Walk This Way

So...when you are walking down the sidewalk and someone is walking towards you, you automatically move to the right side of the sidewalk right? And when you are walking up stairs and someone is walking down, you move to the right side right? And when you are riding a bicycle and someone else is, and they are coming towards you you move to the right right?

Why do we do these things? Because you drive on the right side of the road. Thus the instinct to break right becomes very natural.

...yeah this doesn't exist in JApan, and it's REALLY annoying. I'll quote my friend on this: Japanese people are the worst decision makers in the world.

Watch this video, it's super awsome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN5BubxKtOI&feature=related

Now I swear, that if you tried that in Japan, you would have a crash within 10 seconds. I can't tell you how many times I have broken left (the way they drive on the street), only to have the person coming in the opposite direction break right aka we almost crash. So annoying.

Like today, this ancient Japanese would is coming towards me. There is a tree on the right side of the sidewalk. And the way the timing works out is that i will pass the tree before her, by about 10 seconds. So I go, pass the tree, and at this point she is on the left side of the sidewalk, (my left her right), which is the same side I am on. So I switch to the right side of the sidewalk, but so does she.

This ends up in us both having to put on our breaks, me dodging her to the right, and her getting so close to the tree that she now has to back up in order to go around it. Absolutely pathetic. I know that explanation wasn't the best, but trust me, it wasn't pretty.

My friend said that he was on his bicycle, on a path that was only wide enough for two bikes. He said that two Japanese guys were coming towards him on their bikes, side by side. So he went to the right side, and he expected them to drop into a single file formation so that they could each pass freely. Well that wasn't to be. He said that they the two Japanese guys crammed together when they past and that my friend almost got knocked over...

The soccer team had its last game on this past saturday, and we won 4-0. It was really important for the seniors and the team because that win determined which league the team would be placed in for the following year. Because we won though, the team remains in the highest (premier) league for college clubs. Pretty cool eh?