Driving
When I changed schools a couple of years ago, I started teaching classes at off-site locations, such as at two preschools and a group lesson at the Science and Technology University. In order to teach those lessons, I had to get to them, which meant driving. Which meant I had to get a Japanese driver's license. Depending on what country you come from, the requirements are different. I'm from the US, which meant...
First off, the Japanese driving test has two parts, a written portion and a driving portion. I studied a book for the written portion- rules of the road, what the signs mean, etc. The day of the test came and... what the heck did I study for? The test is translated into English. They give you a whopping ten questions chosen at random out of a book of about 100 questions. Each question has an illustration at the top of the page, such as a picture of a street that runs in front of a fire station or a hospital. There's a question underneath along the lines of "If you see these marks on the road, you may park in that space. Yes or No?" The marks, by the way, are on the road in front of the big garage door where the fire truck is pulling out. Hmmm, wonder what the answer is? Come on, it's a no-brainer. You park there, you're going to get run over by that fire truck.
Then comes the driving test. Some people claim that there's a quota of number of times you have to take the test before they will let you pass. Others say that they're just very picky about foreigners taking the test, or that they fail a lot of people to help drive up revenue (you must pay each time you take the test). While I do hear a lot of stories about people having to take the test multiple times, there is no quota system. I have heard from some people who have passed it on the first try, but such people are the exception, not the rule. Most people have taken it at least 3 times. I made it on my second time. The first time... I was failed for not coming to a complete stop. It was at a spot on the course where there's a T-style intersection. I pulled up and stopped. Just as I was started going, a semi truck (they test on the same course) that had been parked on the side began moving. I stopped again. The semi rolled forward a few feet (still a little way off) and stopped again. I pulled out and started driving. The examiner said "No rolling stop- Fail" and had me return to the testing center. I didn't bother to argue that I had stopped (twice!) because I knew it wouldn't win me any points anyway. The second time I took the test, I passed. One thing I highly recommend to anyone taking the test: go to a driving school, fork over the money to get one of the instructors to take you on the course and tell you exactly what the examiners are looking for. It was very helpful to have someone say "when you get to this tree on the side, start to signal" instead of estimating where 30 meters ahead of the turn is. They will also tell you exactly what to do on the "S" and "the crank" parts of the course. (Note, I did not actually take a full drivers ed course, I had one session with one of the instructors on the driving course itself.)
So I've got my license, it's time to drive. This is a white-knuckle experience. Not because I'm a particularly bad driver or anything, but because Japanese people in cars are freaking insane. Turning signals are unheard of, and lane changes are done randomly without checking blind spots (I've seen police cars do that). You may park anywhere as long as you turn on your hazard lights; including the passing lane and the middle of the intersection (that's only a mild exaggeration). In the US, the traffic signals are thus: red light means stop, green light means go, yellow light means go faster. In Japan: blue light (it's still green but any Japanese person will call it blue) means go. Yellow means the other direction of traffic will start moving without waiting for you to stop, and red means 7 more cars go. I can't count the number of times I've approached an intersection that was turning yellow, thought "I really should stop, but I think I can make it," seen it hit red just as I enter the intersection and think I just squeaked through, then look in my rearview mirror and see that the next 5 cars behind me also went through. Further Japanese driving habits: rearview mirrors are for doing makeup. Not uncommon in the US, but again this is taken to extremes here. People do not use the mirrors when backing into a parking space. It's a common sight to see someone backing up with their driver's side door open, leaning out of the car, and looking backwards. Technology has also had a hand in making the use of the mirror obsolete. A friend of mine has a GPS system in his car with a screen that shows a map (and can get TV stations and be hooked up to a DVD player- no reason to miss a good movie while you drive), but can be switched over to a camera system showing the immediate area behind the car. I actually kinda like that one.
It took some adjusting to get used to driving here. For one thing, the other side of the road. That wasn't so bad. You just have to remember that the right side is the wrong side, the left side is the right side, Who's on first, What's on... Worse was that the turn signals and the wipers have also been switched to the opposite side. I kept turning on my wipers every time I tried to signal until I caught on that Japanese people keep doing that, too, which is why they never use the signal (unless it's raining?). But by far the most difficult thing to adjust to has been trying to park FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR. Seriously, this throws me off way more than it should. After more than a year of driving here, I STILL can't back into a parking space to save my life. Luckily that's rarely a life or death sort of thing. You never see Arnold Schwarzennegar screaming "PARK IT! PARK IT NOW"!" in the movies. I still end up having to start backing in, pull forward, back up, adjust again, etc. It doesn't help that my car is just plain weird. I can't see the front or the back of it very well so it's all guesswork. Maybe if I start opening my door and looking back while I park?
Incidentally, my US driver's license expired on my last birthday, and I wasn't there to renew it. I suppose I'll have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get that renewed. I suppose if I go back for a short trip, I could try getting an international license based off my valid Japanese license. Imagine trying to explain that if I get pulled over. "Well, see, officer, that line's written in Kanji, it says...".
Nowadays I've got a co-pilot quite often. Just to include the dog in the post, Nana has claimed the passenger seat. I've been lucky with her. This is her typical car behavior:
Sometimes she decides that my lap is a better place to sleep. But she's definitely not a leaning out the window sort of dog.
