After a particularly long day, I got into my car, put some Jack Parow on LOUD and turned the key in the ignition. That’s when it started shaking violently. I hoped it would go away, and so I chugged my way to the curb and turned into the street. It idled all the way to the conbini, where I eventually pulled over.
“Spee-do up! Now spee-do down…turn left…makikomi check! Ooh, too close. Hehe, now too far. Okay, goo-ood. Now spee-do up! Spee-do down!” The whimsical one-liners of my driving instructor, Sudo-san, will stay with me forever. In all the stress that was obtaining my Japanese driving license, driving with him was the one thing that kept me sane.