the wacky wombat weblog

So I drove the company car (whee!) out to customer’s site today. Driving in Japan can be quite a challenge. Though there are quite a lot of K-cars here in Tokyo, but it doesn’t feel like it’s as much as the Kancil and Kelisa we see driven by young tudung-clad girls with their driver’s seat adjusted maximum to the front. So far in front that it’s further than the steering wheel and dashboard, pretty much sitting between the windscreen wipers and the front bumper - and that they can never see the rear/side/make-up mirrors.

Okay, shall not digress. So driving in Tokyo, we’ve gotta be on alert all the time. There’s the incoming lane rights that we’ve never experienced, much like in Singapore and US. Then we’ve gotta always be on the lookout for bicycles - they’re much more notorious than our mat motors back home. Parking in tight spaces is a daily test of skill (and if you can’t even side park, forget about parking in Tokyo, either pay thru the roof to parking attendants, or drive non-stop). And of course, the ever-distracting phone calls, SMSes, on-board TV, make-up sessions, boogers-mining sessions, and that annoying female voice of a navi system that keeps insisting you take the highway eventhough it’s jammed right to her nostrils.

And today it was about crazy taxi drivers. Comparable to those in New York. I almost got killed twice thanks to 2 idiotic taxi drivers. They seem to be so much more interested in every opportunity of a customer flag-down, than to care for his rear bumper. Twice today I had 2 taxi drivers in less than 50 metres in front of me, swerving from the 4th lane to the 1st lane (and stopped his car 45 degrees off the lane at that) just to ferry new customers. WTF? Do they really think that whenever they press the Hazard light button (it seems like Hazard light is used for all reasons except during a hazard/emergency situation) after noticing a customer flag-down, that the world would come to a slow motion and he can safely swerve past 3 lanes? Of course, the taxi driver’s actions will generally cause cars directly behind them to brake so hard that they could flatspot all 4 tyres (and maybe even the spare in the trunk, should it get bumped from the car behind who can’t stop in time) locking up under braking.

I’m sure this is much worse than Fernando Alonso being held up on track. And I’m even more sure that if was Alonso facing such taxi drivers, he would not just show the finger and curse from his car, but get down and headbutt the taxi driver with his helmet. He’d gladly give up his World Championship title defence just to get even at these taxi driver.

You would wonder why on earth these taxi drivers would risk their taxi and their lives with such moves? Well, the motivation of ferrying a customer with the meter starting at 660 yen (approx USD 5.70) for the first 2 kilometres would be enough. I’m sure the profit from that alone can afford them 10 rear bumper replacement a month, and downpayment for new taxi in a year. Hmmm, I bet if I search for “taxi bumper” in Yahoo! Japan auction site, I can find bulk packs of 1 dozen taxi rear bumpers for a steal!