Official

Blake and I are now properly licensed to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Driving is a big deal in Japan. There are so many cars in so little space, driving is consistently slow and crowded. We Americans living here have it easy. We have valid U.S. drivers licenses so we only had to take a day-long class and a written test. Japanese citizens have to go to mandatory driving school. It's similar to our five-hour course, except their driving school costs around $3,000 dollars. Yes, that is a three and three zeroes. The admission fee, textbooks, training, permit and other expenses add up quickly, and rather ridiculously.

Once you get your license in Japan (natives and foreigners alike) you are considered by the Japanese government to be a professional and/or experienced driver. That means that in an accident with, for example, someone who is 16 and only has their permit, you assume much more responsibility.

No-fault is nonexistent in Japan. In any accident, each party assumes some of the blame, whether it be 50-50, 80-20, or any other ratio. For example, someone we know was making a right hand turn at an intersection and didn't see a man on a scooter jet out in front of him. He hit the scooter, the driver hurt his foot, and it was clearly the American's fault. He was willing to assume all the blame, but that wasn't possible. It was considered 90% the American's fault and 10% the Japanese person's fault.

Another thing, if the situation had been reversed, the ratio would look a lot different. As an American, you assume more blame automatically in an accident, even if it was of equal fault.

Anyway, the guy we know had to go through the Japanese "gomen" custom. In Japanese, "gomenasai" means "I'm sorry." The number of times you apologize directly relates to how sorry you actually are. So, let's say I got in an accident that was more my fault. I would have to first apologize many, many times. Then, I would have to go to the hospital bearing flowers and gifts and say I'm sorry there. I would have to go to the guy's house, bring gifts, and apologize to his family. I would have to go to his place of work and apologize there too. If the guy is satisfied with the apologies, etc., he won't sue.

Hopefully, Blake and I don't have any close encounters with that system while we're here.

We have a car lined up to buy this coming week, but until then, we'll stick to bikes and admiring our shiny new licenses.