| Coin-locker | |
March 15, 2015
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| She had a key for a coin-locker in her smartphone. In this society, because of eco-friendly policies, all rentals were highly recommended by the government, even for a short period of time. There were a series of coin-lockers around each corner of town: in train stations, even in convenient stores. She was an office worker working in the downtown area. On this particular morning, she got off the train two stations earlier than the normal one nearest to her office. She took out her smartphone and checked the coin-locker where her rental item would be in. Soon she found a series of coin-lockers, and her smartphone showed her the number, it was K102. Actually, on the train, looking at the view outside, she had had a yearning to exercise. So she searched for a means of exercising on her phone, and made a 'reservation'. In front of K102, she pressed the 'open' button on the screen of her phone. Soon the sound of an unlocking door sounded. (So, calling it a 'coin-locker' is not precisely correct.) She opened the door. Her item was folded. She carefully took it out. It was light and
She brought it into the street. She put her handbag around her neck. She got on the bike, and swiftly started to pedal. It was a fine day for cycling. The sun was shining, the breeze was gentle and refreshing. She set her smartphone on the handle of the bike. It started to navigate her present location and her office. The system chose the safest course for a bicycle. Soon she realized there were many cyclists around her. Recently, thanks to this coin-locker system and high-quality fold-up bicycles, many people used this type of bicycles. The bicycles had a GPS so they were easily tracked by the management company; in this case, a big delivery service company offered this service. After a while, her smartphone read the electric charge of bike's battery. It means that the electricity that she generated equaled to a certain amount of points, and the points were saved in her account. At the end of the month, this bike's rental fee would be balanced out to the generated electricity. So the more she generated, the less she would pay for the rental fee. She knew this when she reserved the bicycle. She happily sped up. Her smartphone also read her present expenditure of calories. It also helped her motivation to pedal harder. She switched the camera on the smartphone. It started to record the beautiful sight of the roadside trees and shops. She could use the video for her Facebook page. After a while, she stopped by the convenience store and bought a bottle of sports drink and wet-tissues. She went to a small park and took a little rest. After getting energy, she restarted. After a while, when her job place came nearer, her smartphone started to introduce the coin-lockers to where she could return the bicycle. She found one of them. She easily came in front of the number of the coin-locker her phone showed. She wiped her sweat from the bicycle with her wet-tissues. She folded the bicycle. She opened the door of the coin-locker and put the bicycle in, saying thank you. She took off her hand bag from around her neck and took a big breath. She started to walk to her office. She needed several minutes to walk to calm her breathing. Her day started good. |
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*period 期間
*particular ある
*would だろうはずの
*yearn 焦がれる
*precisely 厳密に
*procedure 手順
*thanks to おかげ
*track 追跡する
*balance out 差し引く
*the more the less するほど少なくなる
*expenditure 消費量