ヒャクパー

I find myself running into a lot of these abbreviations or word-shortenings lately. Today I get to teach another not-quite-proper word that is very useful if you find yourself behind the wheel in Japan.

ヒャクパー would be properly written in Japanese as 百パー and if you can read the kanji there you might be able to guess what the word means...

But I'll wait for you...

Come on it ain't that hard...

Right on the tip of your tongue...

Give up?

百円パーキング or 100 yen parking.

These places are typically machine-driven with a small contraption under the car that pops up a metal gate that won't let the car roll out until the parking meter has been paid. I'm sure they have lots of these in other countries, but I don't live in other countries, so it's kind of hard to say. Anyway, the cheapest of these charge 100 yen per hour parked during the day, and sometimes they have standard all-night fees or night rates less than the day rate. Some, like the one we used today, is 100 yen per hour anytime, and there are only two of them right next to a vending machine on this poorly lit alley next to my apartment. Two of them, and they are the compact-size. It's kind of odd.