Driving in Tokyo (part 4 of trying to stay alive while travelling, even though you gave already turned very grey through the experience of buying a car)

This post is called driving in Tokyo, because Tokyo is very different form the rest of the country. Driving elsewhere is relatively easy. The only things to note are it takes a lot longer to go anywhere because of a plethora of traffic lights and the weaving up, down and around mountains.

Tokyo however is another world. My spell checker often offers the word torture when typing Tokyo, and that just about sums it up.

Traveling by train can seem the most reasonable option except for the commuter run times when the underground lines resemble something worse than cattle going to slaughter wearing jackets. Honestly, you get to know the various aftershaves and scents that are available very well when traveling at those times.

A car in Tokyo is marginally easier. You can put the air con on, and actually start feeling cool. You can stop as frequently aa you need at the many traffic lights and not be jolted around by the breaking style of the train and bus drivers, and arrive at your destination relatively sane. However, it will require driving skills of a very high calibre indeed to arrive with all your wits completely intact.

Death desiring cyclists, uncertain pedestrians, and taxis that like stopping on the corner of very busy intersections, suddenly, without indicating, are just part of what the foreign driver in Tokyo needs to learn about. It takes a lot of patience to live in Japan generally, but driving in the capital will test your deserving of your visa; the roads can sometimes resemble a nursery playground where all the traffic, wheeled or legged, intermeshes without much thought about what will next fill the space in front. Japan has a lot of road traffic accidents, some of which comes from the nation’s decisions about junction design, some from car layout design which is a little different from the UK, and some from what happens when you remove the well controlled public social persona from the individuals, which is what happens when you closer the door of a car and set out to go somewhere. Here are some of the reasons why that I have so far seen.

Pedestrians.

Pedestrians have right of way. No matter where you are, the priority of importance begins with the pedestrian. This means that pedestrians often walk without looking exactly where they are going. Of course pedestrians can’t just cross a road at random, but where there is a road crossing without traffic signals and a pedestrian and car meet at the same time, the car always stops and the pedestrian always crosses without registering what’s around him or her.

So, pedestrians can cause a wonderful hell. A common situation in the small streets which barely fit one car, which are still two way traffic by the way, is the shop keeper unloading boxes. This person will always take a very large step back to survey their situation just as you’re passing them.

Similarly shoppers will cross those same small streets slowly, diagonally, whilst looking at a shop window on the side of the road they’re coming from, or playing a game on their iPhone.

Because there are so many people around, there is a bit of Japanese culture that comes into play as well. It’s a phenomenon known as Soto & uchi, outside and inside. You can’t make space for everyone in life, there has to be a limit to the kindness you give. This is soto and uchi. Those who are Soto, outside the group of one’s acquaintances, will usually be ignored or at best handled as if you were an inconvenient tree planted on the street. Those who are uchi, inside the known group, get full hospitality. The result is, for pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers alike, pedestrians and cyclists couldn’t give a damn a lot of the time. To us Europeans, this comes across as the height of rudeness and is very hard to accept, especially when you are cut in front of by a matter of inches for the sake of an item of interest in a shop window. Car drivers are a little more respectful to the others for two reasons. One, they have to follow road rules. Two, in an incident, no matter whose fault it is, the car driver is very likely to be heavily penalised.

Bicycles.

Cyclists are a menace, especially parents racing  youngsters to kindergarten. I know, because I do it too.

Road corners are sharp and buildings come right to the edge of the road. There are rarely footpaths. So you don’t know what’s around the corner until you’ve turned it. However, often times, the cyclist will take those corners as if there was an inferno chasing them. I’ve had several closer calls as pedestrian, cyclist and car driver. This comes from another aspect of the culture here which is more fatalistic than we could tolerate in the west. Because there are so many folk to negotiate in one’s day, solid plans are rarely held to too tightly, so there is a lot of flexibility on the streets, people don’t set out with the idea they’re going to definitely achieve something exactly as they might imagine, someone might come along and change the plans (like a boss for example, who will suddenly call a junior to a meeting they didn’t have in their diary). So on the streets, people travel not with the best anticipation skills of all time simply because they are more readily living in the present moment than we Europeans could ever achieve. Makes for plenty of accidents though.

