Driving has never been so intense...

I know I have made more than my fair share of posts about driving. But if someone asked me, "What is the biggest difference between Japan and the US, I would say: driving." No, I don't just mean driving on the "wrong" side of the road. That part is actually fairly easy as long as you stay alert. The middle line in the road should always be next to the driver. When we practice driving everyone says the mantra, "Driver. Line. Driver. Line." to remind us which lane to pull into. This mantra holds true in the US as well, except no one has actually had a reason to stop and think about it.

In all, the Japanese are very good drivers. They're very polite, very alert and very familiar with the rules of the road. For example, at night when you pull up behind someone, it's always polite to dim your headlights so you don't shine your lights in their rear-view mirror. In the US, if we pulled up behind someone and dimmed our lights, the person in the first car might become concerned they're about to be robbed.

You always maintain a distance of about six feet when stopped at a stoplight. In the US, when stopped at a stoplight, we like to practically touch the bumper of the person in front of us. In Japan, they like to give themselves a little distance between the cars.

It's okay to block an intersection. In the US, we absolutely cannot block an intersection otherwise we might get a ticket. This is especially difficult with those short lights when we want to pull out, but there's no room for our car. In Japan, you can just go ahead and pull into the intersection to secure your spot in the line.

Never get angry. The Japanese are the most easy-going people as far as driving is concerned. As I've mentioned before, many places don't have parking lots. People simply pull to the side of the road and put on their hazards and then run into the store to go shopping. Driving means you're constantly dodging people's parked cars. No one honks. No one rolls their eyes or throws their arms around. It's just the way it is...and you can deal with it, or you can look like an idiot and lose control over something you have no control over. Most Japanese drivers simply zoom around the car (and some cars stop directly in the line of traffic) and continue on with their day.

Be alert. Not only do you have to worry about pedestrians, narrow roads and roads with no-shoulders, you have to worry about scooters and mopeds. They zoom in and out of traffic following almost no rules. If you're not the utmost alert, you could definitely cause injury to someone.

Beware of the stick. Japanese police stand beside traffic-jammed areas and look for people who are breaking traffic laws or have expired tags or stickers. When they see someone, they have a stick with a red tip. They sharply smack the stick on your windshield to let you know to pull over. So, watch out.