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MotorTranscript
00:00Hey guys, another video for our Crime and Emergency Services in Japan playlist.
00:05So I'll start with a confession.
00:07The confession is I broke a law and I was penalised for it.
00:13So it was 100% my mistake, I did the wrong thing and now I've got to pay the penalty.
00:18So now I'll tell you the story.
00:20The car you can see just to our right there is where my car was.
00:24So all the cars approaching this intersection have a stop sign, all of them.
00:29So you all have to stop and then you've got to work out who to give way to, right?
00:33And in my case, where I was parked next to where that car on the right there is, I had
00:39to turn right.
00:40So I had to sit here and wait until the cars that were coming from the left had all gone
00:43through and the ones that were coming from ahead of me had gone through and then I could
00:47turn, go ahead and go to the right.
00:49But all these roads keep feeding.
00:52So all these cars keep coming and keep coming and keep coming.
00:55So I'd done the right thing and I'd stopped at that stop sign and then I turned right
01:00to go across where that crossing is, across the rail line there where that red car's going.
01:06And like the red car and the car behind him and the next car, I didn't quite stop 100%.
01:14I slowed down and then I went through, same as everybody else is doing, right?
01:18So, except that guy.
01:20As I got to the other side of the intersection, I could see off further down the road was
01:25a police car sitting there and he'd been sitting there watching.
01:28And I turned off that road to go to my friend's house and looked in the rear vision mirror
01:34and sure enough, there's the police car behind me with his lights flashing.
01:37They drive around with their lights flashing all the time, so that didn't mean anything.
01:40So I stopped at my friend's house and he pulled up behind me and came over and said, you didn't
01:46stop at the crossing, at the rail crossing.
01:49And I said, no, I stopped at the stop sign and made sure there was no cars coming in
01:54any direction.
01:55And then I turned right and went across the crossing.
01:59And he said, yes.
02:00And then he said in English, perfect stop, he said, perfect to stop, but, and then he
02:06said in Japanese, but you didn't stop at the rail crossing, which is fair enough, I didn't.
02:11So they wrote me a ticket.
02:13So just a little bit frustrating, I was pretty annoyed because, you know, we show you videos
02:18every week of all the dangerous stuff that we see every week, you know, the truck drivers
02:22doing dangerous stuff and bolsozoku doing dangerous stuff and lots of people doing
02:26dangerous stuff.
02:27They're all staring at their phones.
02:29And these guys were sitting there giving tickets.
02:32I wasn't, I wasn't targeted.
02:33I mean, you can see most of the cars, 90% of the cars aren't stopping either.
02:38So those guys would have just stopped there and just grabbed the first person they saw,
02:41which happened to be me.
02:43So I wasn't targeted because I'm a foreigner or anything like that.
02:46I was just happened to be the first one that came along after they got comfortable, probably.
02:50But as you can see, nobody's stopping or very few are.
02:53Most people just sort of roll on through.
02:56So yeah, it was pretty annoying as like, and I actually said to him, I was trying not to
03:00be angry cause you know, I'd, I'd done the wrong thing and I was getting a penalty.
03:03And I said, and I've, Japanese police are always very polite.
03:06I've never met a policeman here that wasn't polite and professional.
03:09He's very polite and professional.
03:11And I said to him, do you think it was dangerous?
03:13Cause I watched all four directions to make sure all the other three directions to make
03:18sure no one was coming.
03:20And then I went across and I said, so I was being very careful.
03:23I said, I drive like an old man.
03:25I was being very careful.
03:26Do you think what I did was dangerous?
03:28And he said, no, but you have to stop.
03:31And then the funny thing was he said something else in English and I said to him, Oh, and
03:35then I said in English to him, I think your English might be better than my Japanese.
03:39And that's just a thing that I say, right?
03:42I've got a habit.
03:43If someone speaks English, it doesn't matter how poor it is.
03:46I say that because I find that people like it.
03:48If you say that to them, it's just sort of a, in Japanese culture, it's a sort of a cool
03:54thing to say, you know, that, that my Japanese is really bad and your English is much better.
03:58So I said that to him.
03:59And then as soon as I said that we were great buddies, he was being really friendly and
04:04eventually they wrote the ticket and gave me the ticket and I went into my friend's
04:06house, which were right outside.
04:08So I went into my friend's house, but him and his wife and kids had been watching from
04:12the window.
04:13So I went inside, they all had a good laugh at me and I sat down at the table and then
04:18a couple of minutes later, the copper came in through the door into the Genkan and called
04:24out my name and I went to the Genkan and said, yes.
04:29And he said, what country are you from?
04:31And I didn't like it because I thought it was an official question and I didn't like
04:37it.
04:38I said, is that important?
04:39And he said, he said, Oh, I just want to know what country you're from.
04:41And I said, I'm from Australia.
04:44And I said, is that important?
04:45Why do you need to know that?
04:46And he said, he said, because I was struggling a bit to be cool.
04:50You know, I kept in the back of my head was Bosozoku, Bosozoku, because I've always wanted
04:54to ask a Japanese cop how many tickets they've given to Bosozoku, because he can bet it's
04:58none and how many, how many tickets they've given to truck drivers, because that'd be
05:02very few too.
05:03But anyway, that was in the back of my head, you know, so he'd used up all my patience.
05:07I was like, is that important?
05:08And then he said to me, it was all in Japanese now, and he said to me, I wanted to tell my
05:12boss that the, that the foreigner, um, said my English was really good and I wanted to
05:20know what country you're from so I could tell my boss, can you believe that?
05:25He felt so good about me saying that about how good his English was that he wanted to
05:29go back to this, back to the police station and tell his boss that this foreigner that
05:34he'd given a ticket to told him how great his English was.
05:36I mean, he was really kind, look, I didn't stop fully at that crossing and I got a penalty
05:44for it.
05:45100% my mistake.
05:46The cop was professional and very polite and wanted to be buddies.
05:50So the penalty was 7,000 yen, which is $70, which is really painful.
05:57I don't have a spare 7,000 yen to throw at this.
06:01The other problem is that when you get a penalty, the next time you renew your driver's license,
06:05you have to go to the mandatory, uh, safety course where you have to sit for three hours
06:12and be lectured and watch videos and all sorts of stuff like that.
06:15We've talked about that before.
06:17That's painful too.
06:20So anytime you get a penalty here from the police, it's, it's not good at count compounds
06:25into all sorts of problems.
06:26So, but I did the crime, so I've got to do the time.
06:34In the meantime, Bosozoku and dangerous truck drivers and people staring at their phones
06:38and kids standing on the passenger seat of cars with their faces against the airbag.
06:43It continues to go on, but I'm going to stop at every railway intersection I come across.
06:52Anyway, it's fair.
06:56More videos coming soon.