Car design

Cars here are designed to have the Sat nav in the middle of the vehicle’s dashboard. This means you’re often looking away from the road as a driver. The love of deep detail in this country also means sat navs are choc to the brim with information making them hard to read in an instant. This is likely a cause of many a punt seen on the streets here.

Incidentally, auto emergency braking features on new cars here are becoming very popular lately. 

A really good piece of car design here is also leading to an unfortunate rise in accidents. The hybrid car was invented here, so domestic hybrid cars are of course cheaper than we can get them in the UK and they are very popular. Unfortunately as you can’t go fast on many side roads here the battery power is used a lot. The result is a silent vehicle that no-one can hear coming. So people can’t move out the way, the road gets clogged, and as cars crawl faster than a pedestrian walks, accidents increase. 

Taxis 

Can’t say much about these except the rules for taxis are known only to themselves making them very very dangerous to be near indeed. Beware. Give them plenty of space.

Road layout and Junction design

As pedestrians take precedence, the crossings sit at the edge of the road junctions. In Europe a pedestrian is likely to cross behind a car waiting at the line, here as pedestrians have priority, the car must stop. So the stop line for cars is set back from the junction about a metre. As you can’t see around many corners, this is inherently dangerous.

Pedestrian Pathways for smaller roads consist of a single white line painted on the road, there just isn’t enough space to have a separate foot path as well as fit cars down a street, but the result is the need for great care not to clip someone as you drive past, as the line is treated more like an invitation to see the road as a pedestrianised street.

Add cyclists to this, who don’t like to follow the same rules as cars (one way signs are meaningless for interpreting the flow of all the traffic at a junction for example) and there is lots of potential for a bash or two.

The Lane layout in Tokyo for the main streets is obviously going to be complex, the driver needs to have his or her wits to hand to negotiate them. The result of being inattentive is being locked into a paid highway suddenly for a good few kilometers before you can get off, or getting locked into one of the many complex one way systems here as you attempt to correct the error made.

If you can handle all these aspects, you’re ready to go. Enjoy the extra freedom you get as one of those privileged to drive a car in one if the biggest cities in the world.

Our daily activities

Just to let you know, in addition to these occasional pieces about the experience of Japan and the churches here, we’ve a more day to day thing you could read, which can only be accessed by those who already know us. If you’d like to know more, you’ll be able to contact us directly, and we’ll let you know how to read it.

Visiting an onsen (hot spring)

You cannot come to Japan without experiencing an onsen. If you’ve never tried a good onsen, then you really cannot know what it feels like to have your complete being replaced with a more tranquil and complete version of yourself. 

An onsen is a bathing place, most often with naturally hot spring water that comes from a couple of kilometres underground. They are made with a variety of baths to try, each one being different. Some with warm and, unusually, also cool baths, some with very alkaline water, some with high mineral salts, some with herbs added. The water often has a soapy feel because of low ph. 

The baths are big enough to hold between 6 and 30 people and are shaped to be like pleasant swimming pools in a natural and relaxing setting. Some of the pools are outside, some are inside. A lot of the time, onsen are places to relax for a whole day, with restaurant, sauna, sleeping areas and massage areas. 

So when you go to an onsen, what should you do?
What you do is undress completely. Yes completely and in the public gaze of other naked individuals. You wash yourself in a washing area with individual areas for each person, but no less public. Soap and shampoo are provided. Then you just spend your time in whatever pool takes your fancy, moving about as you want. Genders are in separate areas of course, and its really very easy once you get used to being completely naked (and of course that’s only going to effect anyone when they move between pools).

It really is a unique experience. And one with many health benefits.

Buying a car in Japan (Part 3 of how to turn grey quickly, or driving in Japan)

  Ok, so now you’ve got your license, and thought that was the fiddly bit. Sorry, there is a bit more to do unless you’re just going to use hire cars. And after this chapter there is yet more to know. So here we go.

