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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Life on the Left Side










Driving here... is an experience. It's getting easier though and It's starting to seem like I've always driven in the left lane. The roads however, will always be crazy. They are very narrow and it's hard to choose a lane on the 4 lane roads. This is because cars always park on the left side half in the lane, blocking traffic, and they don't have turning lanes here, so when cars are turning right they stop traffic in the right lane. So there is a lot of weaving between the two. Another thing to get used to, motorcycle and scooter riders. They are everywhere and follow about zero traffic laws. They can drive in between lanes and cut around cars to the front of the line at stoplights, a practice called "white lining." You have to watch out for them, especially if you are turning left because they may be driving on your left side to go around you, even if there isn't a lane there. As you can prabibly guess we purchased a car. It's a skyline, which I guess is a "cool" car here amoung service members. It's a more American style car, not like the small boxy cars most Okinawans drive. It was Carrick's "Okinawa Dream Car," so I was ok with us getting it. I think when I buy a car it will prabibly be a small suv/jeep type though. The picture isn't of our car, but it's of a skyline that looks like ours. (I don't have my camera cord and can't upload our own).

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