Sunday, March 13, 2011

Sunday's Silly Sign (Photo) Escalator Warnings

These signs may be seen in just about any store in Japan that has an escalator.  Call this a drive by shooting. RyukyuMike has been banned from taking photos with a real camera in this store so, the only option I had the other day was  do like everybody else; don't ask and just shoot with my cell phone camera.

The silly sign isn't at the bottom or the top of the escalator. That would have made it easy to snap a photo.

What I had to do was send the wife up ahead of me. Then, jump on the escalator , whip out my cell phone, crouch down and make sure it was in the Photo Mode, try not to loose my balance and get the cheap camera to focus on a moving target.

Well, the danged steps on that contraption move too fast for a gentleman of my age and the stupid camera wouldn't focus fast enough. So, it took me several attempts, going up and down the escalator.

The wife wouldn't go along with my plan after the first unsuccessful attempt. Women get embarrassed, I guess, when men do stupid things.

So, I told her to just keep all the salespeople busy so they wouldn't notice me riding up and down the escalator half a dozen times. She could cause a distraction on the second floor like, pretend she had a few thousand dollars to spend on underwear and jewelry. That'd cause a distraction. I've done it before.

After several attempts, these drive by shooting-looking photos for this week's Sunday Silly Sign are going to have to do the trick. I deleted 10 or so worse ones than these.

One time, I was squatting on the stairs, riding on the down side and figured the camera might focus and snap the photo quicker with the flash turned on. The silly sign was near the bottom third of the ride. I was concentrating on my shooting and not paying attention to how close it was to the first floor.

You know what happens when you get to the end of the ride and forget to step off ?
The thing throws you off and you land sprawled out on the floor.

People were looking at me like I was crazy. Hah !

In case you haven't figured the sign out, yet, it warns people not to hang over the handrails while riding the thing. That's so you don't bonk your head on something like the ceiling of the second floor.

Probably, after they saw what happened to me, they should make a sign warning people to be careful while using their cell phones on the escalators. The thing could throw you off going up or down, if you're not paying attention, I bet.  Maybe, I'll just take the stairs next time.


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6 comments:

Ryan said...

Maybe this could be a new career path for you, the escalator health and safety guy.

RyukyuMike said...

Ryan,
Hey ! Why didn't I think of that before? Escalator Inspector or the Inspector of Escalators, hmm...

Cathy Sweeney said...

I love silly signs -- keep taking photos of them (just don't risk life and limb to do so).

RyukyuMike said...

Cathy,
Aw, that wasn't risking life and limb. Just a bit of a financial risk. You wouldn't believe how much the wife can spend when I turn her loose to cause a distraction!

Unknown said...

Good way to spend an otherwise boring Sunday :):)

RyukyuMike said...

LadyE,
Hah, there's no such thing as a boring Sunday in Okinawa. Weekends are the busy time of the week for me. You know, festivals, hangovers, parties, and stuff like that!