Car Related Culture Shock

When I first got to Japan, I had plenty of culture shock related to automobiles. Cars are very important to the Japanese, and in all cities except for the largest ones, a car is really required to get anything done. Auto theft is quite uncommon in Japan, so it’s not at all rare to see someone leave his beautiful Nissan Fairlady Z parked in front of the conbini (convenience store) with the engine running — the idea that his car might be stolen just doesn’t enter into the thinking here, so it’s perfectly safe. Japanese cars have the steering wheel on the right side, as in England and Australia, and the Japanese have perfected the art of starting the car without getting in it, since the ignition is easily accessible on that side of the vehicle. When stopped at a light at night, it’s considered good manners to turn your headlights down to “park” so you don’t blind the person in front of you, and when someone lets you go ahead of them in traffic, flashing your emergency lights at them once or twice conveys your thanks — although this is done by polite Tokyo drivers, not Gunma locals, who have bad driving manners. Japanese love their cars, and there are many interesting products that allow drivers to deck their vehicles out, including bizarre and interesting accessories, gaudy air fresheners, and flashing lights that are great for picking up girls. And if you love anime as much as you love your car, you can of course deck it out as an ita-sha, a word that sounds like “Italian car” but which is written using the kanji for “pain.” Although ita-sha have really taken off lately, cars decorated as shrines to anime have always been around, and I remember seeing a gorgeous air-brushed custom van with images of Lupin III on it when I first arrived in the country.