Driving in Japan
Since I have started driving in Japan, I thought I would write a blog about what it is like. First of all, my company car is a small Daihatsu (600cc) with “Let’s English” advertised all over it. The back seats are so small that only small people can fit back there and even then you wouldn’t want to ride back there for too long.
In Japan one drives on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is generally on the right-hand side (although it is not uncommon to see a car with the steering wheel on the left because it is seen as trendy to buy European cars direct from Europe where they drive on the right). That was strange at first and I had to keep saying to myself, “Stay on the left! Stay on the left!”. But it becomes second nature pretty quickly. The roads around here can be very narrow, but are still two-way roads. Sometimes you just have to stop and get over as far as you can and let the other person pass. You do have to be careful not to do a nose dive into a rice paddy seeing as there are no guard rails. There are lots and lots of reflecting mirrors which are essential considering all of the blind curves and intersections.
One feature that I really love about driving here is that when you are sitting in the intersection at a signal waiting to make a right-hand turn (same kind as a left-hand turn in the US) there is a clear mark on the road that shows where to stop before turning and then if there is so much traffic that you can’t turn until the light turns yellow or red, there is then a green turn arrow that allows several cars to go ahead and make the turn. It eliminates backed up traffic and the apprehension of getting stuck out in the middle of the intersection.
The speed limits are a little lower than back in the US. Main city streets are 40 km/hr (25 mph). Highways are either 70 or 80 km/hr (45-50 mph). But one thing that is the same as back home is the number of people who tailgate and speed. I guess once people get behind the wheel of a car they tend to become impatient the world over!
Generally speaking driving here is easy and the roads are so well marked with freshly painted lines, many reflectors for night driving, signs in English and Japanese, and no pot holes. Speaking of pot holes, I mentioned the term to some of my high level students and not only had they never heard the word “pot hole” they had never even heard of the concept! They couldn’t understand why or how a road would just start to fall apart! Japan puts a lot of tax dollars into the roads, so they are very well maintained. (interestingly, I looked up “pot hole” in my Japanese dictionary and the Japanese word is “ana”)
Many Japanese highways are toll roads. And it doesn’t come cheap. I guess that’s another reason the roads are well maintained. They collect massive tolls! Damien and I recently drove to a town about an hour away on the highway and it cost US$22.00 one way! Gas is also expensive (125 Yen per liter. I can’t get my head around all the conversions it takes to figure out what that is in dollars per gallon!) But my car in Japan is about half the capacity as my Honda Civic was in the US, but it costs more to fill my car here. And pumping gas is really easy. Just lift the nozzle, push a button, pump and go inside to pay. They don’t use credit cards much in Japan so there is no such thing as paying at the pump. Of course there isn’t much crime either so people don’t abuse the system.
We try not to rely on the car too much and walk or take the train if we can, but it is nice to have a car in a city like Kani because there are times when we want to buy something large or want to go somewhere that is inaccessible by public transport.
Eventually, Damien and I will have to get regular Japanese driver’s licenses. Australians can just get one based on the validity of their Australian one. But American’s can’t (because America doesn’t recognize foreign licenses), so I will have to pay to take driving lesson and then pay to take driving tests. My co-worker from South Africa just had to do that because South Africans are in the same boat as Americans. She had to take the test three times before they passed her!!
In Japan one drives on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is generally on the right-hand side (although it is not uncommon to see a car with the steering wheel on the left because it is seen as trendy to buy European cars direct from Europe where they drive on the right). That was strange at first and I had to keep saying to myself, “Stay on the left! Stay on the left!”. But it becomes second nature pretty quickly. The roads around here can be very narrow, but are still two-way roads. Sometimes you just have to stop and get over as far as you can and let the other person pass. You do have to be careful not to do a nose dive into a rice paddy seeing as there are no guard rails. There are lots and lots of reflecting mirrors which are essential considering all of the blind curves and intersections.
One feature that I really love about driving here is that when you are sitting in the intersection at a signal waiting to make a right-hand turn (same kind as a left-hand turn in the US) there is a clear mark on the road that shows where to stop before turning and then if there is so much traffic that you can’t turn until the light turns yellow or red, there is then a green turn arrow that allows several cars to go ahead and make the turn. It eliminates backed up traffic and the apprehension of getting stuck out in the middle of the intersection.
The speed limits are a little lower than back in the US. Main city streets are 40 km/hr (25 mph). Highways are either 70 or 80 km/hr (45-50 mph). But one thing that is the same as back home is the number of people who tailgate and speed. I guess once people get behind the wheel of a car they tend to become impatient the world over!
Generally speaking driving here is easy and the roads are so well marked with freshly painted lines, many reflectors for night driving, signs in English and Japanese, and no pot holes. Speaking of pot holes, I mentioned the term to some of my high level students and not only had they never heard the word “pot hole” they had never even heard of the concept! They couldn’t understand why or how a road would just start to fall apart! Japan puts a lot of tax dollars into the roads, so they are very well maintained. (interestingly, I looked up “pot hole” in my Japanese dictionary and the Japanese word is “ana”)
Many Japanese highways are toll roads. And it doesn’t come cheap. I guess that’s another reason the roads are well maintained. They collect massive tolls! Damien and I recently drove to a town about an hour away on the highway and it cost US$22.00 one way! Gas is also expensive (125 Yen per liter. I can’t get my head around all the conversions it takes to figure out what that is in dollars per gallon!) But my car in Japan is about half the capacity as my Honda Civic was in the US, but it costs more to fill my car here. And pumping gas is really easy. Just lift the nozzle, push a button, pump and go inside to pay. They don’t use credit cards much in Japan so there is no such thing as paying at the pump. Of course there isn’t much crime either so people don’t abuse the system.
We try not to rely on the car too much and walk or take the train if we can, but it is nice to have a car in a city like Kani because there are times when we want to buy something large or want to go somewhere that is inaccessible by public transport.
Eventually, Damien and I will have to get regular Japanese driver’s licenses. Australians can just get one based on the validity of their Australian one. But American’s can’t (because America doesn’t recognize foreign licenses), so I will have to pay to take driving lesson and then pay to take driving tests. My co-worker from South Africa just had to do that because South Africans are in the same boat as Americans. She had to take the test three times before they passed her!!
posted by Ana | 7:40 PM
2 Comments:
It seems that the conversion rate is nearly 1-to-1 for the yen and dollar.
A liter is around a quart. So, multiply by 4. And a gallon of gas is roughly $5.00.
Today it was averaging around$3.60 in Indianapolis.
I'll bet that our price will inflate faster than Japan's...
Also, I'm curious what 'ana' is in Japanese. I'm assuming that it's not a straight translation.
Thanks for the conversion! "ana" actually means: hole, leak, puncture, cave. But also, when I looked up pothole it also said "ana". Some of my kids classes get a kick out of that!
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