The Wrong Side of the Road on the way to the River!

When we first arrived to Japan we did not realize that they drive on the wrong side of the Road. For some people this might be common knowledge, however, for us it was not. We only discovered this when we were flying over Japan, looking out the window at the little cars down on the ground. I just assumed it was only Britain and certain former British colonies that did that. We looked up which countries drive on the right side of the road vs. the left side. Here's what we found....

The countries that are blue drive on the left side and all the red countries drive on the right. As you can see, most of the world drives on the right. Therefore, it is my conclusion that the left side is the wrong side of the road

can you guess which one it is?

Here's a picture of our car from our kitchen window. We drive a Nissan March. We are lucky that our school provides us with this car. Many people who get teaching jobs do not get cars. We only have to pay car insurance which is roughly the same as what you pay in the states.It is a small car by American standards, and Will looks ridiculous getting into it. Also its like driving a go-kart. But it is pretty typical by Japanese commuter standards, and we are lucky to have it.

Our car is the orange one! Here's Will getting into it now. He always walks to the correct side of the car, which is wrong side of the car in the country where they drive on the wrong side of the road. If he could remember to walk to the left side of car, he would be on right side.

 Will! 

Now we are off on our adventure to the Nagara River or one of its tributaries. We could see the river on the side of the road, but we had a terrible time trying to find a place to pull off and park. We stopped at this cafe where there was a walkway down to the river. However, I thought it looked a little too dangerous of a spot to swim. Will thought it would have been fine, but even so it didn't look like a nice spot to swim. There were no rocks to sit on nearby. So, back on the road we went. We found this pull off, so we stopped and parked our car.

We weren't  sure we could park here, but it seemed like the thing to do.....so we did!

At first at the guard rail we noticed some stairs that lead to the river so we walked over to investigate.

If you look way off in the distance you can see a little red flag. It's right across from the orange one. There were some stairs that seemed to lead down the river. It was all very mysterious

nope just stairs to the power box :(

We were very sad to see that these stairs did not lead to a place to swim. We looked around, but there was no way to go. It was so hot, and the river was so tantalizing.

no way down :( booooo

Look at the cool freshing water so nice and lush just teasing us. It was not yet refreshing because how can you be refreshed if you have not yet been freshed?

I was very sad!

Not a happy camper! No way down, and I am so hot! hey look at our cute car in the distance!

So, it was back to the car again, driving around trying to figure something out. We ended up right back to the same spot again, because we saw a road just a little way down. We didn't want to drive down it because we were unsure if it was ok to drive the car down. It looked like it would have been stuck. We were wrong about that though, for future reference. So, we parked the car again and walked down the path, crossed the street and went down the dirt road.

some pretty trees on the side of the path. The picture does not give it justice to it's beauty.

Finally we made it! we climbed down the path and into the insanely cold water!

There is a Japanese fisherman behind me. I am not sure he caught anything the whole time we were there. I hope we didn't bother him

So cool and refreshing, oh yeah!

After some time in the shallow part of the river (don't worry mom, it was only about a two feet where I was sitting) we went back. Next time we will be more adventurous and go to the deeper part after the rapids. On our way back to our car we noticed something interesting.

A shrine of some sort.

p.s. don't litter, ok!

This time I had the courage to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Oh yeah driving like a pro.

Ok so everything turned out to be nice. We had a great time! If we have another hot day we will go back again! :) We are considering going tomorrow, maybe. If we feel like it.

This was on my laptop. A Japanese mosquito, this is how they charge....they don't need blood.