Walk (or Pedal) at Your Own Risk

To illustrate just how perilous the back streets are (and many of the main streets) in Tokyo, I shot this vid with my cell phone while walking to Mukashisakai station. As you will see by the way pedestrians scatter to the sides, cars seem to have the right of way (I think the guy actually swerved at me towards the end- and I'm standing on a curb!) You'll be lucky if drivers even look before they turn onto a street. I was hit by a car while riding a bike a few years ago because the woman was paying attention to merging traffic, not the 6'1 gaijin pedaling by. Luckily I was able to ditch my bike at the moment she gunned the accelerator (I was paying attention to her NOT paying attention). Bike was totaled, I lived to store away another of those "nutty nihonjin" stories.