They are serious this time!!

By 'they' I meant the ward offices, the police, and the traffic patrol dudes.

Effective on April 1, 2006, you are no longer allowed to park your two-wheel vehicles on the sideways or pedestrian walk of major streets. They would give a warning and within 2-3 hours, they would pick the bikes up and load them into a pickup truck and store it at the impounded vehicles center. You will have to pay some fine to be able to get your bike again. The amount varies from ward to ward.

I had no knowledge of this new regulation enactment until about a month ago.
One Sunday I took my scooter to work and parked it at the usual spot, at the pedestrian area right in front of my office building. I was inside the research facility from 8 AM 'till around 6 PM. When I went to the scooter, there was a very large piece of paper in Japanese and English, announcing the police is suspecting that my lovely scooter is an abandoned vehicle.



If it is not picked up until the following day, it would be impounded. And by the way, they are going to send a ticket to fine the owner of the vehicle. And one more thing, if the driver (not necessarily the owner of the vehicle) report him/herself to the Nishi Azabu police station within 30 days, then s/he will not be getting a parking violation ticket (but the owner will still have to pay the vehicle abandoning ticket).

Another incident happened just today. I had to go to Apple Store in Shibuya to get my iPod fixed. I rode my bicycle there and parked it right in front of the store by a phone booth.
I was in the store for about 1 hour. And then I had to run some more errands to a few nearby stores, and decided to leave my bicycle in front of the Apple Store to minimize hassle. I recalled seeing that there was a piece of paper that was stuck to my bike and all of the other bikes on that street. I made a split second decision, noting that there were at least 10 other bicycles and 5 motorcycles, I reasoned that the bike can stay for another 30 minutes or so.
Coming back from running my errands, I was dumbfounded. My bicycle was GONE! With quite a few shopping bags, it just seemed to be far too complicated to try to go to a nearby koban and try to figure out what the heck happened to my handsome Mr. Spalding .
I looked down the road and there were still a few more bikes that didn't get picked up (yet, that is). So I ran to find out if maybe a phone number was stuck somewhere and I could just call up someone.

Just my luck! The oniisans who were picking up the bicycle poked me on the shoulder when I was reading the notice on somebody else's bike. He said, "You lost a bike?"
So I told him that as a matter of fact, yes, my bike went missing. He chuckled and said, "Well you're in luck. The truck is still here, go ahead and see if you can find your bike. Shibuya-ku is not kidding about towing away vehicles from busy streets, so park it well from next time, OK? We patrol 3-4 times a day at least."

So, fellow riders, be extra careful when you park your two-wheels, they are serious this time.