First go and have a look at some cars. When you settle on purchasing one, the trader will arrange the payment of some taxes as part of the purchase cost (weight tax, purchase tax- a one off, the regular road tax (in 12 or 25 month blocks), and compulsory govt insurance.

If there is any vehicle inspection needed the cost will be added and the work carried out before delivery. This inspection is called a shaken. It’s like the UK s MOT, but happens every two years and is very very thorough (& expensive). Most folk in Japan are therefore very very careful with car maintenance.

Lastly, if proper insurance needs arranging, (ie. You haven’t arranged it elsewhere, because you need it in addition to government insurance) it can also be done now, via the trader. Then fill in purchase forms and stamp with inkan. (If you haven’t got one of these, it’s your signature in Japan, basically a red ink seal of your name, registered at the local Ward office or civic centre. To get one is a whole new chapter of experience, and as I don’t need one, I can’t tell you how to get one but be assured it will be complex)

After completing the initial purchase forms you now have to go home and collect more documents. One is the proof of your inkan, which comes from the ward or city civic office. If not registered there you will have to take time to register it. All this has to be done in person. 

You can now send the purchase forms back to the trader. 

The trader will have given you some parking permission forms. In Japan, you have to have a registered parking place- space being in limited supply, you can’t get a car without one. Take the parking permission forms, (completed with a landowners permission, and maps of the environment with measurements of road width and the allowed parking space) to a police station that is able to deal with (not all can). Submit and return on another day which you will be told to pick up the certification. This step costs some more money, typically a few thousand yen. Next, send this certification to the dealer. 

The car is then arranged to be delivered to your home by the trader. 

Now, drive your new vehicle crazily for a week to get the stress of the purchase paperwork out of your system. Try not to crash it. 

Soon I’ll post another chapter of this saga, detailing how to drive your new beast of burden (because you will find it a different experience).

How to apply for a Japanese Driving Licence- Part 2- at the Driver Licence Centre

Ok, so you’ve been brave enough to search the web and found the previous page and thought, ok, I can do that. Well yes you can and here is a page to help you with the detailed steps that are needed at the Driver Licence Centre. 

If you’re not a UK citizen or one of the bilateral agreement countries listed in the previous post, this process won’t work for you. 

Ready?  Here we go. 

This is the process for a uk citizen at the driver examination centre in Saezu. The other centres will likely be the same, there are three of them. 

1. The centre is split across several floors. You will need the foreign licence exchange reception, one of the few signs in English. 
2. One point, a passport photo needed, it has to be Japanese size. The info you receive before this will fail to mention this to you. Luckily there is a photo machine at the centre, it costs about 800¥, which is a bit steep, and the cynic in me does wonder if this is an easy way of making a bit of extra cash out of everyone. The queues for this one machine can get long later in the day. Obviously, they fail to mention it for other licence processes too. 
3. Fill in a basic form and wait for your documents to be checked. They are all listed in the previous blog post. 
4. If they are all ok, you now go to a separate desk to pay 4250¥. 
5. Go to another floor for a simple eye test. You will need Japanese language for this. (However the main counters you will otherwise use are very accommodating).  Basically you say which side of a circle a gap appears on a chart, and then state the colour of some lights displayed in the same way a set of traffic lighst in Japan would be with multiple LEDs. 
6. Return to your first reception desk and hand in your form once more. They will direct you to make a PIN number at a special pin card machine. You will get a ticket which is used to prove who you are for the remaining steps. This is because in Japan, every process is dealt with at a different desk and there is a need to prove who you are at each step. The pin card does this job, although no-one has mentioned what happens if you drop and lose your pin card- I guess it’s unlikely to marry up registered pin with licence docs but there we are. 
7. Wait for being called forward again. Collect your forms and original documents. Thry will explain the expiry date information. It is usually valid for three years from your last birthday before needing to be renewed (Bad luck if your next birthday is tomorrow). 
8. You’ll be asked to return to the 1st floor to take the official licence photo (even though you have passport ready photos in your hand). You will need the special pin code card for this. Hand that and your form in. They take the photo and give you a small counterpart of the form back. 
9. You’ll be asked to go to the second floor to wait for your licence to be issued. On your slip there will be a number. Look for this on the screens in the waiting area if they are in operation, but usually you have to listen out for your number and then come forward to the counter. This is the longest wait, the rest is reasonably quick on a quiet day as when I went. This last part takes about 40 minutes. 
10. One last step. You need to take your licence card and scan it at one of the PIN number making machines (it’s exactly the same as the previous machine you will have used).  Choose the 2nd option that is available. At the previous machine instructions in English were available, but here they are not. When the card is scanned, enter your PIN number on the screen and a picture of your licence turns up on the screen. Check everything is in order and then press the complete button (it’s written in Japanese). 

