Will Miss #503 - no obnoxious car lock sounds

I will admit that I didn't live in an area in Tokyo where everyone had a car. That being said, I did live next door to several people with cars as well as a stone's throw (literally) from a business which had about 8 vehicles coming and going from its lot all day. I also walked around Tokyo for hours and hours (likely thousands) and experienced many people parking their cars and presumably locking them. One thing I never experienced was the sound of a car horn or alarm loudly hooting once like an errant mechanical fart when someone automatically locked their vehicle. In the U.S., obnoxious confirmation noises as people lock their cars by remote are everywhere.

I don't know if I just didn't happen to walk by anyone with said sounds enabled, didn't notice them, if the noises on Japanese cars when remotely locking up aren't as obnoxious*, or if the Japanese just didn't lock their vehicles because they thought it was safe, but I certainly appreciate now that I didn't have to put up with this particular type of random noise pollution while living in Tokyo.

I miss the lack of obnoxious car locking sounds.

*Note that I suspect (but am not sure that) this was the case. My husband and I bought a Toyota Prius as our car upon returning to the U.S. and it does not use a loud chirp or (even worse) a horn blow. It has a much mellower relatively subdued double beeping noise. I wonder if Japanese car makers offer a more refined solution because their consumer market wouldn't put up with such jarring noises, but I have no way of knowing without more experience with Japanese cars.

Will Miss #476 - no bumper stickers

Christians criticizing other Christians from the back of a truck.

The absence of something is never as easy to detect as the presence, though if the existence of something is especially irritating, you learn rapidly to appreciate when it's not there. One thing I've noticed since coming back home is that people seem to love to use their cars as a means of giving their views, boasting, or telling others what to do. It's not enough that Americans express their opinions openly in every forum and format possible, they also have to blab about what they think from the backs of their vehicles. I guess it's not enough to broadcast to those who know you, but also you have to reach strangers. You don't even have to be in person if you use your car as a bulletin board for your values.

In Japan, people didn't feel it was necessary to use their cars to say something. It wasn't only that they didn't want a bunch of ugly stickers on their usually pristine cars, but also that they didn't feel compelled to bellow their views from every available pulpit. I miss that. 

Will Miss #472 - the pedestrian crossings

This is another one of those things that I had no idea was going to be something I'd miss until I'd left it behind. The cars in Tokyo are more aggressive with pedestrians than American (or at least Californian) cars are. In fact, as someone who just took her test to get her driving license reinstated, I can say that the law says, "yield,  yield, yield" when instructing American cars, and they absolutely do. However, the reason Japanese drivers are so aggressive and impatient is that the crossing lights in Tokyo last longer and change more often for pedestrians. Here, the lights are so short that if you aren't at the curb the moment the light changes, you're not going to get across. I've read that it is 27 seconds in California, but I've counted it and it seems closer to 21 in terms of the signalling. The streets are wider here and that's not much time to get across, trust me. I'm not a slow poke. It's just a really damn short time. In Tokyo, I could walk half the block to make a light that had changed if I sped up a little. It was positively luxurious compared to here.

Tokyo was much more pedestrian friendly when it came to facilitating crossing streets, and I miss not having to worry about missing lights or waiting forever for the "walk" light to go on. 

Won't Miss #274 - psycho over scratches

I know that many men all over the world treat their cars with the same or better regard than their genitalia, and that they can get a bit nutty if someone dings or touches their cars. In Japan though, that level of investment seems to be turned up to "11". I have witnessed and heard about a lot of cases where Japanese men went absolutely bonkers over the slightest touch of their vehicle by a passing bicycle, a pedestrian, or other vehicle. No damage even has to be done for them to go ballistic. They just have to perceive that the potential for damage could have been done. If you happen to hit a spot which was previously blemished, you're going to be blamed even if that scratch is rusty and clearly old. The Japanese are just far nuttier about perfection in their cars than almost any other country's people, and this obsession is reflected in these reactions. In most cases, you'd get far more passion for imperceptibly scratching a guy's car door than for insulting his wife's appearance.

I won't miss the psychotic way some Japanese men react at the mere hint of a ding on their vehicles.

Will Miss #114 - amazing parking feats

Japanese people have to go to expensive driving schools for a long period of time before they can get a license, and there are good reasons for this. The picture associated with this post shows a pretty amazing parking feat. This giant Jeep is expertly squeezed into a small parking space with about a foot to spare on one side and just inches on the other side. Only a very slender person could even open the door and escape the vehicle, and only a very accomplished driver could maneuver the vehicle into the space without scratching it badly on the sides.

I'll miss marveling at these tight squeeze parking jobs (and there are lots of them in Tokyo).

Will Miss #77 - senior driver warnings

Japan has done something that the AARP would never allow in the United States. It has created a system which tags senior drivers with a decal (currently a tear drop which is half orange and yellow, but this will change soon). This allows other people who see them to exercise some caution because of the different driving habits of older people. Japan recognizes and acts on a reality, and that's that as one gets older, one loses some capability and it may be a problem for others.

I'll miss the fact that Japan puts safety before political or ego concerns of the elderly.

Won't Miss #28 - aggressive drivers

I once had a student write in his homework that cars were the "kings" of the road so pedestrians had better yield to them. By law in Japan, pedestrians have the right of way, but you wouldn't know it by the behavior of most drivers. When the pedestrian lights change to "walk", drivers are flooring it over the crosswalk for quite some time. Cars also zoom out of super narrow side streets with no visibility without pause at the area where the sidewalk intersects with the street when the safe thing to do is ease up to the sidewalk, check for pedestrians and creep forward. Generally speaking, cars can be incredibly aggressive and dangerous in Tokyo.

I won't miss drivers who feel that they can force their way through even when they don't have the right of way.