If you give a mouse a cookie..

Well, I was in for quite the weekend just this last week!

Here in Japan we were forewarned about a typhoon coming up and around our way. Even to Hokkaido.

Had I more time and if I knew which resources to check, aside from television and the odd web page, I would have been better informed about what this coming typhoon would mean.

I only hope that the more heavily affected areas of Japan are doing well and okay ! Every now and again I catch a glimpse of people being evacuated from their homes due to the rising waters -due rain!

But, with that being said, I had a plan to travel to Sapporo this last weekend. I had booked my bus ticket ahead of time and even showed up at the bus ‘tei’ or bus stop early to make sure everything went as planned. Well, everything went as planned alright -that being that you usually go to a bus stop to wait. And I waited.

More than three hours, in fact.

It would seem that due to the typhoon and heavy rains part of the roadway was closed and therefore I could not board the morning bus! So, I’m guessing that bus did not quite make it up to my part of town.

I did however catch the next bus, much to my relief, and didn’t have to cancel or change any of my travel plans. Again, thoughts sent out to all affected by the weather here!

Okay. Good and fun shopping weekends aside, this post is centered not quite on ‘mice’ but on money. Have you heard that story, ‘If you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want a glass of milk..’

Well, in Canada I have always been happy to stop, drop and pick up most if not all of the pennies I see. Maybe I’m just thrifty like that. BUT..

On the way home at one of our rest stops along the highway something was up.

I was standing in line hoping to buy some form of dinner. But there was none outside of the three dollar takoyaki octopus balls you could buy from the nearest vending machine. Yes, I said vending machine. And yes, they taste just fine.

While I was standing in line looking for something to buy aside from cookies and cheese (meant to be sold as gifts) I saw one of the most beautiful things. Five dollars. Okay, well, five hundred yen.

It was laying right there on the floor between the cracker and crisp ailes looking at me. And I was looking back at the five hundred yen coin.

At this point I might add, yes, money is money. But in Japan there are certain unsaid rules about some things. How, for example, when you visit a coffee shop its perfectly, if not mostly, normal to leave your wallet or purse at the table you wish to use and then wander off to buy your coffee before coming back to sit.

No worries, no hassel, no theft. All this given my understanding of things.

But in this line up of about fifteen of us, and mind you these five hundred yen coins are pretty big, not one single person touched the coin.

You can imagine my frusteration at this point. If I have no problem picking up pennies in Canada -in bathrooms (okay, maybe not in bathrooms), stores, outside- surely I would have just died to go and pick up this coin.

But nobody moved. And nobody touched the coin.

I followed suit. I didn’t touch the coin either.

The moral of the story is if you let me pick up pennies in Canada, you should let me pick up coins in Japan.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me.

Luckily however, I boarded the bus on time and made it home safe. I wonder about the coin though. Did it make it home? Did someone use it to buy some takoyaki from the nearest vending machine so as to curb their hunger?

I guess I’ll never know.

Have you found any coins, change, or bills lately? If so, great! If not, happy hunting. .