Unten

Now having a car, I used this weekend as an opportunity to find some of the schools I'm supposed to be going to starting tomorrow. A couple of them are way out in the country, and I almost got hit head on by another car going around a curve in a tiny road on the way to one. Fortunately, the accident was avoided, but here's a list of hazards to watch out for in Japan while driving:

Construction - there is basically construction going on on every road in Japan every day. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm not even exaggerating this point. There are always tiny little purple/green construction vehicles on the side of the road, usually with stickers of animals and stuff on them. They're always building new roads, probably in an attempt to make the already confusing Japanese highway system into a completely non-navigable labyrinth.

Schoolkids - Most walk at least a while to get to school, probably from a train station, and walk back at night. They eschew sidewalks in favor of making you crash into oncoming traffic or hit them.

Little Old Men in Little White Trucks - All old men drive little white trucks. I think there is a law here saying that if you are 80 years or older, and you are driving a little white truck, traffic laws no longer apply to you and you always have the right of way, regardless of which direction traffic is going in the lane that you are currently flying in and out of at three times the speed limit.

Little Old Women on Scooters - There is another law protecting these, sort of like Title IX.

Falling Rocks - I've never actually seen any, but there are signs all over the place warning about them. It's like some kind of videogame.

People Backing Up - People back into parking spaces all the time here. It is the norm, but not required by law or anything. People are so tied to this idea, though, that they will spend 15 minutes of moving their cars in drive, then reverse, then drive, then reverse, etc. rather than just parking the normal way. Also, they don't look to see if there are any people or objects behind them while backing up.

The Road - Yes, the road itself is a hazard. It is required by law that no Japanese road be bigger than 1.5 times the size of a car here, I think. All roads are tiny. The two lane roads are about as big as a one lane road in America. It's actually not that bad, but there is really no margin of error. There is generally no shoulder on the roads, except isolated spots which are intended for people who are pulling over to talk on cell phones or let faster cars by. There is generally just a vertical drop off the side of the road, either into a rice paddy or off the side of a mountain. This doesn't seem to bother Japanese drivers, though, who ignore the speed limit. It is ok because the police ignore speeding. Sometimes the roads actually drop to one lane, but still allow traffic in two directions. This is how I almost got hit, because the people coming the other way didn't bother to look at the mirrors at the corner to see if someone was coming from my direction and just kept flying down the road. Fortunately, there was just enough space on the side of the road before the sign pointlessly warning drivers to slow down on the curve for me to pull over. I actually had to reverse before going forward again because I was so close to the sign. Ah, well.

Really it isn't as bad as I'm making it sound, just kind of ridiculous. The traffic is generally non-existant, and the drivers, while a little crazy, aren't nearly as stupid as those in Chicago, so I'm happy about that. The really frustrating thing is that the turn signal is on the wrong side. This may sound like cultural bias, but it is just on the WRONG side. I'm tired of hitting the windshield wiper controls whenever I want to turn.