First off, the Japanese driving test has two parts, a written portion and a driving portion. I studied a book for the written portion- rules of the road, what the signs mean, etc. The day of the test came and... what the heck did I study for? The test is translated into English. They give you a whopping ten questions chosen at random out of a book of about 100 questions. Each question has an illustration at the top of the page, such as a picture of a street that runs in front of a fire station or a hospital. There's a question underneath along the lines of "If you see these marks on the road, you may park in that space. Yes or No?" The marks, by the way, are on the road in front of the big garage door where the fire truck is pulling out. Hmmm, wonder what the answer is? Come on, it's a no-brainer. You park there, you're going to get run over by that fire truck.
Then comes the driving test. Some people claim that there's a quota of number of times you have to take the test before they will let you pass. Others say that they're just very picky about foreigners taking the test, or that they fail a lot of people to help drive up revenue (you must pay each time you take the test). While I do hear a lot of stories about people having to take the test multiple times, there is no quota system. I have heard from some people who have passed it on the first try, but such people are the exception, not the rule. Most people have taken it at least 3 times. I made it on my second time. The first time... I was failed for not coming to a complete stop. It was at a spot on the course where there's a T-style intersection. I pulled up and stopped. Just as I was started going, a semi truck (they test on the same course) that had been parked on the side began moving. I stopped again. The semi rolled forward a few feet (still a little way off) and stopped again. I pulled out and started driving. The examiner said "No rolling stop- Fail" and had me return to the testing center. I didn't bother to argue that I had stopped (twice!) because I knew it wouldn't win me any points anyway. The second time I took the test, I passed. One thing I highly recommend to anyone taking the test: go to a driving school, fork over the money to get one of the instructors to take you on the course and tell you exactly what the examiners are looking for. It was very helpful to have someone say "when you get to this tree on the side, start to signal" instead of estimating where 30 meters ahead of the turn is. They will also tell you exactly what to do on the "S" and "the crank" parts of the course. (Note, I did not actually take a full drivers ed course, I had one session with one of the instructors on the driving course itself.)
So I've got my license, it's time to drive. This is a white-knuckle experience. Not because I'm a particularly bad driver or anything, but because Japanese people in cars are freaking insane. Turning signals are unheard of, and lane changes are done randomly without checking blind spots (I've seen police cars do that). You may park anywhere as long as you turn on your hazard lights; including the passing lane and the middle of the intersection (that's only a mild exaggeration). In the US, the traffic signals are thus: red light means stop, green light means go, yellow light means go faster. In Japan: blue light (it's still green but any Japanese person will call it blue) means go. Yellow means the other direction of traffic will start moving without waiting for you to stop, and red means 7 more cars go. I can't count the number of times I've approached an intersection that was turning yellow, thought "I really should stop, but I think I can make it," seen it hit red just as I enter the intersection and think I just squeaked through, then look in my rearview mirror and see that the next 5 cars behind me also went through. Further Japanese driving habits: rearview mirrors are for doing makeup. Not uncommon in the US, but again this is taken to extremes here. People do not use the mirrors when backing into a parking space. It's a common sight to see someone backing up with their driver's side door open, leaning out of the car, and looking backwards. Technology has also had a hand in making the use of the mirror obsolete. A friend of mine has a GPS system in his car with a screen that shows a map (and can get TV stations and be hooked up to a DVD player- no reason to miss a good movie while you drive), but can be switched over to a camera system showing the immediate area behind the car. I actually kinda like that one.
It took some adjusting to get used to driving here. For one thing, the other side of the road. That wasn't so bad. You just have to remember that the right side is the wrong side, the left side is the right side, Who's on first, What's on... Worse was that the turn signals and the wipers have also been switched to the opposite side. I kept turning on my wipers every time I tried to signal until I caught on that Japanese people keep doing that, too, which is why they never use the signal (unless it's raining?). But by far the most difficult thing to adjust to has been trying to park FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR. Seriously, this throws me off way more than it should. After more than a year of driving here, I STILL can't back into a parking space to save my life. Luckily that's rarely a life or death sort of thing. You never see Arnold Schwarzennegar screaming "PARK IT! PARK IT NOW"!" in the movies. I still end up having to start backing in, pull forward, back up, adjust again, etc. It doesn't help that my car is just plain weird. I can't see the front or the back of it very well so it's all guesswork. Maybe if I start opening my door and looking back while I park?
Incidentally, my US driver's license expired on my last birthday, and I wasn't there to renew it. I suppose I'll have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get that renewed. I suppose if I go back for a short trip, I could try getting an international license based off my valid Japanese license. Imagine trying to explain that if I get pulled over. "Well, see, officer, that line's written in Kanji, it says...".
Nowadays I've got a co-pilot quite often. Just to include the dog in the post, Nana has claimed the passenger seat. I've been lucky with her. This is her typical car behavior:
Sometimes she decides that my lap is a better place to sleep. But she's definitely not a leaning out the window sort of dog.
(Anonymous)
*squeal*
-Puppyspice
Re: *squeal*