Here in the United States, we drive on the right side of the road. We walk on the right side of the road. If you're on the escalator and you want to just stand while others walk around you, you stand on the right side. Basically, we tend to default to being on the right when in doubt. Many of us know, on an intellectual level, that people in other countries "drive on the wrong side of the road," but it's still just a random fact that we tuck away in the back of our minds.
It's when you go to another country and actually experience that difference that things start to get interesting. Like, say, when I went to Japan. Given the title and the lead in to this post, you can probably guess that in Japan people drive on the left side of the road and stand on the left side of the escalator (while everyone passes you on the right).
Now, it usually only takes a couple of times of walking "upstream" for you to realize that you're walking on the wrong side, so it didn't take very long for me to stand or walk on the correct side. However, what took far, far longer was for me to remember which way traffic was coming at me first. I like walking, so I have done my fair sharing of walking here at home. That means that I have looked to my left to look for incoming traffic on many, many occasions. It makes sense: if the cars are driving on the right side of the road, when I'm crossing the street, the nearest possible car will usually be coming from my left. Sure, there are one way streets and the occasional round-about to change things up a bit, but for the most part, looking left will serve you well here in the US.
It will not serve you very well in Japan. That's not to say that I was careless about crossing the street. In fact, I looked both ways pretty much every single time. However, I instinctively looked to my left, so I was surprised by a car coming at me from the right on more than one occasion. No one came close to hitting me, but it's jarring to suddenly have a sizable hunk of metal hurtle past you from your blind spot. If you've ever played football or competed in any kind of a martial art, you know that the hits that shake you up the most are the ones that you don't see coming. It's the same basic idea here: seeing a car zoom past you when you didn't see it coming can be a little unsettling, even if you were in no danger from realistically being hit.
After the second time that happened to me, I resolved not to let Japanese cars rattle me like that anymore. After all, many of them are energy efficient cars that look a lot like our Smart cars, so I figured I should get over my fear of objects that meek. So, as I would approach intersections, I would make a conscious effort to remind myself of which way I had to look for the nearest car. It still took a few days, but my efforts paid off, and I found myself looking in the correct direction for oncoming traffic. I'm not going to lie: I was a little proud of myself for adapting to the country's customs and teaching myself to look in the correct direction.
Well, I was proud of myself until I came home. I had just beaten it into my head to look to the right for oncoming traffic, remember? That was great when I was in a country where oncoming traffic actually came from the right, but not so great when I returned to a country where oncoming traffic came from the left. Suddenly, my new-found instinct was working against me, and I was being startled by cars that were much larger than the Smart-ish cars I saw abroad. Crap, my genius had only been short-lived.
I now have to retrain myself to look to the left for oncoming traffic. I actually don't think it will take very long, since I have been looking to the left for much longer. The habit should come back much quicker than it took for the new one to be ingrained, but it's still going to be interesting for another week or so. And just in case you see me out on foot any time soon, make sure I'm not looking the wrong way, okay? It'll be better for my safety and for my psyche.
It's when you go to another country and actually experience that difference that things start to get interesting. Like, say, when I went to Japan. Given the title and the lead in to this post, you can probably guess that in Japan people drive on the left side of the road and stand on the left side of the escalator (while everyone passes you on the right).
Now, it usually only takes a couple of times of walking "upstream" for you to realize that you're walking on the wrong side, so it didn't take very long for me to stand or walk on the correct side. However, what took far, far longer was for me to remember which way traffic was coming at me first. I like walking, so I have done my fair sharing of walking here at home. That means that I have looked to my left to look for incoming traffic on many, many occasions. It makes sense: if the cars are driving on the right side of the road, when I'm crossing the street, the nearest possible car will usually be coming from my left. Sure, there are one way streets and the occasional round-about to change things up a bit, but for the most part, looking left will serve you well here in the US.
It will not serve you very well in Japan. That's not to say that I was careless about crossing the street. In fact, I looked both ways pretty much every single time. However, I instinctively looked to my left, so I was surprised by a car coming at me from the right on more than one occasion. No one came close to hitting me, but it's jarring to suddenly have a sizable hunk of metal hurtle past you from your blind spot. If you've ever played football or competed in any kind of a martial art, you know that the hits that shake you up the most are the ones that you don't see coming. It's the same basic idea here: seeing a car zoom past you when you didn't see it coming can be a little unsettling, even if you were in no danger from realistically being hit.
After the second time that happened to me, I resolved not to let Japanese cars rattle me like that anymore. After all, many of them are energy efficient cars that look a lot like our Smart cars, so I figured I should get over my fear of objects that meek. So, as I would approach intersections, I would make a conscious effort to remind myself of which way I had to look for the nearest car. It still took a few days, but my efforts paid off, and I found myself looking in the correct direction for oncoming traffic. I'm not going to lie: I was a little proud of myself for adapting to the country's customs and teaching myself to look in the correct direction.
Well, I was proud of myself until I came home. I had just beaten it into my head to look to the right for oncoming traffic, remember? That was great when I was in a country where oncoming traffic actually came from the right, but not so great when I returned to a country where oncoming traffic came from the left. Suddenly, my new-found instinct was working against me, and I was being startled by cars that were much larger than the Smart-ish cars I saw abroad. Crap, my genius had only been short-lived.
I now have to retrain myself to look to the left for oncoming traffic. I actually don't think it will take very long, since I have been looking to the left for much longer. The habit should come back much quicker than it took for the new one to be ingrained, but it's still going to be interesting for another week or so. And just in case you see me out on foot any time soon, make sure I'm not looking the wrong way, okay? It'll be better for my safety and for my psyche.
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