The compulsion to protect the 'wa' is so strong here it lead to my seeing the single most astounding thing I have ever seen in Japan. This wasnt recently, I saw it when I was in Okazaki in February.
It was about 11pm, I was out on my bike (the one with the automatic transmission), and arrived at a crossroad. There were traffic lights - every intersection seems to have traffic lights - and they were green on the road I was approaching from. I was on the footpath, as per Japanese traffic laws. Normally in the middle of the night, with little or no other traffic around, I would cross the road even against a red light, but it was green. I did slow down, and indeed stop, because from the side road a police car was coming, with its flashing lights flashing. I figured, best to stop because they will obviously run the red light and continue on their way.
Oh no... they STOPPED. And waited the full three minutes or however long for the lights to change, before continuing on their way. I can only hope they werent rushing to the aid of someone in distress... it is evidently preferable for them to be late than risk breaking a traffic rule... Is it just in first world countries that the red and blue (red only in Japan) lights on emergency vehicles exist for excepting this rule?
I have indeed heard stories of ambulances doing the same thing - and a first person story ( the Sue-beast from Okazaki ) of seeing it happen while a patient was in the ambulance...
Wish I had a photo of that police car stopped at the lights, though....
78 (PS - you probably dont want to click on that link.... it really is scary...)
No comments:
Post a Comment