accident

Well, our rush to jump into local culture continued when we got into our first Japanese car accident today. Now, let me preface this by telling you that nobody was hurt and we were not the ones driving.

We were on the way back to school from lunch and got into a bit of a fender bender. This was nothing unique, but what happened afterward was truly Japanese. See, when a driver in Misawa needs to make a phone call, which isn't allowed while driving, they simply and stop the car and make the call. Note, I didn't say they pull over and make the call. They often just stop in the middle of the street. So it's understandable that the lady whose car was hit stayed put in the street for twenty minutes while waiting for the police rather than pulling to the side.

When the police finally came, they directed the involved cars into a nearby parking lot to get them out of the way...and then proceeded to park the police car right in the street. It was at least entertaining watching all the traffic coming from four directions trying to maneuver around it.