Sutorenjaa In Japan

Driving in Japan... Section 4: Gaijin Traps

I drive a stick shift, POS, K-Car here and about 3 months have passed without incident... until last night.

So, in front of my apartment parking lot, around what would be a curb (its really just a slope) there are metal grates that cover these DEEP gutters. These gutters are on the sides of all roads in Japan... they are otherwise known as Gaijin (foreigner) traps. They were so dubbed upon our groups arrival after several unsuspecting members of our 1st year JET squad haplessley fell or were cought in them. Ask them and like vets of war, they will sit you down and tell you of that fateful time they fell into the trap. And for a small donation they'll gladly show you their 'war' wounds. I have yet to understand why these gutters are here... how much drainage could you need here?! In any case, they are a bit of a neusance, makeing biking & skating rather rough at times and no gaijin today walks across them without paying full attention. The ones by my apartment are no exception... except that they 10x as annoying.

Now it just so happens that after coming back home from work one day I found that 2 of the corner grates had fallen down into the gutter and these 2 grates just so happened to be in front of my space. Actuall to the side, so that I had to 3 point my way in and out every day. ANNOYING number 1. However, looking into the dirty muck that ran through that gutter and deciding that it was more icky to pull out the grates than to manoeuver around them, I let them be. Trying to be as careful as possible .

This small victory was short lived though for as time passed and my lazyness grew, I thought there were certainly quicker ways to exit my spot. So last night, brilliance struck and I decided to back my car in so that all I had to do was drive forward when I left. No problem! I came in an angle, backed that thang up and... bam... I was in the gutter.

After a moment hyperventalation (omygodomygodomygod... whadoIdowhadoIdowhadoIdo)... I pulled it together to go check to see if anything was seriously damaged. And oh, what I saw!

After a good laugh... the I ran inside to grab my camera to document my feat and fabulous misfortune (nothing was seriously broken).

Here are the pictures: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2116970684

I was able to call some friends for help to get the car out. AAA? Puh-lease. Who needs a tow when you have the sheer brute strength of 4 strapping ALTs? It was a lovely effort.
A round of cookies for all.
Score: Tina 1, Gaijin traps 0

posted by KidBach @ 12:42 PM