journal features

driving in Tokyo

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Kokubunji, 2022.12.11

I've driven in Japan before but never Tokyo. Until today, that is. Mari's added me to her account on a fantastic car share program that lets us toodle about for as little as ¥1,000 for an evening. She's been doing all the driving for Ken's basketball, but now I'm finally contributing. Quite a white-knuckle affair for me, as in addition to the narrow streets and unfamiliar left-side driving I have to worry about entanglements with the police - a mis-step could result in quite a few unique problems there. Anyway, it all went almost without a hitch.

I'll add that Kokubunji isn't really "Tokyo", at least not when it comes to things like driving. It's more like a .. well, featureless plain. You can drive in virtually any direction and not see a lot of traffic at 22:00 on a slightly rainy Sunday night in December.

rand()m quote

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

—Roald Dahl