The Nagoya Trip

I had planned a nice trip to Nagoya. It was to be Hilary and I, the open Japanese highway system for 7 hours, then wonderful beautiful Nagoya. We packed up and left on friday afternoon after I got out of work. I ran a few errands first, but we were on the road by 2. The highway tolls were to cost about 100 bucks each way which isn't bad considering the bullet train costs 140 dollars each way per person. Japanese highways aren't particularly confusing but they aren't nearly as convenient as America's highways. American highways are typically, in my opinion, easy to use. It's not that the Japanese ones are hard to use but it's most that they are just strange when you are used to America's highways. A lot of the highway here was one lane and every so often there would be a 1 or 2 kilometer stretch of two lanes so you could pass people if they were going slow. This wasn't THAT bad until I got a flat tire. You can't just pull over to fix it since there is one lane and no shoulder, it's kind of like driving through a pipe or something. I had to wait until a rest area, Once there I performed my first car-tire-switch which was ultimately quite underwhelming. We had a long way to go until Nagoya, about 130 kilometers and the spare said we shouldn't do more than 80km but there was occasionally gas stations along the way.

The rest areas on Japanese highways are quite different. The way the highway works is, when you get on, you get a ticket saying where you got on. When you get off, you give them your ticket and they charge you your fee. It's a pretty solid system, I guess. It offers less possibilities for rest areas with multiple attractions though. For instance, I am used to driving and seeing a sign for an exit offering 10 different places to eat, 5 different gas stations, the Mars Cheese Castle, and a maybe picnic area/park that no sane parent would ever let their children play at. If this doesn't suit your fancy there will surely be another area like this offering a dozen other gems of the road just a few miles away. Ah, America, the land of options!

In Japan there are rest areas but they are different. They consist, typically, of one building. It has bathrooms, lots of vending machines, an area with some maps, and then a restaurant of some sort. Sometimes there is a gas station. They are cute and fun. Typically cleaner than what you find in America.

We made a number of stops on our way to Nagoya, each one had a gas station, each gas station didn't sell or fix tires. I was warned by one of the gas station men that since my car was uneven due to the spare (it would have appropriately fit on a hotwheels car) that I shouldn't go too fast. I already had trouble pushing 100km/hr with my car as it was, now I had to stay around 80. Since the highway was mostly one lane, it made for an uncomfortable journey. I have found that Japanese people have absolutely no problem tailing your car to let you know you are going too slow. They get close enough that you can no longer see their headlights in your rear-view mirror. You can almost smell their breath. It is sooooooo uncomfortable. No one is a crazy driver... except for when they get insanely close to your car. Anyway, the last two hours was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Once we got into Nagoya things got even more confusing. While the highway is clear regarding where exits and stuff are... big cities aren't really. Rarely are streets labeled so it's hard to find what street you are walking on. Intersections, sometimes, don't have either street name or anything on them. I am used to city driving, no big deal, but Japanese city driving is a whole other game. Hilary and I got lost and then more lost and then more lost and then more lost. We drove to every corner of that city. We were yelling at each other...though never blaming one another. We were just pissed. It was late, no food places would be opened. We stopped at a convenience store and they woman wouldn't even look at a map to tell us where we were. As soon as we said 'We are lost' in Japanese she was all 'I cannot help you. sorry.' and would walk away. I no longer shop at Lawson Station Convenience Stores... or should I say INconvenience stores! (OOOOH! Take THAT! ...weak.) Anyway we finally made it to our parking lot and parked. We looked up a place to get a new tire and went the next day.

NAGOYA, aside from the journey there, was wonderful. I got to eat everything that I wanted to eat, I got to see some old friends and my old host family. I got to visit some places I hadn't been to in years and I still knew my way around quite well... oooh I miss it. It was so nice. The few days we were there went by very quickly.

When we got back in the car to go home, I must admit, I was sad to leave. My car must have known this because the battery was dead. It was a sign... I needed to stay. (un)Fortunately, the hotel offered to jump my car and everything worked after that. There was a light on somewhere or something... perhaps I subconsciously knew it'd kill the battery and I might be able to stay longer.

Anyway... that was Nagoya.. I recommend a visit if you're ever in Japan. Tell them Mike sent you. They'll have no idea what that means... but just say it anyway. It'll be funny, maybe.