* This essay column is written by a longtime foreign resident of Japan.

I'm sure that drivers in Doshi, the rural village in Yamanashi Prefecture where I live with my family, are not any worse than those in most other places. It's just that their ages, their vehicles, the roads and topography all tend to emphasize their failings.

First of all, many of the drivers are elderly and prefer to chug along at a pace they feel comfortable with, i.e., one that would allow them to step out of their vehicles in comparative safety were an accident about to occur. This snail's pace of travel allows them to monitor how their neighbors' fields and gardens are doing alongside the roadway, keep an eye out for acquaintances and pay plenty of attention to the passengers they are gossiping with.

And the vehicles are often too small or too big. They are either underpowered minicars or huge trucks crawling along twisted roads. I'm convinced that the 660 cc engines in these minivehicles would be better employed powering motorbikes or even sewing machines. Such engines are not up to the task of propelling pickups laden with building materials, lumber or agricultural machinery up steep slopes, or for moving tiny cars crammed with an extended farming family plus its dogs.

On twisted, mountainous roads you sure don't want to get stuck behind one of these underpowered vehicles or their big relatives, the dump trucks, cement mixer trucks, mobile shops, delivery vans and even buses. Local drivers tend to be quite considerate and pull over to let faster cars zip by, but their commercial counterparts almost never do.

And many drivers have yet to work out that winter unfailingly follows after autumn and that snow and ice arrive then. As a result, many drivers are caught unawares by the onset of winter and attempt to drive around in snowfalls without appropriate tires or snow chains.

Almost every day I used to drive up and over a 1,000-meter ridge to Tsuru-shi, a 40-minute, one-way journey, to deliver our middle son to or collect him from his senior high school. I recall talking to a now-deceased old gent outside his daughter's home by a fire that had been used for making mochi, pounded rice cakes. We were seated beside the blaze and drinking sake to keep warm that winter's day and among other things he explained that when horses were used as beasts of burden the switchbacks on the road over to Tsuru-shi were even sharper and more frequent than on today's route.

The road twists and turns like a tortured snake, and if you get stuck behind something slow you'd better practice your Zen meditation. Alternatively, you can be like the suicidal/homicidal idiot in a green foreign sports car I sometimes see trying to overtake the slower cars in front while approaching sharp, blind bends. Realistically, how long can he expect to win at roadway Russian roulette?

The only straight and level section of the main road around here is several hundred meters long and just a couple of curves away from my house, but that's a favorite spot for police speed traps. They like to wait in the grounds of the empty Zennoki Elementary School bordering our property and pounce from there. Mind you, I heard that one former headmaster got caught for speeding and promptly banished the police from the school grounds during his tenure.

Frankly, you'd have to be coming into the village, be deaf, inattentive or a speed addict to get caught speeding on that stretch of Route 413 as the village public address system kindly announces the presence of the police there and instructs everyone to drive carefully.

But many of the locals and plenty of the transient tourists have an abundance of dopey, drunken and downright dangerous traits that I'd like to examine in my next column. In the meantime, use your seat belt (some villagers here never do) and drive carefully -- especially in Doshi.

If you have any comments please e-mail me at jtweekly@japantimes.co.jp

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 16, 2003
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