I went out to get groceries right after work yesterday and as I was pulling out of my building I heard a loud "POP" sound. I wasn't sure what it was but didn't think much of it. I went and got groceries, did my thing and then came home. On the way back I could feel my steering vibrating back and forth and thought, "Sh*t, I know what that means." I did the standard test flat tire test and let go of the steering wheel. Sure enough, I slowly started to veer to the right. It was a slow leak so I was able to make it home safely. I intended to check on it when I got there but completely forgot about it.

I woke up this morning planning to drive to work but then I took one look at my car and yup, definitely had a flat tire. The rim was basically touching the ground! I ran back up to my apartment, got my bicycle key and biked to work. When I finished work today about an hour ago, the sun had already started to set (change of the seasons and all). I quickly biked home and raced to get the spare tire on before it got too dark to see. Luckily I was able to do it in 20 minutes after finding all the tools and sweating to get the bolts off. Once the tire was off I took a look at it and realized that the big popping sound I heard was a 3 inch screw entering my tire! I got the spare on and drove to the nearest gas station (which is literally a block from my house) and showed them my flat tire. There were three guys there so they said, "No problem" and fixed it right then and there for me. They took out the screw, stuck in what looked like a twig covered in glue and wha-la! Fixed. It took them less then 10 minutes to fix it, replace it, put the spare tire away and top up the pressure in all my tires.. and it only cost me 1575 yen! Japanese mechanics are awesome!