Hidden parking

While my son was at school, I ran across town to meet a friend for lunch.  She had a bag of clothes for my kid that I was going to pick up.  I could have taken the train to meet her, but I am trying not to take the train as much as possible.  So, I hopped on my bike and rode 40 minutes to meet her at a restaurant next to Wako Station.

When I arrived, I was greeted with signs everywhere indicating no bicycle parking.  After riding around the block twice, I was stumped.  Where was I supposed to park?  

I stopped my bike right in front of the restaurant and ran inside.  The woman hostess understood my inquiry and took me to the window.  There, she pointed to a ramp that went underground.  I thanked her and rushed back to my bike, hoping that a ticket wouldn't be attached to it.  Luckily there wasn't!  

I unlocked my bike and took it over to the ramp.  With stairs down the middle, there was a ramp on either side to wheel my bike down into the underworld.  Two floors down, I finally found a sea of parked bikes.  With a quick sense of relief, I parked my bicycle.  But then I noticed all the other bikes had tickets attached to them.  I didn't know where I needed to pay!

I looked around and made an educated guess as to where the ticket machine was located.  As I turned the corner, I found an employee standing in front of the ticket machine.  He had me grab my bike and bring it to where he was.  He then took my ¥140/$1.35 and deposited into the machine.  After the ticket printed, he affixed it to the back of my bike.  Then he showed me where to park.  

I, personally, don't think I really needed his help.  But, it was nice to know I was doing the right thing in this vast underground parking lot.  

Now that my bike was settled, I was able to go have a lovely lunch with my friend.  I mentioned the bike parking situation and she said it was quite common.  I guess I just never noticed since I had no idea what to even look for!

After lunch, I needed to pick up my bike.  I hiked back down to the parking lot and found my bicycle.  Another employee approached me and asked if I needed any help.  I did not.  In fact, I didn't even need help getting my bike up the two floors of ramps because there were little conveyor belts for the bikes.  

I don't know why my bike got to ride back up and I had to walk, but that's just the way it was.