西曆2013年 9月16日(月) 個人電子書簡（An incident in London）

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Hey, Nigel!

I’m nearly finishing my first time ever “round the world” journey, taking advantage of the Star Alliance deal. I’m currently in the farthest north in this travel, i.e. in England and staying with Prof Nxxxxx Pxxx in Oakham, Rutland. Before coming here, I was in Istanbul, before then in Tbilisi (in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia), Athens, Frankfurt (only a brief S-Bahn journey to Hauptbahnhof), Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo (only a brief shuttle bus ride to Praça da República), Santiago de Chile, Cartagena de Indias on the Caribbean Sea in Colombia, Mexico City, Los Angeles (only a brief taxi ride outside LAX airport), Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand, to put in a sort of anti- or reverse chronological order.

After all those travellings and trottings, I got into trouble—the first real trouble—yesterday (Sunday) in London. This is what I wrote to Nxxxxx the Professor in Oakham from my Holiday Inn Bloomsbury room in London immediately after the incident.

[Quote]

I’m in serious trouble right now with my Citibank card. The nearest cash machine I found around Russell Square Tube station was at HSBC Woburn Place Russell Square branch. I tried using the machine, which took away my precious card without even giving me the cash I demanded (100 pounds sterling). Then a white man approached me, saying that he also had his card taken by the same machine a while ago (Why didn’t he tell me before I had the same trouble?). Then a black man came up to me, saying “Oh, that machine took my card. It did the same to you?” These 2 men could be the culprits, but who knows and how could I prove?

Disgruntled I took photos of the bank branch name and the phone number. In my hotel room I phoned the wretched HSBC first, which in response said that all the cards taken away by a faulty machine will be destroyed for security reasons, which is their policy. I’d been thinking about coming back to the bank branch on Monday to take back my cash card, but it won’t be realised. Then I found the emergency phone number of Citibank UK’s London office on the Internet, but as soon as they knew that my card was issued in Japan, they said their network doesn’t cover Japanese branches. So I had to make an expensive overseas call to Citibank Japan’s Yokohama call centre to cancel all the potency of my card and get a re-issue of it. They of course immediately made the card invalid but unfortunately they won’t be able to give me the re-issue here in the UK, and I have to either go to one of their branches in Japan or await registered mail at home in Saitama.

This is certainly what you call a hitch, but I’ll keep calm and carry on to do things as I planned, i.e. walking in Bloomsbury and into the British Museum and take these afternoon trains from King’s Cross and then Peterborough. So despite my misery I’ll see you at Oakham station at 1519hrs.

Luckily I found a Post Office which has got a Bureau de Change section, where I can exchange 50 Euro for the Sterling, I think, today being Sunday though (I haven’t done this yet). And upon my arrival in Japan, I’ll exchange a US$100 banknote into the Japanese yen.

[Unquote]

I really couldn’t believe it myself. All those seemingly dangerous places like Mexico, Colombia and Brazil were all right, but out of all the places, in London which I mean to know fairly well, I got into that trouble. I went past that particular branch of HSBC twice (on my way to and from the British Museum) and saw victims like me twice. The former was a group of 3 young Chinese women (judging from their accent, Hong Kong people) and the latter was a white man, most probably British. I approached both of them and explained about my plight and advised them on what to do next. Although HSBC knew fully well about their faulty machine, having received my desperate phone call, they didn’t seem to have acted at all because it was Sunday. They should really have at least sent an employee to put a notice of “OUT OF ORDER” even if they couldn’t fix it right away that day. That’s why the number of victims like me only increased, and that was the only cash machine in the Russell Square area. I’ve been on holiday for quite some time and you might think I’m not really qualified to say this, but I must say British bank people should work more and that promptly. Anyhow never use a cash machine at weekends.

TH

○○先生

実はあんな暢気なメールを先生に送りつけてからほんの僅かの間に恐ろしい目に遭いました。イギリスではATM（当地では通常キャッシュマシーンと呼ばれ、特に建物の外壁に設置）の機械に細工をしてキャッシュカードを盗む犯罪が横行していることは昔から聞いていましたが、まさか自分がそうした被害（カード抜き取り事件）に遭うとは！昨日（日曜）呆然としてロンドンからオウカム（Oakham）の友人に送ったメールを自分で引用します。興奮して英語を2箇所間違えたようなので、後で自分で直しました。

I’m in serious trouble right now with my Citibank card. The nearest cash machine I found around Russell Square Tube station was at HSBC Woburn Place Russell Square branch. I tried using the machine, which took away my precious card without even giving me the cash I demanded (100 pounds sterling). Then a white man approached me, saying that he also had his card taken by the same machine a while ago (Why didn’t he tell me before I had the same trouble?). Then a black man came up to me, saying “Oh, that machine took my card. It did the same to you?” These 2 men could be the culprits, but who knows and how could I prove?

Disgruntled I took photos of the bank branch name and the phone number. In my hotel room I phoned the wretched HSBC first, which in response said that all the cards taken away by a faulty machine will be destroyed for security reasons, which is their policy. I’d been thinking about coming back to the bank branch on Monday to take back my cash card, but it won’t be realised. Then I found the emergency phone number of Citibank UK’s London office on the Internet, but as soon as they knew that my card was issued in Japan, they said their network doesn’t cover Japanese branches. So I had to make an expensive overseas call to Citibank Japan’s Yokohama call centre to cancel all the potency of my card and get a re-issue of it. They of course immediately made the card invalid but unfortunately they won’t be able to give me the re-issue here in the UK, and I have to either go to one of their branches in Japan or await registered mail at home in Saitama.

This is certainly what you call a hitch, but I’ll keep calm and carry on to do things as I planned, i.e. walking in Bloomsbury and into the British Museum and take these afternoon trains from King’s Cross and then Peterborough. So despite my misery I’ll see you at Oakham station at 1519hrs.

Luckily I found a Post Office which has got a Bureau de Change section, where I can exchange 50 Euro for the Sterling, I think, today being Sunday though (I haven’t done this yet). And upon my arrival in Japan, I’ll exchange a US$100 banknote into the Japanese yen.

という次第でありまして、自分でも信じられません。あれほど危険とされたメキシコやコロンビアやブラジルでこれといったトラブルもなく過ごしながら、勝手知ったる積りの英京倫敦でまさかのトラブル発生です。あれから件のATMの前を二度（大英博物館訪問の前後）通りかかりましたが、私と同じような被害者が呆然と立ち尽くしていました。最初は中国人の若い女性3人組で、アクセントの感じから香港の人のようでした。そこで私は自分の蒙った被害について説明しました。次に見たのは中年の白人男性で、やはりこの人にも自分の状況を説明してあげました。HSBC銀行（英国四大銀行の1つ）には機械が所謂フォールティ・マシーンであることを電話で訴えたにも拘わらず、銀行は日曜日だからということでメカニックはおろか行員も派遣しようとせず、私のような被害者が続出している模様です。というのも、ここがラッセル・スクエア地下鉄駅附近で唯一のATMだからです。遊び回っている私が言うのも何ですが、仕事をしないイギリス人にも困りものです。

英国オウカム市にて

原田俊明