;')
Posted on 03/01/2014 11:33:29 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine
Edited on 03/01/2014 2:35:12 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Same here. Been pulled over in Hong Kong and the Philippines. I’m sure the japanese were not only confused but they knew something was up.
PS if you are in the hole in the Phil, just insert pesos in your DL and you’re free to go ;)
Good cops.
Handled well, humanley and with excellent American hospitality .
Well done men.
Good thing they weren’t traveling with their dog.
It takes an hour or two to get acclimated and a whole lot longer to get comfortable. Touring the the countryside is no problem - just stay focused and make sure the center line is on the same side of the car as the steering wheel. It's the cities with the big roundabouts that freak me out.
I used to have to fly into Sydney, pick up a rental car, turn left out of the Alamo parking lot, get over into the right lane, turn right at an intersection about 3 KM up the street, hang another right a couple of blocks up from that, then turn left into the office parking lot. Simple enough but those two right turns required a physical force of will not end up in the oncoming lanes but after that I was usually OK.
I was driving up Page Mill Road in Palo Alto a few weeks back headed to Russian Ridge for a hike. About 2/3 of the way up the mountain, I came upon a “parked” car with the driver’s door open taking up about half of my narrow lane. Sure enough, there were three Japanese visitors on the hillock besides the road looking at the sights. I stopped to see if everything was OK and, in very rough English, the gentleman asked how to get to Russian Ridge. I told them straight ahead another two miles and they couldn’t miss it. He said “OK, I follow you” and I said no, not a good idea. His woman friend or wife then proceeded to open the door of my car and get in! It took me a lot of “No, no, no” to get her to rejoin her party in his car.
They did follow me up the mountain and pulled into an earlier parking lot at Montebello Open Space. Not long after, they pulled into the Russian Ridge parking lot another mile down the road.
Your exchange student is right. They are nuts. And they sure don’t study up on America before visiting. Of course, the same goes for me for my 3 or 4 trips to Japan. But at least I DO understand the universal signal of red lights on a squad car.
It says they did not have their Japanese driver's licenses. Maybe they had obtained an International Driver's License before arriving in the U.S.
Having driven a stick shift for the past 35 years, would it be safe to say that I should rent an automatic if I ever venture to NZ?.....LOL
Last time I git stopped by a cop in a cruiser for doing 33 in a 30mph zone, after he stopped me he already had my plates run on his cruiser computer WHILE HE WAS CHASING ME for only 1500 feet. well, duhhhh
He was not a moron cop but these Tokyo chasers evidently didn`t know how to run a plate while driving FOR 7 MILES-to see that it was rented by JAPAN family-duhhh
well duihhh
I guess they are computor illiterate cops duhh
They had no business driving a car in the US to begin with. They could have killed someone. Gee is no body else on this forum going to say that.
Japan is one of the top 10 safest countries in the world in which to drive . USA is not in the top 10 . http://www.seriousrankings.com/top-10-safest-countries-to-drive-your-car/
“Realizing they were dealing with language and cultural barriers,”
It would be nice if they would extend similar courtesies to the old, the deaf, and Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Good thing there was no dog, or it would have been goodbye fido.
;')
You'd be surprised how fast you get used to it. I drove around Ireland for a few weeks a few years ago and even enjoyed negotiating the many roundabouts. Of course, I should mention Irish roads are a lot more twisty and narrow than your average American roads. And there plenty of stone hedgerows lining the roads so you have to be careful. But overall fairly enjoyable driving. And the Irish drivers were very good.
Fly & Drive.
You book the rental car the same time as the flight. Somebody goofed by not checking for a license, though.
My best guess.
Gee, they could have been carrying a nuclear suitcase bomb......is no body else on this forum going to say that?
The comments at the Japan Today website are well worth reading.
We had a Japanese exchange student, and she Japanese drivers are nuts
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
My first trip to Japan was in 1957 and we got the indoctrination which included - robbery not a very good idea as their jails aren’t fun and may be as bad as trying to get out of jail in Tijuana.
While told probably absolutely no chance the greater majority of us would drive that the taxi’s were cheap and plentiful.
After they mentioned the narrow streets we were told
“Be careful of the taxis most of the drivers were Kamikaze pilot washouts and they still think they are invincible”.
That was true...take the horn away from them and I believe they were lost.
Funny, the longer into the Liberty, the better the drivers were and it became ‘exciting’...
Guess one of the ‘good mixes of 17 year olds and booze’....
Even though I have become very anti-LEO, I think the cops did handle this well.
You make zero sense. I am not talking about what could have been. I am talking about something that obviously was. A law that was obviously broken. If An American had done it then they would have been charged with a crime just for being behind the wheel. All you did was prove my point about the dumbing down of Rational thinking.
Back in ‘99 many public restrooms in Italy were monitored by elderly pensioners. One had to pay for toilet paper and if you didn’t have change (before the advent of the Euro) one was SOL - really. Watching this particular American gesturing for toilet paper was definitely funny. The old lady watched him very intently but just shrugged, turning out the pockets of her apron to signal she had nothing left but told him in Italian (as if he could understand) to wait 10 minutes while she went for more.
Il Palio - the bareback horse race in Siena’s Piazza del Campo - gets huge crowds so the aforementioned tourist entertained more than our group.
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