Right of Way
I'm taking motorcycle lessons here (it's a long story...) and the teacher is pretty cool. He realizes I'm a little different and my Japanese language ability is lacking so he adjusts the course a little, yet he also realizes that I'm not from another planet and that I don't breathe methane, so that basically I can grasp things the same way the other students can.
But still... The other day we were having a lesson about 'dangerous riding" using a high tech and remarkably realistic simulator. Anyway, there was a situation where I wanted to turn in an intersection but I had to stop b/c of an oncoming truck. The truck stopped and waited for me to turn. He had the right of way and besides I couldn't see with him in the way. So I waited a long time. He flashed his headlights repeatedly, the signal for me to go first. I waited, mostly out of habit because I don't like the way people treat right of way so haphazardly here. If it's a free for all like in Saigon, one can adapt. If it's rigid and lawful, like I imagine it to be in my stereotype of Switzerland, one can adapt. Here, it's random and hard to anticipate what's gonna happen.
Anyway, I waited and didn't turn and a good thing too because a motorbike, followed by another sped thru the intersection. We would have had a bad collision.
Here's the point: the teacher was very impressed. He said (in Japanese) "Wow, Kirk, I'm impressed. I guess you're used to Japanese roads?"
"Yeah I guess, but they're not so different from American roads, basically. Of course the side of the road is different."
"Yeah, but you knew what to do when the truck flashed you, huh? Or, hmmm, maybe you didn't know what to do, that's why you waited."
"Well, I couldn't see what was behind the truck but anyway, he had right of way..."
"People don't do that in America, do they?"
"What, say "go ahead" to another driver?"
"Yeah, American's don't do that, right?"
"Well, not a lot I guess, but sure, people let you go sometimes, especially when there's no traffic light."
"No! Americans do that? Get out! No way! No, they don't do that! Really? Nahhh! You're pulling my leg...(etc etc) It's Japanese driving style."
ok, so if you've read parts of this blog you might notice a pattern that I'm sensitive to. The assumptions in this conversation were that Americans are aggressive, look out for one's self, rough around the edges. Japanese are highly mannered, even to a fault. ie: Kirk, even though we are so kind as to offer you the right of way, don't be tempted..."
Frankly, people don't cede the right of way that much where I live in Japan, and regularly plow through stop signs and the like. So the simulator was an accurate manifestation of Japan's group mythology/ social hallucination "We are a nation free of crime, where everyone works together to overcome the many obstacles that nature (which we love) and gaikoku keep throwing our way." And though the simulator didn't mention it, the Japanese cosmology needs an antithesis which is the USA; big, lucky, and charmingly lacking finesse.
There, have I mixed in enough armchair philosophy?
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