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.