DRIVING BLOG UPDATE

OK. So here's the story. I was approaching a green stoplight and traffic was not moving. I was about the 7th car in line approaching the light.

The reason we weren't moving was the traffic on the other side of the light was backed up waiting at a train crossing.

(Please note that the above pictures are not of the actual incident, but only show the typical situation.) So the light turned red and then green again, and still no movement. What I wanted to do was turn left at the light--remember that I'm in Japan and we drive on the left. I noticed car #2 or 3 waiting at the light, pull into the right lane, go around the lead car and turn left since the intersection was not blocked. This is very common in Japan in these situations, and in fact I've done it myself. (Just the other day Daisy said it scares her that I'm beginning to drive like the Japanese.) So I decided I would follow. I pull out, pass the line of cars and turn left, and I'm on my way. Suddenly I hear a siren behind me and being a good citizen, I pull off to allow him to pass...however, he didn't pass but pulled up behind me.

Now I've been told that if you get stopped in Japan, just pretend that you don't speak Japanese, and the police will get frustrated, give up and wave you on. Not a difficult thing for me because I don't speak Japanese. The problem was that the officer, a smiling, jolly character, spoke some broken English. He told me, "You drove on the right side, very dangerous."

So to make a short story shorter, I got a ticket which I thought took a long time to write up. An interesting thing is that in Japan almost everyone has a "hanko," which is a rubber stamp about 1/2 inch in diameter that has your name on it and is your legal signature. I have one but I don't carry it with me, so I had to put my fingerprint on his copy of the ticket. And with one last chuckle, the officer said, with a hint of tongue in cheek, "Have a nice day!"

Anyway, with the current exchange rate, my wallet is about $100 lighter but I was guilty, unlike the time 40-ish years ago in Cumberland, MD, that cost me $27, or the time about 4 years ago in Berkeley Springs, WV, that cost me $154. Of course, there was also the time when I was doing 42 in a 25 zone in Meyersdale PA, and the policeman sent me on my way because he dropped my license into the console of his car and couldn't get it back out without going back to the station. (He mailed me my license.) But those are all stories for a different time.

YOKOHAMA

In early May we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in Yokohama, a beautiful city located on the Tokyo Bay. Last year on our anniversary we wanted to spend the night at a motel but as it falls during one of Japan's biggest holiday weeks, everything was booked. (Had we known 40 years ago that we would be in Japan, I'm sure we would have picked a different date to be married.) So this time we got smart and booked a room at the Comfort Inn almost a year ago. To get there, we took the Seibu-Kokubunji train line to Kokubunji, then the Chuo line to Shinjuku, then the Shonan-Shinjuku line to Yokohama and finally the Negishi line to Kannai. All-in-all about a 90 minute trip.

We found our motel and left our bags at the desk as it was too early to check in. We walked down to the bay area and went through the Red Brick Warehouse which is now a mall.

That evening we ate at the Royal Host and had some kind of pork and rice. (Daisy had a salad and she was willing to share but I couldn't get past the tuna fish on top.) We picked up some popcorn and headed back to our room where we began watching a movie that had already started. It was obviousy an American movie as it stared Tom Hanks but the speaking was in Japanese. Our TV remote had a button that was labeled "bilingual," but when we pushed it, we heard both languages at the same time which is quite difficult to follow. Finally I double-clicked on the button which changed the language to all English. After almost an hour, we figured out we were watching "The Devinci Code" which, if you haven't seen it, is quite weird in some of the beliefs.

Sunday morning we ate at the Comfort Inn's complementary breakfast buffet. The first thing you encounter is pasta salad and tossed salad which is heavy on the shredded cabbage (after you have picked up your chopsticks or very small silverware). They also had fruit, dinner-type rolls, an apple pastry that was good but not very sweet, little hotdogs that they would call sausage, cornflakes or cocoa krispies (the cereal bowls might hold 1/2 cup at best) and the best part--runny scrambled eggs. We talked about putting them in the microwave to finish cooking but there was a sign that said they would explode.

After breakfast we took the train to an English-speaking church that was located, according to their website, at the top of a hill--and it certainly was. But it was a very good service. The pastor was Japanese but had spent many years in the States. We took the subway back to Yokohama and had our anniversary dinner at TGI Fridays. We had Mexican-style chicken with rice and a salad (no tuna fish) and then took the subway back to the bay area where we walked around the Landmark Plaza which is also a mall. One of the stores was also celebrating their 4oth anniversary so we asked some one to take our picture in front of their sign.

We got an ice cream cone and walked around trying to find a place that Daisy had remembered from 6 years ago when we were there for her birthday, but we couldn't find it.

We did, however, happen on to a very large parade with a large number of the entries being chidren's groups.

We also went to a doll museum which has dolls from all over the world that Daisy really enjoyed.

After the museum we took a 1 hour boat ride on the bay

which was quite nice, and later we again watched the parade for a bit, headed back towards the motel, ate lunch, picked up our bags and reversed our train jaunt and arrived home in the late afternoon.

A very nice weekend. The weather was beautiful and so was my wife. I remember well my parents 25th as we announced our engagement that day. Where does the time go? You can't get it back (and would you really want to?) Spend time with the Lord and spend time with your family. They both long for that to happen.