November 14, 2011

 

The morning was chilly, dew on the windshield, as I took the non-burnable trash up to the collection cage.  Normally I do not pull as close to the cage as I did this morning.  There are two small buildings to the side of this place and a driveway on the far right as you face it, and I usually backup to turn around there.  However, this day as I was backing up and turning the wheel to the right, I was aiming for the driveway but misjudged and hit the building instead.  I heard shattering glass as the rear window broke into a thousand pieces, easily a 1,000.   Oh, great, just what I need!  I did not get out and inspect the damage mostly because it was just me out there and I hit a building and not a person.  So, I returned home and woke up Henry and told him.  “It will be OK,” he said.  I was not convinced. 

After breakfast about 9:00 a.m. I walked to the gomi station to clean up the glass, armed with a dust pan and broom and trash bag. I forgot the camera.  A pile of black glass was around the corner of the building and in front of the sliding door.  This building is the local bulletin board.  I could see a crack in the wall by the door frame which went into the foundation about an inch or two, but nothing else.  Now, whether that was there before, I do not remember.  So it took about 10 minutes to clean up the broken glass from under rocks and around the door.  Since this trash could go out with the non-burnable stuff, I put it into one of the bags I brought up earlier.  Then I returned home and explained the damage I saw to Henry.  I thought it would be easy enough to repair. 

 

The frame has scratches, above, where the car hit it.

About 10:00 a.m. Henry took the van and the camera and inspected the damage.  The pictures showed some glass shards on the bulletin board frame that I did not see.  There was little damage to the car itself.  When he got back home he called the police and was told to go to the local station and file a report.  We drove the car to the Upper Hata Cho station, a little outpost really.  No police were there, but a phone was available and he called; someone would be there shortly.  About 10 minutes later a cruiser with flashing lights pulls up and two young officers step out.  Immediately they notice the back of the car—no window.  I noticed that one of the men was left-handed, which is really rare in Japan.  He said “southpaw!” when I said I was one also. 

 

After exchanging information on the car and my license, we led them over to the gomi station.  They determined that the car apparently hit the bulletin board frame and not the building where the crack was.  It was not a city building like the one next to it, so they would have to find out the owner and the owner would contact us.  They said not to worry about it as the apparent damage was very minimal. 

So that was the morning events here in Kobe.  Now to find out what the replacement window will cost…