Bizarre
On Friday, I jumped in my car and headed over to Yamaguchi for gym class. There is a toll booth on the outskirts of Hagi (150 yen each way, thank you) and many of the locals use the little side road that winds around the mountain instead for free.
There is an old single lane tunnel on the free route which I have been told is haunted by the spirits of the samurai who committed suicide near that spot many years ago. Apparently if you turn your lights off as you go through you will see them. Whenever I go through it, it feels a bit scary.
Anyway, I approach the tunnel on a sharp bend and as I turn into it, I see headlights bounce off the brick walls. I stop and reverse out far back enough for the car coming through to pass me. In the mist and the rain on a single lane bumpy road, it's frustrating. This is the price I pay for not paying the 150 yen I tell myself. Cars often have to wait on either side of the tunnel for it to clear. So as the car passes, I pull out again and attempt to go through the tunnel.
As I turn in and start going through, I see another car coming toward the entrance at the other end. Well, I think to myelf, I'm going through now and they'll just have to stop and wait for me. I notice as I'm half way through that the car just keeps coming, even though they've had to have seen me coming with my headlights on. I get to about 4/5 of the way through the tunnel and I come face to face with the car coming in the opposite direction. We are very close to the mouth of the tunnel. I don't get it. Why did the car keep coming when they are just going to have to reverse the short distance out again?
So we are sitting there. I'm having a what-is-going-on moment. The car rolls its wheels forward. We wait. I'm like okay, I'll be the bigger person here, I look behind me and prepare to reverse. Then I see how far I have to go back, there is a tiny patch of daylight in the distance I would be aiming for. I'm in a pitch black tunnel with dripping brick walls, and on each side of the single lane is a ditch. The kind of ditch your wheels go over (yes I've been there before, people!) I think, this is insane, I can't go back that far, its really dangerous, and that car is so ridiculously close to the entrance. What is going on!
By this time, a truck has also come through and pulls up behind me. The guy gets out and I sit there rigidly, ready to flinch when he sees I'm a gaijin. I prepare for abuse. Luckily he is a kind old guy and he asks me if I was coming through first, to which I say I was, along with the obvious fact that we are so close to the exit. He goes and talks to the oncoming driver, who was in fact, a woman. To go along with cultural stereotypes, aren't Japanese women usually polite and non-confrontational?
So heated discussion and gesturing ensue, I'm confused, nothing seems to be happening. Then the oncoming driver appears to be moving her car. Hurray, I think, after 20 minutes of being stuck in a tiny claustrophobic tunnel for what bizarre reason I don't know. She does not back out. She instead pulls her car over. The driver behind me gets back in to his truck and gestures that I should overtake her. He puts his lights on and presses forward.
The tiny gap in front of me is too small for my car. The facts are screaming out to me and I refuse to move. THEY WANT ME TO OVERTAKE IN A MIDGET ONE LANE TUNNEL. The oncoming vehicle moves her car again and another 5 centimetres open up. There is enough space for me to go through, if I put my wheels half on the edge of the ditch. Looking ahead at the daylight and shaking my head, I inch ahead to manoeuvre my car through without scratching the oncoming vehicle or putting my wheels too many milimetres over the edge of the ditch. I can feel the wheels balancing on the edge and I try to keep them as straight as I can. My side mirror scrapes against the other car. As I go through I realise how upset the whole thing has made me.
I want to be angry at this situation, but I'm amazed. This woman wouldn't reverse.
I have seen angry road rage and I've seen violence between drivers. But I have never been confronted with a less practical driver in my life. Why did something so easy have to turn into what it did. I don't get it?
There is an old single lane tunnel on the free route which I have been told is haunted by the spirits of the samurai who committed suicide near that spot many years ago. Apparently if you turn your lights off as you go through you will see them. Whenever I go through it, it feels a bit scary.
Anyway, I approach the tunnel on a sharp bend and as I turn into it, I see headlights bounce off the brick walls. I stop and reverse out far back enough for the car coming through to pass me. In the mist and the rain on a single lane bumpy road, it's frustrating. This is the price I pay for not paying the 150 yen I tell myself. Cars often have to wait on either side of the tunnel for it to clear. So as the car passes, I pull out again and attempt to go through the tunnel.
As I turn in and start going through, I see another car coming toward the entrance at the other end. Well, I think to myelf, I'm going through now and they'll just have to stop and wait for me. I notice as I'm half way through that the car just keeps coming, even though they've had to have seen me coming with my headlights on. I get to about 4/5 of the way through the tunnel and I come face to face with the car coming in the opposite direction. We are very close to the mouth of the tunnel. I don't get it. Why did the car keep coming when they are just going to have to reverse the short distance out again?
So we are sitting there. I'm having a what-is-going-on moment. The car rolls its wheels forward. We wait. I'm like okay, I'll be the bigger person here, I look behind me and prepare to reverse. Then I see how far I have to go back, there is a tiny patch of daylight in the distance I would be aiming for. I'm in a pitch black tunnel with dripping brick walls, and on each side of the single lane is a ditch. The kind of ditch your wheels go over (yes I've been there before, people!) I think, this is insane, I can't go back that far, its really dangerous, and that car is so ridiculously close to the entrance. What is going on!
By this time, a truck has also come through and pulls up behind me. The guy gets out and I sit there rigidly, ready to flinch when he sees I'm a gaijin. I prepare for abuse. Luckily he is a kind old guy and he asks me if I was coming through first, to which I say I was, along with the obvious fact that we are so close to the exit. He goes and talks to the oncoming driver, who was in fact, a woman. To go along with cultural stereotypes, aren't Japanese women usually polite and non-confrontational?
So heated discussion and gesturing ensue, I'm confused, nothing seems to be happening. Then the oncoming driver appears to be moving her car. Hurray, I think, after 20 minutes of being stuck in a tiny claustrophobic tunnel for what bizarre reason I don't know. She does not back out. She instead pulls her car over. The driver behind me gets back in to his truck and gestures that I should overtake her. He puts his lights on and presses forward.
The tiny gap in front of me is too small for my car. The facts are screaming out to me and I refuse to move. THEY WANT ME TO OVERTAKE IN A MIDGET ONE LANE TUNNEL. The oncoming vehicle moves her car again and another 5 centimetres open up. There is enough space for me to go through, if I put my wheels half on the edge of the ditch. Looking ahead at the daylight and shaking my head, I inch ahead to manoeuvre my car through without scratching the oncoming vehicle or putting my wheels too many milimetres over the edge of the ditch. I can feel the wheels balancing on the edge and I try to keep them as straight as I can. My side mirror scrapes against the other car. As I go through I realise how upset the whole thing has made me.
I want to be angry at this situation, but I'm amazed. This woman wouldn't reverse.
I have seen angry road rage and I've seen violence between drivers. But I have never been confronted with a less practical driver in my life. Why did something so easy have to turn into what it did. I don't get it?
posted by Rosie at
11:01 pm
1 Comments:
I can't believe how dumb Japanese drivers can be sometimes. How do they not have more accidents? I amazed that more cars don't end up in rice paddies or worse...
By
Turning Japanese, at 1:19 pm
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