20th February to 23rd February 2007
Four whole days of work. And I promised I wouldn't go on about this any more, so I won't.
Organising the school run and child care was tricky, but with the help of some well planned playdates at other peoples' homes, and help from Tim, all went smoothly.
Tim drove us both to the school for the morning drop-off and then continued with me to the office. On the day's I finished early, I would catch the train to school, which is a through run from the office, collect Rhiannon and catch the bus from Shibuya home. On days when this wouldn't work, I was lucky enough to manipulate Rhiannon into a playdate where Tim would collect her later in the evening. Perfectly civilised!
But Tim is going away on business next week, so I have to grab the car by the bull horns and drive it sometime. This I do on a day when I only have a half day course scheduled.
My First Driving Experience
One thing in my favour is that in Japan the driving is done on the correct side of the road! They drive on the left, the same as in Britain. All the signs seem similar, so I gathered my courage and set off on an exploratory drive around before heading off to the school. Tim showed me how to use the GPS – press this button, select that one and then press this one – all written in Kanji, so I just have to remember the positions. Far left, 2nd from bottom right, centre, then far left again.
Nervously, I crawled out of the gates at work, turned left onto a really busy road as instructed by Tim, then left again as instructed on the map... and promptly got lost in the maze of tiny streets! Thankfully, the lady in the GPS got me back on track; track being a huge eight-laned road.
From the sublime to the ridiculous.
The roads here seem to be either very wide and multi-laned or extremely narrow. The narrow, single car-width roads are quaint and fascinating but dreadful to drive along due to the curious positioning of telegraph poles which for reasons unknown are placed at least two feet out from the house walls. These narrow roads are often two-way roads as well, which is quite frankly scary. Combined with people aimlessly ambling along the centre of the road, oblivious to the vehicle behind them driven by a terrified and lost gaijin because they are plugged into their personal stereo, this all makes for, shall we say, an "interesting experience".
It also appears that pedestrians have right of way. What an unusual rule! Correctly so, in my opinion, but a bit of a shock to start with. All pedestrian crossings seem to be located on large junctions, so when turning left, you are suddenly confronted by a sea of people making their casual way across while you wait. Now something makes sense. Nobody crosses the road here unless the 'green man' light is on. Even if there is no car within 2 miles, you wait until the green man says go... Also, nobody 'jaywalks'.
This is all very different from traversing the roads in Britain where you learn to judge a vehicles speed, distance and your chance of survival very quickly as a pedestrian.
Also, to my utter joy, I discovered there do not appear to be roundabouts here in Tokyo! I loathe roundabouts and harbour evil thoughts to the people who invented them, most especially the ones with several lanes and more exits than Shibuya station. Woe betide you if you find yourself in the wrong lane for your exit on one of these monsters; you could be circling for hours without escape. And I don't believe they help the flow of traffic at all.
Instead of roundabouts, Tokyo is littered with traffic lights instead. Every hundred metres or so... and that is not an exaggeration.
I don't mind traffic lights: you know where you are with them. Red means stop, green means go. Easy. However, orange seems to have a slightly different meaning to the one we're used to in the UK. Here, amber seems to imply "if you think you can get through before the light turns red, then go for it – and even if you don't, go for it anyway!".
Anyway, I survived my first drive! I managed to find my way home with just a slight detour then back to school again.
Next I had to negotiate the car park. Once again, most car parks have a different system to the UK and it is one that WORKS. It used to be like this in Britain, but things changed. Here, you pull a ticket from the machine on the way in to lift up the barrier then pay on your way out based on how long you were parked there. No "Pay and Display"!
This ridiculous system used in Britain means you have to guess how long your shopping trip will take before paying for the ticket. As any shopaholic / mum / living human knows, you just cannot gauge how long an expedition will take as too many random factors come into play. What if you get distracted by the special offers? How about those times when your toddler needs to use the toilet just as the time for your ticket runs out? And let's not even mention the queues at the supermarket...
Unfortunately, the car park is closely packed and full of people carriers. Negotiating your way into a parking space is quite tricky and reversing in seems to be the norm. Something I'm not ready to attempt just yet! A cute addition is the inclusion of small 'stop' bumps – short barriers to stop your wheels just before you hit the car parked in the adjacent parking place.
Now I understand why every car in Tokyo sports a few small bumps or scratches somewhere on its bodywork. I wonder how long ours will remain bump-free?
