How is driving in Japan by a foreigner, besides driving on the left?

Micheal-san, haven’t drove here much, but often get rides. Therefore, when I get back to the states, sometimes I do get confused a bit! Intersections can be a bit confusing. I use the driver side is always closest to the center line. Or at least I hope that’s right.

Daniel-san, blinker/wipers problem for me too when I get back to the states. The narrow roads are crazy, and it is not uncommon for people to throw the car in reverse to allow another to pass. I still can’t understand parking, as people hit spaces that are soooo narrow!

More tomorrow. Too sleepy….. お休み

Driving in Japan is easy in the country. You just have to always remember: outside of the white border line on your left, there is a big one meter deep hole for the water of the typhoons. so be careful not to drive on the white line
!
I drove Sanin, Kyushu, Takayama, japanese alps without problem. But in the big cities, you better take the train!

Lizさん、

Yeah, that’s a good one. I don’t do that anymore. But this last winter, when we were visiting California, my wife kept heading for the left door.

Peterさん、

Parallel parking is no problem for me. I lived for a year in Newport Beach where I had tons of practice.

Re: the lesson. Of course, buying the cheapest ticket was a useful tactic for me once too. But now, I always use my Suica card, so I don’t even pay attention to the fare. Yes, I know, Suica is not so practical for a survival phrases lesson, I was just thinking on how I take it for granted now.

-Daniel B

I prefer a taxi to take me and tour me its better than driving yourself only if you know the rails of beautiful Nipon! anyway good pod cast has always but I think you guys need to change the subject to something more interest you have discuss about the rails alot like it says there IV time so why don’t you guys podcast about something more attractive there is alot to talk about Japan has great things to say so how about the people, houses, work there, techonoly, even video games, anime, manga, Soups, etc there is alot of stuff to learn so please consider my advice and stop ignoring me like I’m crazy just because I said the true!

We need a change!!!!!!!

We will miss u JockZon~~~

@Sindy-san
I also thought the railway episodes were entirely suitable for the survival lessons, as buying train tickets was the most complex thing I did on my holiday. The trains were great, because they enabled me to cross the country & get to most places. No train skills = limited holiday.

There’s been a lot of talk about driving in this thread. I did bring an international driving permit with me, to give the option of driving a car out to rural areas (There’s some places with preserved historical village buildings that you can’t reach by train). However I found more than enough to do without that, so it didn’t happen. Maybe next time. It would be useful to have some information about car hire in Japan. What are the insurance options? Can you get a copy of the highway code (or whatever the rules of the road are called) in English…or even in Japanese if it’s on the web somewhere. Maybe this would be a good survival phrases topic. What do you all think?

The other tricky thing is organising accommodation, although I “cheated” and arranged all that via the internet before going, which is a lot easier (and safer if you are travelling anytime in peak season). ‘yoyaku’ works for making a hotel reservation.

It’s probably difficult to make survival lessons exciting as they have to be kept simple. On that topic, the later beginner lessons are very enjoyable and are now covering stuff I don’t know. gambaru watashi wa.

仕事ののでまた有難うございます。

http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en007.html is the website. The bracket is attached.

To use the JR Rail pass, show it to the people at the window to go in and out.

Gomen, chotto nagai n desu ne. Sorry, it’s a bit long.

Hello everyone,

I’ve been listening to the podcasts for a while now and they are absolutely great! Still trying to catch up, I’ve just reached March now…

I read the posts on today’s podcast and wanted to say I’ve been to Japan about 3 years ago, and travelling with the Japan Rail Pass was very easy! I only started learning a bit of Japanese after that trip, so my Japanese was limited to すみません and perhaps a couple more words. I really want to go back now

Thanks a lot for making these podcasts! どうもありがとうございます!

Alard (from Groningen, the Netherlands)

I drove four years in Japan. It’s not that difficult but you have to be cautious and remember that signs and driving habits will differ from your home country. If possible (for those new residents in Japan), I recommend riding a bicycle for a few weeks first to give yourself time to adjust before climbing into a potentially lethal vehicle. In fact, I recommend riding a bicycle as much as possible anywhere in the world. Fight global warming.

Driving tips:
A LOT of people in Japan do not turn on their headlights early enough. Every night I saw half a dozen cars driving in full dark with no lights and I frequently saw people pull into the street and only then turn on their lights.

Never ever jump a green light because so many people dash thru the yellow light and the first two seconds of the red light.

Cars turning into multi-lane roads will usually swing into the far lane instead of near lane. Do NOT think you can squeeze in a tight left turn at the curb while someone opposite is making a right turn because they will be swinging out to the curb lane too.

You are less likely to encounter road rage in Japan. A honked horm is more likely to mean ‘thanks for letting me into traffic’.

Trains are usually faster and cheaper because they don’t have to stop at a zillion stop lights or pay high expressway tolls.