You’re now he proud recipient of a Japanese driver’s licence.  Simple isn’t it.

If you’d like to know how to buy a car in Japan, do wait just a short while while I negotiate that process- it’s nearly complete, it will only take you 2-4 weeks to complete depending on the state of your city documents and the free time you have available. 

UK

Holy cross church

Now we have been here about five months and the dust is just beginning to settle, and I’m beginning to find my feet in basic conversation, it’s time to introduce you to the main church that I serve in: Tokyo Holy Cross Church, in Japanese 東京聖十字教会 toukyo sei jyuu ji kyou kai.   

 

It’s an interesting church that has been here nearly the length of protestant Christian witness in Japan and started off life as a small tatami mat filled house when the region of wakabayashi was just fields and trees. Now of course there’s not a field in sight for miles. In 1961 a new church was built by a unique English architect called Anton Raymond. He built several churches through Japan fusing the Japanese style of building in wood with the church interior arrangement we would be very familiar with in the west. It’s a big upturned ark shaped building and very dark inside except for one stained glass window.  

The church entrance and one glass window, just before worship on Christmas Eve last year. 

We have worship twice on Sundays, 8.30 is a prayer service which sees 1-2 people come, sometimes none, because such services are not set up for public consumption as we would normally be familiar with in the UK but as extras serving only the congregation. Japanese congregations are mainly spread far afield some coming as far as two hours journey to enjoy the company of people they knew when they got married or when they were a child. So the morning service serves the needs of mainly one individual who comes about an hour’s journey to join his church family. When you consider the way Japanese companies often relocate employees across the entire breadth of the country, often separating them from family (including wife and children) you can begin to understand how valuable this sense of being anchored can be. 

Following 8.30, we have our main communion service at 10.30. About 30 usually come, and often we start with 20 and grow in the first part of the service as various people come back from preparing food in the kitchen (not a practice I like too much but it’s ingrained to an extreme here and won’t be changing any time soon). The service is in modern but polite Japanese. It’s starts without fanfare and runs it’s course with very few options for variety until it’s end. Everyone knows the service by heart, everyone feels secure with the process of the same service each week. It was a joy then to discover an openness among them to me doing a sermon in a different style from the norm. 

 

An early attempt at reading the gospel

   

Thomas gets to grips with learning how to be a server. 

If you were to come to a service here, you would soon find some comfortable sense of the familiar as each part of the service can be recognised without any language knowledge. One difference that you might find is the position of the confession which comes after hearing the word and before sharing the peace. It’s different but not at all unnatural feeling. Other differences are all about practice, they’re very interesting and I’m still trying to learn all about the reasoning. For example, during the prayers everyone stands, but for what is to me the most important element of a Christian prayer, the communion prayer, everyone sits! I’ll never get used to that one. But it’s only a reversal of our pattern, both are well known positions of prayer afterall. The wine used here is white wine, I asked about that and there is a reason: if it spills (unconsecrated one would hope) then it isn’t such a problem on white cloth- very practical. One practice I vary quite a lot is the breaking of the bread. Usually here, the patten is used to physically mark a line in the wafer before breaking it by cutting with the edge of the plate. Priests here give the meaning of including our own damaging marks on Christ’s body in the middle of the prayer. Very powerful. Sometimes I do this, sometimes I do not- it makes controlling the breads on the table very awkward so I favour not doing it unless the service is very small or the congregation needing a lot of familiar practices. Also here, intinction, dipping the bread into the wine, is a favoured way of receiving the bread and wine, about 2/3rds of people prefer intinction. It’s not a practice I like, but an interesting meaning is given to it here recalling the story of Judas, the ‘one who dips his bread with me is the one,’ again it places people directly into the passion story.

