on the brink

So, the other Friday night, pulling out of my parking spot, about to drive down to Shirahama to see some DJ's visiting from Canada spin, I backed into a rice paddy. Now you may say, no big whoop, rice is fairly soft and forgiving. But something that I didn't know before I came here either, is that rice paddies are located considerably below the actual road, some more than others. Needless to say, I have wondered ever since I got here, 1, when I was going to fall into one on my bike and 2, why I had never seen anyone else fall into one, in their car, on their bike or otherwise. Well, as I backed out of the driveway and was half way through the thought in my head, "one of these days I am gonna back right into that rice paddy," wham, half my car dropped below street level. My friend Belinda, in the passenger's seat, let out a yelp as I could only cover my mouth in shock. My Bluebird remained here for about 15 minutes as we pondered the next best step. One wheel completely off the curb, the other inches from joining it, thoughts of having to call a tow truck and negotiate in Japanese ran through my head and I silently prayed for the best, while still allowing myself to laugh helplessly. Belinda ran and got some of our friends for advice as I sat foot shaking from the pressure being put onto the brake pedal. Needless to say, I was able to quickly shift foot from brake to gas and gun it out of the predicament on to solid ground. Though a camera was on hand, unfortunately it was not used. Will have to use your imagination on this one.