It's actually not all that tricky driving on the "opposite" side of the road. At least that's what I discovered last Wednesday after renting a car to get a better view of the city. (There's only so much you can see when you're restricted to the bus route). The car we rented was microscopic. It was a 3-cylinder Daihatsu "something-or-rather" that had a top speed of 140 km/hr. At least that's what the speedometer went up to. I couldn't get the thing to go any faster than 70 km/hr before the entire vehicle started to shake - and that was going downhill! Going up was another story - I'm surprised it actually made it up some of the hills we put it up against - but slowly it made it up (a la "Little Engine that Could). I don't think any of the Japanese noticed our incredible lack of power or speed due to the fact that the speed limit around is 50 km/hr! Even the highway-ish road is that low. In some areas it was down to 40 km/hr. Granted the terrain is hilly and windy (wind-y) but even up in Haliburton and on the way through the mountains to Banff the speed limit is at least 80 km/hr (I think...?) I guess they just error on the side of caution around here. Either that, or their cars aren't powerful enough to bother making a higher speed limit.
But yeah, as I was saying, driving on the left side of the road wasn't as difficult as I was anticipating. After the first few minutes it started to seem natural and there was really only one incident when our lives were in any sort of danger - and that was when Amy decided to drive :P Haha okay I kid, I kid. All in all I think it's something I could get used to. (Even distinguishing between the windshield wipers and the turn signal... eventually... maybe... Okay is there really a reason why *that* has to be opposite in the car???). The experience made me realize how much I miss having the freedom a car provides.
Last night I took yoga for the first time. That was an interesting experience as well. It was actually pretty fun. The instructor was so spunky it made the class pretty entertaining. Think Ms. J but under 5 feet and Asian - and spunky. Uh, okay, maybe not so much like Ms. J, but there was something about her that seemed familiar...? I'm pretty sure she was over exaggerating everything for mine and Amy's benefit. She knew a few words of English, like "recenter", "pose", and "stop", so she used those frequently. Kinda nice of her, making us feel less like outsiders.
There was another person in the class who could also speak English - we learned that the embarrassing way. Apparently she spent 5 years in Minnesota getting her Master's in Psychology. I can only imagine what she thinks of us now haha. Before class started we were trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing... Whether or not we needed a mat and if we were supposed to be barefoot or not... One woman had her shoes on still and then the English-speaking girl came out with no shoes, so we were discussing this when she acknowledged that "no, I'm not wearing shoes - am I supposed to be?" At least we hadn't said anything bad! That wouldn't have been a good situation.
I guess a lesson is to be learned here - that we shouldn't assume that people don't understand us. Although most of the time, I'm pretty sure they actually don't.
In other exciting news, me and Amy have planned a trip for Okinawa! Those of you unfamiliar with the area need only know it's a tropical paradise that's located halfway between Japan and Taiwan :P We're going there for four days at the end of June. That happens to be Japan's rainy season, so everyone please keep your fingers crossed for good weather! ...After all the hoops we jumped through trying to get the days off I really hope we have prime sun tanning weather.
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