730 Traffic Change July 30, in 1978 was a historical day for Okinawa which is called 730 (nanasanmaru) . It was a day the traffic in Okinawa switched from driving on the right to the left. Before the World War II, cars drove on the left in the same way as mainland Japan. After the war, under the rule of the USA, the traffic system turned to the right side. Okinawa returned to Japan in 1972, the traffic system remained for 6 years. The preparation for 730 (nanasanmaru ) took some time. New traffic lights and road signs were installed and arrow signs on the street were painted all over Okinawa and they were covered until July 30. Busses and taxis needed to fix their automatic doors to the left side for their passengers. Okinawa was filled with posters and slogans of “730 Cars left, People right”. The traffic change was done at 6:00 AM on July 30(Sun). The traffic was banned for 8 hours from 10 PM on the 29th to 6 AM on the 30th. During the 8 hours, the new traffic lights and signs were uncovered. With police car’s sirens and announcement of ‘Cars left, People right’, the traffic was switched. After that, drivers unfamiliar with the new traffic caused traffic jams everywhere for a while. Some people describe those days, “It was like looking into a mirror or being in an another world. The town was the same but the traffic was reversed.”

Japanese, English Language Exchange

Hello, I'm a native Japanese speaker. I'd like to do language exchange with English native speakers via Skype. In return, I'm happy to help you improve your Japanese :)

A farewell party We had a coworker’s farewell party last weekend. One of my coworkers is quitting her job because she is moving to China with her parents. Both her parents are Chinese but she was born and raised in Japan. Her father decided to expand his business and move his base to Shanghai. He wants her daughter to help his business. The place we had the party was an all-you-can-eat-and-drink izakaya style restaurant. ¥3000 per person. It was not like general type of buffet style ones, we were able to order whatever we wanted on the menu and they brought it to our tables straight from the kitchen which was really combinient and the food was really good. We only paid 500 yen each, the company paid the rest. The coworker was such a hard worker, creative, bold and funny so she was loved so much. I’m happy to get to know her and work with her. Some coworkers did some funny shows, everybody gave her presents. The manager’s speech was warm, witty and encouraging and her speech was warm and lovely. I’m going to miss her so much.

Getting a driving license costs an arm and a leg in Japan. If you want to get a driving license, it would cost around 350,000 yen in Japan. You need to go to a driving school and pay admission fee of about 30,000 yen first. Technically speaking, you can take driving tests at the driving licensing center without attending driving school but it’s rare to do so because tests are really difficult to pass. If you pass on the fist try, it would only cost about 30,000 yen. However, almost all the people believe they must go to driving school or it is more like a custom to do so. At driving school, they offer about 25 lessons to teach traffic rules and tips for driving in various conditions. Each lesson or class costs about 2,100 yen and they provide about 33 driving lessons at the special driving courses within their school which costs 5,500 yen for each lesson then you need to take a paper test and driving test to get a learner’s permit which costs another extra money. If you fail the tests you need to take extra lessons before taking retests and that would cost more money i,e, you need to pay for those lessons and retests. After obtaining learner”s permit, you can officially practice driving on the street with trainers or someone who has their license. Then you need to pass actual driving license tests both written and practical driving test which cost another extra money. The total costs would add up to around 350,000 yen and it takes time and energy to get a driving license!

What does this "swim" mean? I enjoy watching Rick and Morty on Netflix. In the beginning of the show [Adult Swim] appears on the screen. It seems that Adult Swim is a night time program slot on Cartoon Network that shows adult-oriented anime and cartoons. Anyway, what does this "Swim" mean? Obviously, it has nothing to do with swimming....