Driving Me Nuts

Even though space is in abundance here, there is no such thing as street parking where I live. The streets are incredibly narrow and street parking would never work. There's barely enough room to walk on the side of the road and not get hit by a car or truck, let alone stop an entire vehicle.

Just a few days ago I was baking a cake for a pot-luck party I was going to. As I was mixing the ingredients I realized I needed some plain yogurt. I was out of it at home so I had to drive to the store to get some more. "No problem," I thought, "it'll take 5 minutes." I drove to the local mini-grocery store and when I got there. The always-empty parking lot was completely full. This was because half of the parking lot was roped off and there stood a lone man sweeping the parking lot spaces.

Since there is no street parking I was confused at what to do. There wasn't another parking lot nearby that I could temporarily park in. I didn't want to double park because the parking lot was so narrow that I'd be blocking anyone trying to get in and out of the parking lot all together, no just the person who I parked-in.

I pulled out and drove around the block hoping someone would leave. I noticed many cars with people sitting in them but no one was leaving. I even saw people exit the grocery store with their groceries and get into their cars. Then they just sat, with their cars running, in the parking lot...resting, I guess. I find this happening a lot. I drive to a convenience store and people sit with their car running eating lunch in their cars or sleeping. Apparently it's very common for Japanese people to do things like this. They live out of their cars more than we do in America.

I looked at the old man sweeping the parking spaces. "When you finish one, let someone PARK THERE!!" I thought... I was starting to get a little angry. The fact that he was sweeping a parking lot bothered me, and even more that he wasn't going to open up spots when he finished. Why not open up the ones you havent sweeped yet. There were about 20 spots blocked for him to sweep. Maybe he could block off 10 and then leave the other 10 open. Then block them off later. It's not like people would park there for an hour... or would they?

It took a total of 23 minutes, I know because I timed it. The amount of cars trying to get into the parking lot was absurd. No one was leaving. Everyone was coming in. Then, as if they all got some memo at the same time, about 90% of the taken spaces pulled out and left... at the exact same time. It was like watching someone scramble and then solve a Rubik's Cube. It went from an organized parking lot to a knot of cars and you knew it was only going to get worse before it got better. Eventually they all got out and I had first choice for the spot I wanted (by rule... I was there first.)

As I start pulling into a spot two other cars start going for it. This is where the organization of the grocery store parking lot near my home in America really started to seem brilliant to me. None of the spots are angled so you can come at the spot anyway. If they're angled you can only go in one direction and no one can really steal a spot from you. Right now was a battle. The good news is that Japanese people almost always back into spots. Rarely do they pull in forward. I, on the other hand, don't see the use for this system. Backing into a spot is clearly harder than backing out of a spot. I'd rather pull forward into a small narrow area and back out into a wide open area... it just makes more sense. It's easier! If I have no choice then I'll back in, but if I have the option I'm going front first.

So while these two Japanese parking-lot-bullies tried to back into my space, I just stuck my cars pretty little nose right in and parked. I got out, smiled, and walked in and got my yogurt and walked out. If there had been people waiting for spaces when I left, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten in my car and taken a nap... just because that's what they would have done to me. Instead I just went home and baked my cake which I think was the better choice. Nissan Cube's aren't comfortable, anyway.