Culture Shock! Right Of Way And Other Car Stuff

So in America, pedestrians have the right of way, even when they don't. There are clearly marked areas for pedestrians and cars. If the crosswalk says a person can pass, cars have to wait for that person to finish crossing. People in cars will wave for you to cross the street before them. Oregon has particularly polite drivers, but in general in America cars stay where cars go and do their best to avoid pedestrians and cyclists. In Japan, that is not the case.

When you cross the street in Japan, make sure to look around because most likely cars aren't going to stop to let you pass unless they are literally going to hit you if they don't. Even then they will get close to you. There are no sidewalks in some places so bikes and pedestrians are on the side of the road and cars go past you. Mind you roads in Japan are narrow. However, the gutter things usually provide a sidewalk like thing for you to walk on so you won't get hit by a car. Also, if there even is a sidewalk, it's extremely common for cars to be parked on it. There isn't really that much street parking so sometimes cars either park partially in the street or up on the sidewalk. I have to walk around a lot of cars trying to walk down the sidewalk in the village I am staying in.

Another time I was walking back from the convenience store and saw a car drive out through the crosswalk. That was pretty confusing but it's a space with no curb I guess. Cars are very small here. Like I'm as tall as most of the trucks (which are the tiniest) and a Prius feels like a big car. Most cars only have two seats across in the back. We have had to fit five people in those cars before (until we found out it was illegal and you can get deported), which was a very tight squeeze.

The roads here are quite narrow and this weekend we were going up a mountain road where it was one lane with no turn outs. Lots of plants so you couldn't see much but there were mirrors set up. We were in a Prius which isn't a particularly big car but still probably the biggest car you could fit on that road. At one point the driver was trying to text while driving down the roads until the lady in the passenger seat told him she didn't want to die so he stopped. Should have gotten a picture.

I also spend a lot of time wondering "how the hell did you park there?!?" because in Japan people fit their cars into the craziest places. Like between a big plant and a garbage container, under a tiny awning where there are literally bumpers up against the wall so they can pull up as close as possible, backing into tiny spaces and missing other cars by inches, on the sidewalk, and the one that is the craziest, in my opinion, is this one:

So near my guesthouse there is this little parking lot area with three or four spots and two normal sized cars park there (and one time a small truck but that's a story for another day). They back in, like most Japanese do, but here's the catch: the parking lot is on a hill so it's a drop off and these people back up their cars until the tires are INCHES from the edge. Like the back of their car hangs over the edge. Trying to park there would give me a heart attack.

Also, people don't wear seat belts that much.