Here in Japan mnay people use the trains and public transportation to get to and from where they want to go as it is so easy and convenient. Here the price of your house or apartment, of course depends on how big it is, but the closer you are to the train station the more expensive your place will be.
Even though the trains are easy to use and get you to where you want to go pretty quickly, there are still many cars that drive. This past week we had many sponsor visits to say thank you to our sponsors and had go many places in the car. For the most part Japanese drivers are very courteous and follow the traffic laws. There is one thing that I get quite a kick out of though.
Here if you are at an intersection and need to turn to go across traffic you usually have to wait. Once the light goes red you get a green turn arrow. At some of the lights the normal green light is fairly long but the green turn arrow might be only 5 seconds (or something very short). This doesn't seem to work so well when there is a long line of cars waiting to turn. So the Japanese people have figured out how 'get around' this little problem.
If you are going straight at a light and the light goes yellow, you wont see many people speeding up to go through it. Once the light goes yellow the majority of people slow down right away, some even slow down a little when they are approaching the green in case it goes yellow (we have had quite a few taxi drivers who operated this way). A turn arrow is a different story.
Once a green turn arrow goes yellow though, it is your cue to get moving. There have been numerous times, maybe every time, where the green turn arrow has gone from green to yellow and then to red and still 3 cars will go. The most I have seen is 5 cars go after the light has turned to red. I am not sure if it is just the custom to do that here or not, but I am guessing the police let it go if everyone participates.
I have to say I haven't seen it like this anywhere else we have lived and it had lead us Americans over here to call it: the Japanese red.
Even though the trains are easy to use and get you to where you want to go pretty quickly, there are still many cars that drive. This past week we had many sponsor visits to say thank you to our sponsors and had go many places in the car. For the most part Japanese drivers are very courteous and follow the traffic laws. There is one thing that I get quite a kick out of though.
Here if you are at an intersection and need to turn to go across traffic you usually have to wait. Once the light goes red you get a green turn arrow. At some of the lights the normal green light is fairly long but the green turn arrow might be only 5 seconds (or something very short). This doesn't seem to work so well when there is a long line of cars waiting to turn. So the Japanese people have figured out how 'get around' this little problem.
If you are going straight at a light and the light goes yellow, you wont see many people speeding up to go through it. Once the light goes yellow the majority of people slow down right away, some even slow down a little when they are approaching the green in case it goes yellow (we have had quite a few taxi drivers who operated this way). A turn arrow is a different story.
Once a green turn arrow goes yellow though, it is your cue to get moving. There have been numerous times, maybe every time, where the green turn arrow has gone from green to yellow and then to red and still 3 cars will go. The most I have seen is 5 cars go after the light has turned to red. I am not sure if it is just the custom to do that here or not, but I am guessing the police let it go if everyone participates.
I have to say I haven't seen it like this anywhere else we have lived and it had lead us Americans over here to call it: the Japanese red.
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