  

Judging the amount of wine to consecrate is a bit hit and miss with many folk using intinction. The wine is never reserved, only the bread. 

After the service the church members usually gather for a simple meal together. This is the reason why the congregation grows at the start of the service: week on week it takes a long time to prepare food for everyone.

People will stay together nearly the whole day long and because the priest serves a congregation rather than a community, there’s an expectation the priest will stay with them until the last one has gone home. The members will also use a company office practice of ensuring they say farewell to the priest (boss) before they leave. It’s a gentle enjoyable time, but with the reducing numbers of priests here it’s a practice that’s going to find some challenges in the years to come. 

  

Food after the service, which happens every week. 

The age profile is similar to the U.K. We ourselves have no children present except my own, and there is the familiar longing for younger people to come to the church. The hopes and sense of mission here mean that how that might happen will be entirely different from the UK. There’s is no connection to wider society in the churches here, they are islands of congregations standing by themselves. However, the priests are deeply sensitive to people who come by enquiring about faith or life, and because the priests are largely present at the churches most of the time, those who do wish to enquire about life and faith generally know where to find a priest. And they do come. I think we’ve had about 3-4 people coming through the door on Sunday or turning up mid week since we arrived. Some stay on and join a bible group or come again each week. So the mission is there, but it is very different. Oh and when people call they will just drop by, so the sense of timing of church life and expectations about availability is very different here.

A quick tour of life in the church here, but for a better look why not come and visit us a while, we can guarantee an interesting, familiar and yet totally different experience ☺

Two Japans

  It’s an unfortunate fact that Japan is a nation struggling to become a truly modern nation. Yes it has the most amazing trains and technology, but beneath the veneer of a terribly modern city, Tokyo, excepting a few tiny corners, is a very old world city. It’s a scenario played out across the whole of Japan to varying degrees. Perhaps in Tokyo it’s got a lot to do with its continuing history as the capital, which has its roots in the feudal system.

In times of old the shogunate insisted on its area dignitaries to come to Tokyo for a period of time each year, thus controlling their movements and keeping a careful eye on potential coups. This centralized mentality continues to this day, it’s why Tokyo is such a vast city in the nation; if you want to work in the places that matter you have to go to Tokyo. It’s an image that’s beginning to change but still holding on strongly.

The modern Japan has all the trappings of the world we know in the UK, along with its associated problems, however it is always tempered by the old Japan which is always just there beneath the surface. For the visitor the old Japan will occasionally be glimpsed in the modern cities, but if you choose to move here it will be your constant companion in everything from when you can shop (from 10am lest workers and mothers are distracted from their tasks of getting to work and doing the kindergarten run), to how long your working day will be.

The old Japan isn’t the ancient spiritual Japan found in the temples and shrines, that is a whole other layer. The old Japan takes the feudal controlling nature of the past and adds something that happened in the Meiji restoration, the westernization of the nation.

All of a sudden you get an environment that has extreme preference for Society over the individual, coupled with a strong tendency for the protestant work ethic on steroids. It’s what raised Japan out of nowhere after the rebuilding years after the Second World War; the Japanese love to work (often early am to as late as 11pm), but it’s also something that is threatening their economic viability in today’s world as people choose to forge careers without family because of the working demands placed on them, working harder and harder for a society with less and less consumers because of the lower birth rate, and a dwindling reward in retirement. One day the kettle will boil and there will be an almighty reset.

Old Japan demands the people follow the top dog. There are strict expectations about who is at what level and how one progresses through the company. There is still a sense of a job for life here, and a sense that the company is your family, and your own family is just an add on that mustn’t get in the way. In fact there are still strong expectations that a mother will stay at home. At some kindergarten events, even though there may be a few dads present, the term mothers is still openly used to describe those present. 

