Thursday, September 11
So we finally got the car last night, and while it will allow us to actually grocery shop and eat at home, it was far too late to hit up a grocery store with any real amount of time to both learn what the store has that we are somewhat familiar with AND make an educated purchase. Thus, dinner consisted of instant Ramen noodles (think Mr. Noodles but much more authentic), ready made hamburger patties w/Tonkatsu sauce, and grape Fanta. But before we could eat, we needed something to boil water in.
This meant a trip back to our old apartment to claim the dishes we had left behind. We were on the way back to the house when I had the good fortune to experience something I had noticed earlier: the craziness that is the Japanese traffic system. It's not that the Japanese are crazy drivers (though they are a little when it comes to the extremely narrow back roads, which are supposedly WIDE for Japan), it's that there are these delightful sections of road where the layout is ambiguous, misleading, or JUST PLAIN WRONG! I had seen this as a passenger earlier in the day driving to a school with the teacher I'm replacing. We were heading down a straight stretch of road, at least 3 lanes wide, and while crossing a major intersection, a lane simply disappeared, with no heads up. Suddenly we're in oncoming traffic and forced to wait while traffic let us back in, as well as the many native Japanese who were caught unawares as well.
Back to my experience. We're making a right hand turn onto a main roadway (keep in mind this would be a left hand turn back home), and as it's a fairly wide street, I wanted to ensure that I didn't drift into the lane that oncoming traffic would be turning left into. I did the obvious thing and followed the line painted on the road. Big mistake. Suffice to say, we ended up in oncoming traffic (which was stopped of course) and I had to dart through a small gap in the median to get back on my side.
Moral of the story? Don't trust the lanes painted on the road in Japan. *Sigh*
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3 comments:
Oh I couldn't help laughing over your story. Knowing you, you will be used to it all in no time.
However, when we come to visit, be sure NOT to let me drive. I could just see the News Headlines..."Canadian woman cause of worst traffic jam in history of Japan!"
well its me karen, and whats wrong with coke ?
coke has majority because its that much better....
The cans are very artistic you can make a picture wall hehehe by the time your done you'll never go back!!!
LOL I'm sorry, I was laughing too.
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