Wait for me, you're under arrest!

I have written previously about an experience involving the Tokyo police. Today we had another.

Just off the phone with the US, it was the middle of the night here and since we were both wide awake we decided to go out for a walk. 

One can do that here, thanks in part to the Tokyo police, and thanks in part, I do believe, to a society that believes in teaching morality in the classroom, and, indeed, in every activity every day. (Yes, it can be heavy sometimes, but it works.)

Tokyo has small police offices called 'koban' all over the city. Just as we were passing one of these, a taxi pulled away from the curb outside. Not sure what the taxi did to incur his wrath, but the officer inside sprung from the door, mounted his bicycle, and took out after it. (We were close to being casualties of a police chase, though the damages would have likely been something like a bruise or a skinned knee.)

Now, I'm guessing that the officer saw that the taxi was at a red light and figured he had a shot. But it's funnier to think of the officer huffing and puffing down the street falling further and further behind the taxi, only to be saved by a red light. You choose the version you like. I'm actually not entirely sure, except that the officer did only travel about 100 yards, or meters as they're called in this part of the world.

Anyway, at the red light, the officer blew his whistle and wheeled in front of the the taxi. When the light changed he directed it to an open spot under a bridge where I assume they conducted the kind of business that gets conducted at times like this.

Needless to say, watching a bicycle cop chase down a taxi is not something one gets to do just every day.

By the way, one of my wife's friends said she'd heard that police boxes are called koban even in the US. My wife said no. I asked, "Do we even have police boxes in the US?" Maybe in NYC or somewhere, but, according to TV, the officers all spring out of precinct houses and head out on patrol. No?

Oh, and if koban sounds vaguely familiar, you might be thinking of the Japanese evening greeting konbanwa though it has nothing in common with the police box besides a few shared syllables and the fact that it's very likely said to and by officers sometimes, mostly in the evening one would expect. Perhaps it was even said by a very contrite taxi driver last night.