Return to Table of Contents, "Two Years in Salem (Studying Abroad from the Age of 60)"

About cars

There are more traffic lights used in the US than Japan. Each lane of traffic at an intersection has its own traffic light, so if there are three lanes going each way, there are three lights set up for each direction. Cars keep to the right, the opposite of Japan. There are also turn special turn lanes. When you want to go right, you can turn on a red light after stopping and checking to be sure it is safe.

School busses are frequently running before and after school hours. Yellow and brown school busses with a unified design are run by elementary, junior, and senior high schools. We can only see such busses for kindergartens in Japan. When students are getting on and off the bus, the driver puts up a stop sign that sticks out from the left side of the bus. Then, all vehicles behind the bus must stop even if there is enough space on the road to pass. I can understand this rule for vehicles following the bus, can't understand why all oncoming vehicles must also stop. If you don't stop when required, it is a traffic offense and you will be fined.

I didn't need a car at that time since I could go to school on foot in five minutes, but I bought a bicycle for shopping. Though I looked for a bicycle with a basket, I couldn't find any. Bicycles were made for cycling because Americans don't use them for shopping, so they all are equipped with plastic bottles for drinking water. I bought a rucksack as a substitute for a basket or carrier on my bicycle. I pedaled by bicycle wearing the rucksack packed with canned beer, eggs, milk, and so on. There are lanes only for bicycles on both sides of main roads. I hardly saw any bicycles using those lanes. While I think making space for a bicycle is very good, I also can't help but admire America's consideration for minorities such as those with disabilities. Though wandering from the subject, "About cars, " I want to take up another example. There is a high school only for unmarried mothers in Salem. It has a home in which their children are taken care of while they are studying in class. The school is free.

For half a month, I parked my bicycle in the car parking space that came with my apartment. A kind neighbor often suggested I put my bicycle indoors in order to prevent it from being stolen. I looked around the apartment buildings carefully and saw that I was the only one who parked a bicycle outside. Everyone else kept their bicycles indoors. Therefore, I started to keep my bicycle on a piece of cardboard I laid out on my living room carpet, but I didn't feel comfortable. I hesitated to put my bicycle inside especially after I had been out in the rain. Three months later, my bicycle was stolen while parked in a supermarket bicycle lot even though I had locked it with a chain. I bought another bicycle with a stronger lock and a thicker chain. I wasn't too shocked about the robbery since the bicycle only cost $69.

I will say more about robberies. Thieves seem to have an eye on what's inside people's cars. It is common knowledge that we shouldn't put things where they can be seen through the car window. I have a friend whose driver's seat window was broken while parked. I also had an experience as follows. Kevin, whose wife is the Korean who I mentioned in the passage, "Meals," had his car broken into while parked at the place where he was staying. Someone fumbled with the keyhole trying to start the car, but seemed unable to do so. When Kevin returned to his car and wanted to start his car, he couldn't insert his key into the keyhole, so he had his car taken to a repair shop by a wrecker. Since his car couldn't be fixed soon, I went there to pick him up with my car.

We students are forbidden to carry our bags, knapsacks, and the like with us into the Bookstore at Chemeketa Community College which sells books, textbooks, stationery, bags, clothes, gifts, and so forth, and even candy. We are allowed to enter the store after putting our belongings on the shelves provided in the entrance hall. While I think it is regrettable that the school authorities don't trust their students, it might be because of past cases of shoplifting. Some supermarkets forbid customers to carry their bags inside. When I was using my bicycle for shopping, I often went to a major supermarket, Walmart. Then, I always had to leave my rucksack in the store's care at the entrance. One family I knew turned a radio on whenever they went out, to prevent robbery while they were absent. The sound of the radio could be faintly heard from outside the house.

I bought a used car nine months after my arrival in Salem. Bruce helped me buy the car. I got to know him three months before when I joined an English conversation learning meeting which was held once a week. Three Japanese students were being taught English by him, and they were teaching him Japanese. His wife was a beautiful Japanese girl named Shizuka who was a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. Though he was trying to learn Japanese from her, since she was good at English, their Japanese conversation was apt to change into English within five minutes. He was a sales manager at a Nissan dealership. Through him, I bought a used car which was a Nissan Centra (corresponding to Nissan Sunny in Japan), produced in 1990, with 80,000 miles on it, which cost $4,800, but which was marked down $1,000 for me. Since I had heard that used cars often break down, I paid $750 for a one year warranty. Automobile insurance was very expensive. At first I was told that it cost $1,700 a year in the case of a driver with an international license, but since I got my Oregon learner's permit the insurance cost went down to $1,400. This price didn't compensate for repair expenses for damages that were my responsibility. The guarantee for bodily injury liability also was less than $100,000, compared to a few million dollars or unlimited liability in Japan. Since there was a national organization called AAA corresponding to JAF in Japan, I joined it.

