Taxi Riding Is Thrilling In Tokyo

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 16 (Supplement)

Taxi Riding Is Thrilling In Tokyo

JAPANESE DRIVERS NOT ALLOWED TO KILL PEDESTRIANS I /

T'AKING a taxi in Tokyo is not the simple matter it is in. other countries. It is an art which must be acquired through experience and the lack of taxometers. It costs a little, but who grudges cash expended in the acquisition of knowledge! The first step is to study the driver’s seat. If there are two youngsters seated there, you know that the second edition is there to collect the fares, and consequently the driver may take chances with the traffic. Therefore you select a lone driver who probably owns his car. Your life is safer with him, he won’t dam-

age his property except under extreme provocation (writes a correspondent in an exchange.) This important point settled, you state your destination, using if possible the correct Japanese words; at the same time you hold up firmly three fingers, which denotes 30 sen (10 sen is the 10th part of a yen). He will grimace and demand 50 in the same language of signs. You must be firm, and finally, with reluctance, split the difference and say 40; that is if the distance seems to warrant it. Thus both “save face.”

If you, as a preliminary, ask him the price, honour will not allow him to come down, he would “lose face, ’ but you with no loss of dignity may concede 10 sen. He will bear you no malice, but rather respect you as a foreigner who knows the correct etiquette. Conscious of Victory, you lean back comfortably, but not for long. You miss a tramcar by inches, or are plunged into a vortex of traffic which seems bent on your immediate destruction. Closing your eyes you say farewell to life, when a sudden grinding of brakes makes you open them to find that you have just avoided a child which had selected that particular patch of road for a playground. Taxi drivers are not allowed to kill pedestrians in Japan; and the latter appear to take full advantage of this edict. They insist on the taxi getting out of their way, while the foreigner does his best to remove himself from the danger zone. For pedestrian reasons, and others unknown, taxis are driven with much skill along the tram lines. This is ouite safe in good weather, but a damp morning keeps your nerves on edge until you are again on dry pavement. I used to think that the most carefree chauffeurs lived in Constantinople, and the best in Paris. I am now convinced that the ideal mixture is bred in Japan. The secret is that they have no nervds. Many Europeans give up driving in Tokyo, the strain is too great. They employ a light-hearted young Japanese, knowing that in no circumstances will he lose his head. Until you reach this condition of Taxi Nirvana, you decide that each drive will be the last, and that you will

walk in future—but you don’t Taxis are cheap, and distances are great in towns so large as Japan’s commercial centres. The police exercise a very strict control oyer chauffeurs. Permits have to be. shown, on. demand, and once I saw a policeman smack sevdi'ely the face of a driver who had tried to 'entice a prospective fare from a confrere. Because of a calm,well-regulated temperament, two Japanese chauffeurs who have more or less collided, do not waste time and breath in making reflections on each other’s skill.

No, they descend quietly and make a careful examination of the removed paint or more serious damage, quite oblivious of, the seething passengers within; then, with a nod, they', go on their respective ways. Really an unsatisfactory conclusion .compared with the lurid language oft Europeans in similar conditions. ■■ -r' 7 ::' ; These boys work long, hours in heavy traffic, yet they : are : always polite and do their best to satisfy their client. . * ■