Mom T

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Cell phones are the same way here, Mom. We don't have to pay for calls we receive...but the plans don't have "free minutes" or "unlimited minutes" down here....we pay Y.42 for each minute.

Linda said...

Thankful you were safe. I experienced my first blowout on our trip to IL in July. It was scary, and I wasn't even driving!

Anonymous said...

what is a yen worth?

l/p Mom T.

Romany said...

Hi DeEtta,

I guess it is quite good that this happened early on in your stay in Japan, before the snow hits etc. You'll be extra cautious about those 'curbs' now!{g}

The very first time I went to visit Windy on base, I parked outside the main gate which has those high curbs (security measure, I would think). As I moved away, without thinking about those silly curbs, I managed to make a huge permanent dent in the side of our car which we've not been able to afford to fix. Silly me. Ah well. Lesson learned.

We have to pay for every call here with our pay-as-you-go mobiles. Contract mobiles have free texting and certain number of minutes per month or whatever.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Mom - Yen/Dollar goes up and down....has been as low as 87:1 and as high as 97:1 since I've been here. It's currently at 90:1.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Sounds like the same sort of curbs, Dorothy. Yeah, I figured the mobile phones would be pay as you go...but was surprised you have to pay for local calls from your home land line. Then again you have to BUY the line from the phone company - or rent it from your land lord or something....

Cynthia said...

It's interesting to read about all of the different things in Japan - phone calls included.

Jamin said...

Yall weren't off roading the Joy Mobile were you? :)

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Ah, Jamin, my son, we don't HAVE to go off roading for adventure any longer. LOL