Those expectations spill over into the work place where women sometimes build a career based on making the tea and cleaning the office first, while their male colleagues do the job the women will do later in the day. Many women just accept it as a fate of life, but there are signs of change as people choose to become self employed our aim for companies that are more forward looking.

Abe’s policies should aid that, but even he is only riding on the back of his wife’s energy as one who wants a decent change for the better for working women.

These collective attitudes are changing, but very very slowly, and because the heritage here is strong and wanted very much, it will be some time as the nation learns to place the right qualities and expectations of different eras into the right corners of society. 

Meanwhile the tourist goes by unaware of the collective strength of mind that put their Shinkansen, and it’s to the minute timetable, together. And others who stay longer, carefully complete very detailed forms for the ward office far too frequently for the good of their health, and balance varying attitudes to motherhood, fatherhood and identity as a member of the working world. 

How to apply for a Japanese driving license

11/5/15- An update for steps three and four in this post exist in a new blog entry- this is because the experience is very involved and you need to know what you’re doing. 

This post is for those who are trawling the web as I did, in search of the answer. Be aware, it’s not immediately possible to know all the information from the organisations that deal with this (yes I write organisations in plural)

For others who read this blog, there are other posts in the planning, but they’re all drafts at the moment. 

1. First. Find the Japan Automobile Federation website and download the translation application form. You will need. 3000 Yen, your original license and counterpart, the form, and two hours free time or so. Some countries will need their resident card. 
2. Second, visit your local government office for a residency certificate. These typically cost about 300 Yen. 
3. Third, find the local driver licence centre (for some reason this is also confused with the police offices, but it is independent.) if you are a UK citizen you will be exempt from taking tests, otherwise there is a written and practical test. You will need 4150 Yen, your license, counterpart and translations. Also, the residency certificate, residents card, and passport. 
4. The process at the centre is to check your eyesight, perform the tests if you need them, and handle your paperwork. You may be interviewed about how you got your licence. If all are happy you will get the licence. This last step needs a whole day set aside. 

Japan has bilateral agreements with more than twenty countries, including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, to ease the process of acquiring a Japanese license. If you hold a valid driver’s license from one of these countries you can get a Japanese license without taking a written or practical exam.

Instead, go to your local license center with an official translation of your license (obtainable from the Japan Automobile Federation), your passport, and proof that you held your license for at least three months in the issuing country before coming to Japan. Then, take a basic eye and physical test and you will be issued a new license on the same day.

I went to the shinagawa centre, one last note worth bearing in mind is your birthday. The licence you receive is valid for three years counting from your last birthday. So, if your birthday is coming up soon it might be worth delaying your application, otherwise you’ll effectively end up with a licence that’s only valid for two years. Why it’s like this nobody knows, but it makes it fun doesn’t it, doesn’t it….?

Good luck!

New arrival

I’ve just got time to introduce you to someone new. His name is still a secret…..

The closeness of heaven

There is a saying in Japan, you’re born Shinto and you die Buddhist, such is the closeness that’s developed between the two religions over the last 1000 years. Rites of birth and death are taken very seriously, to the extent that in some circumstances when someone passes away you’re almost not allowed to move beyond mourning there are so many requirements for so many years anniversaries.

The church here has a similar role in its mission. It has picked up on the need within society and provides monthly requiem masses at every church. It’s a nationwide practice. These are popularly attended, and it’s the one service that folk belonging to the church but not regularly attending, are likely to come to, along with a number of people whose relative was Christian but who themselves follow Buddhist practices in the same way as much of society here (loosely, and with not too much attention to the details).

When I came across this pattern I was a little concerned at the emphasis upon loss within the church community and the lack of much else by way of active mission. But I have to admit there is a good value in it. When it came close to Min’s anniversary in December, I was struck by the opportunity that all these Eucharists suddenly presented. The Eucharist, for some, is a gateway to the worship of heaven. We join in with what is the real thing ‘up above’ as it were. To take that meaning, and to take the tradition of regular remembrance, all of a sudden it becomes an opportunity to sit near one’s loved ones in worship once more.

I have a lot to complain about concerning the church in this country, it’s blindness is supreme! But this is one of the positives.