My international driver's license, which was issued in Japan, was valid for one year, but it was only valid for three months in Oregon. However, when you are caught by the police the first time after three months, you can make an excuse, but you can't the second time even though it hasn't expired. I decided to get an Oregon driver's license just before I bought a used car. I got a manual free, which the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) issued, at my school's library. I read it carefully in order to take the written exam. Even those who have an international driver's license can't take a road test unless they can pass the written exam. You can pass the written exam if you answer 19 questions out of 25 correctly. I was allowed to use an English/Japanese dictionary if I wished, and unlimited time. I passed the written exam the first time answering 20 questions correctly. In general, when an examinee passes the exam, a learner's permit is issued then and there. After that, he or she practices driving on the road with a licensed driver in the front seat, and after making progress, he or she can take the road test. A learner's permit cost $13, but I didn't buy one since I could practice alone with my international driver's license. After making an appointment for the road test, in addition to my independent practice, I practiced driving with Bruce for about one hour a day for three days, from 7 PM after he finished work. Since I had driven only once in a while in Japan, and hadn't driven for nine months in Salem, though I drove on various roads this time, my driving skill was not good. I went to the DMV alone on the appointed day without confidence. During the road test you have to bring your own car since the DMV doesn't have any to lend. At first, an examiner checked my car's insurance and functions such as the brake lights, blinkers, etc. She tested my driving around the DMV and in the downtown for about 15 minutes. I somehow passed and got a driver's license by paying only $26.25. I felt a little interested in the "height" and "weight" items mentioned on a driver's license. Heavy women might hesitate to show their driver's license to others.

Four friends took the road test using my car. The first is an intelligent girl named Saika who was studying at Chemeketa Community College during a one year's absence from her university in Hokkaido after finishing her junior year there. She hadn't gotten a driver's license in Japan. She studied the free DMV driver's manual for about a week, passed the written exam the first time, and got a learner's permit for $13. She practiced driving from scratch for about a week. Unlike Japan, there are many places for practice such as on campus, quiet residential areas, and roads in the suburbs where there are very few cars. She also passed the road test the first time and got a driver's license for $26.25. If she was going to get a driver's license in Japan, she would have had to spend over $2,000 commuting to a driving school. Just before going back to Japan, she got an international driver's license issued by the AAA, and she took a simple test in Japan. Then, she seemed to have been able to change that into a Japanese driver's license. You might doubt whether she could drive on busy roads after going back to Japan since she got a driver's license so easily, but it may be needless anxiety because she drove a rent-a-car around the vast US with her friends during summer vacation.

The second is Manami. She passed the written exam the second time. (Few Japanese seem to pass it the first time.) She had a Japanese driver's license and said that she hadn't driven so often in Japan, but I judged her driving skills to be pretty good during her driving practice with me, so I expected that she would pass the road test on the first try, but she couldn't pass. After more practice, I was sure she would pass the second time, but she failed again. In Japan, there is no counterpart like the one-way traffic in downtown Salem, so Japanese are apt to make a mistake there. In fact, even veteran drivers who drove for many years in Japan failed the road test in Salem. If you show an examiner your driving skills too proudly, or behave rudely, incurring ill feeling, you might be failed. Manami passed the third try.

The third is Xiao, who is Chinese. She had already gotten her learner's permit two months before I met her the first time in Grammar I class, ESL, but she had hardly ever driven. I had her drive on the school's campus many times. During her practice, I kept being in suspense with my heart pounding. If she understood Japanese, I could point out her wrong movements, but I couldn't recall appropriate English words quickly, so I went into a stew. Chinese characters and kanji have different pronunciation but the same meanings in Japanese, so we could communicate with each other to the extent of complicated and delicate things by means of writing. We didn't see each other for about three months, but we began practicing again with her strong will. After some practice on campus, we practiced on the roads. At last it was time for her to try the road test. Through practice, she got used to my car, and became fond of it. I promised to sell her my car when I returned to Japan about six months later. Even on the test day, she practiced about one hour before the road test began, but she failed by a narrow margin. She was so disappointed that she in an instant thought of taking the road test at another DMV where it was said to be easy to pass, but it was too far away. She regained control of herself and made an appointment for the test again one week later. She passed with a high score.

The fourth is Aya. She graduated from a four-year university and after working as a teacher at an English conversation school for kids for a few years in Japan, she entered Chemeketa Community College. She commuted to work in Japan by car. She wanted to buy a used car, so she decided to get an Oregon driver's license. She asked me to help her both to buy a used car, and to practice driving. I took her to many different used car dealers. There were some dealers who carried such terrible junk cars that I couldn't understand how they could sell them. Cars of the same value were selling for different prices depending on the dealer. It seems to be wise in the United States to go around to as many used car dealers as possible and to check many cars before you buy one. Whenever I went out with a young Japanese female students, we were often looked at as if we were parent and child by clerks at stores. It might be natural for Aya and me to be looked at that way by used car dealers. She passed the written exam the first time and also passed the road test the first time.

The DMV also issues Oregon ID cards. Almost all Japanese students who didn't have an Oregon driver's license had such an ID issued. People under 21 years old are not allowed to drink alcoholic beverages in the United States. Because they have to prove that they are at least 21 years old in order to buy beer or other alcoholic beverages, they seem to use their Oregon ID cards since they don't want to carry their precious passports around. Actually, I don't need any ID when I buy beer, but generally Japanese appear to be younger than their real ages. Especially women look younger. Almost all women in their twenties may appear to be minors. As a matter of fact, my female acquaintance at the age of 33 has been mistaken for a minor. There are no vending machines selling alcoholic beverages in the United States, and there are far fewer vending machines in general here than in Japan. Vending machines are only placed in front of stores or other places where owners can keep an eye on them. Whenever I said that even kids could buy beer from a vending machine in Japan, most Americans were surprised.