Reason #397 Why Flip-Flops are a Poor Choice

Once upon a time, an American girl moved to Japan, where she had the options of walking, taking public transportation, or riding a bicycle. For the first week or so she walked to nearby places and took a bus whenever she wanted to venture away from her little neighborhood. Then one day she found a bicycle shop that would accept her American debit card, and decided to buy this 6-speed beauty for a mere $155 (most geared bikes she'd seen elsewhere were at least $250):

(Complete with front basket, headlight, skirt guard, lock, and free delivery!)

She was afraid to ride it in a foreign land where you must look right first instead of left. But she knew her life would be much more convenient with the addition of her bicycle, and decided to take it for a quick ride down to the supermarket.

She was amazed at how quickly she got to the store! On foot, it would have been a 15 minute trip--but with her bicycle, it took less than 5 minutes! She parked her bicycle in front of the shop. When she looked outside a few minutes later, she saw that for once, the meteorologists had meant it when they called for rain and thunderstorms.

First, she tried to find a poncho for sale at the drug store across from the supermarket. When that failed, she decided to try to just wait out the storm. After 20 minutes she realized the rain wasn't letting up any time soon, and decided to buy a cheap umbrella and head back...pushing her bicycle, since it's illegal (not to mention dangerous) to ride while holding an umbrella.

Thirty minutes later she made it back to her dormitory, thoroughly soaked and annoyed at the seeming uselessness of her new umbrella.