here, there, everywhere

One of the things I was the most apprehensive about before this job began was the driving: because we teach all over the place, we have to commute by a variety of means, including driving our boss' improbably tiny van about forty minutes every morning to a big company that lies way out of town, amidst a sea of beautiful rice fields and disconcertingly thin roads which are, even more unsettlingly, slightly elevated above the fields themselves. The first time the previous teachers drove us out there - tiny van unflinchingly plowing forward as every other car on the skinny, un-barrier-ed road rattled by it way too close and way too fast, all I could do was stare at the 2 foot drop on either side of the roads. While driving on the left definitely did my head in a bit are first - particularly since the turn signal and the window wipers are reversed - it turns out that driving on the wrong side of the road is nothing compared to the crash course in spacial perception that is my morning negotiation through the rice paddies. Iain - who grew up in the UK in a town with equally skinny little roads - has had no problems with the driving, but as happy as he is to drive, there are two days a week when I have to head out by myself.



Fortunately, it's been a week, and not only am I getting used to it - my pulse barely races when a bus rattles past me - but I actually am starting to like the drive. There are still a few tricky parts where I have to hold my breath, but in general I just find myself enjoying the route out of town, trundling over and alongside the river (see above), past the cherry-blossom studded Numazu Alps, into the lush fields that surround the office we work at.  I would take it over my subway ride from Fuchu to Shinjuku any day.