Driving in Japan

So... I drove around Japan quite a bit this week. First on Monday I drove with my friend Melody up to  Tokyo to pick up her stuff. She is going to be staying with us for the next month before she moves back to the states. It is nice having an extra person in the house, but both brian and I have been really busy lately. Not to mention the fact that as I write this she is locked outside the house and is likely sitting in front of it freezing to death (cause she gets cold WAY too easy) and thinking Brian is on his way. What she doesn't know is that he is still taking pictures at an event and will be coming home with me when I get off work at 10pm. So yay for her.... hope she stays warm. Sorry Melody! Wish we'd remembered to send you home with keys! 

Anyway, so back to my driving story. Monday was not so bad. We got there super fast, but took the extra extra long route home... not sure how it happened but I know most of it had to do with the side roads we took instead of the toll roads. On Thursday though, I went riding (which was awesome!). I drive about 1 1/2 hrs to go ride. Well, some say it takes two hours, but with the route I took and the speed I drove I got there in 1hr 15min.... yay for me. 

Now don't worry mom, I know that sounds like I must have been driving fast and well, let's face it, I was. BUT I was still going slow compared to others. First of all let me just say that the Japanese tailgate like it's a sport, and it seems they do it with no reason. So with that I was a bit confused when I was being tailgated for a while by this truck (which, though I say truck a Japanese truck is really small so no big deal), so this truck is tailgating me and I wanted to get over cause I was in the fast lane, but there was  this car next to me and then the sign (in English) said to slow down cause we were approaching a toll gate. So I am not sure what to do, if I speed up I  could pass the car, but I may blast through the toll gate, or I could slow down, and possibly piss this guy off even more, but then I could get over.... so as I am pondering what to do I am slowing down (opting for what I thought was the better decision), but to my dismay the guy  next to me was also slowing down (on top of the fact that he was in the slow lane), and then I look in my rearview mirror to see this guy literally ON MY BUMPER. I swear he had to have been pushing me! And then as I look he waves his arm frantically like he has a dying person in the back of his car and me being in his way is killing him! So of course this drama led me to panic, I gassed it and got over ASAP only to realize that the toll road was far enough ahead that it was not a problem and that this man was only in a rush because he had a "I don't need to stop at the toll gate" pass.

SHEESH! I think he lost 60 seconds, but it must have been his life on the line... I even have a "I am a new driver" sticker on my car. He should have had more patience with me. So what did I learn? Asian drivers are NOT asian drivers in asia! Americans are the "asian" drivers of Asia. Does that make sense? Hope so, cause I am not going to explain it any  more than that!