Could I be dreaming? A functional car, driven by an able bodied man literally crawling behind this young student, while he rode his bicycle sluggishly. It definitely was a dream, the kind that occurs to me only in broad daylight on the streets of Japan.

This dream of driving without tooting very much opposed the reality of driving in my home country Ghana: Where deafening toots by "trotro" drivers to draw attention to pedestrians who competed with them on most streets without walkways is too glaring, or even those by private vehicle drivers to pedestrians who were not too careful with the road. The toots by the  "Work and Pay" driver especially who has to ply the road several times in the day before getting a satisfying daily bread can awaken you into consciousness if you fell into a sudden comma while walking on the street not to mention looking on unconcerned while a "lazy" or tired rider "frustrated" your driving.

I obviously didn't want to be awaken from this day dream, but to see how the "miracle" of too patient a driving ends. Lo and behold, it did end after 2 minutes, when the narrow street had joined a wider one at a T - Junction. It was then I was fully convinced the car was a functional one and the driver an able bodied gentleman, only that he breathed in patience as air  for his survival; (a common characteristic of the Japanese) hence the title of my writing, "THE INCREDIBLE DRIVING PATIENCE OF THE JAPANESE".

The scene did recur to me in my mind's eye after many days beside observing many more of the patient driving  instances. My curiosity was heightened and I kept wondering why the Japanese driver prefer to trail steadily behind a pedestrian till he or she become conscious there is a car trailing them, then make way , instead of them either

1. sounding the horn or

2. sticking their necks out to "spit sense" into the ears of the pedestrian or

3. better still, alighting from the vehicle and giving them some strokes of cane if they are students so they will understand better that streets are not playgrounds or strolling parks? As it is frequently done in Ghana.

The reasons I got were a few, yet there was one that got me very interested and that is the focus of my write up: INCREASED PENALTY for ROAD TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS and ACCIDENT OFFENDERS.

Let me quickly mention a few of them to you:

1. An offence as driving without licence in Japan will cost you ¥300,000 fine, equivalent to 12,000 cedis if not imprisonment. If that is the case, how will a "trotro" mate or an "on-test" mechanic move a vehicle even to the shortest washing bay to wash it or even test driving it momentarily to try the fixed gears as it is done in my Ghana home.

2. Driving under the influence will result in imprisonment as well after paying a throat cutting fine of ¥500,000 equivalent to 20,000 cedis.

3. Jumping red lights will also drain you of not less than ¥200,000 also equivalent to 8,000 cedis.

I arrived at this conclusion that if accident fines could be raised to this whopping amounts to instill such incredible driving patience in "rich"Japanese drivers and thereby making road accidents "virtually non-existent", then I suppose a sky rocketing increase in traffic fines in my "poor" motherland coupled with purposeful and committed MTTD police officers and then a highly zealous DVLA who wouldn't take bribes to compromise on license requirements will inadvertently reduce road accidents to the barest minimum if not stopping it all at once in country in which money seems too hard to come by.

Let's just say the obstacle of throat cutting fines should it be replicated in Ghana, may be surmounted by the rich drivers of Rolls Royce, Jaguar, and Bugatti etc vehicles, nonetheless the patience it will instill in ordinary drivers, not even that of that of biblical Abraham and Sarah could come close; and again since good deeds and obeisance is contagious, as the poor who cannot afford the fines drive patiently and carefully on the road, the rich will wear the same clothes of patient driving subconsciously.

Such incredible driving patience will wipe out major accidents especially those that occur on high streets in Ghana; and the sad case of the West Africa Senior High School female student who was knocked down on the Madina-Adenta Highway in Accra will only be repeated for the good emphasis of it as the final straw that broke the camel's back leading to the construction of the much talked about footbridge not the emotional death of the student.

I pray the spirit of the Japanese in displaying such incredible patience  while driving falls on my Ghanaian folks and the defeaning tooting by drivers ceased, at least the depressed pedestrian will not be startled.

Finally, my government will not drain poor students of their limited finances by imposing Communication tax on calls, in the name of getting revenue for development if the state can get up to 20,000 cedis from "big men and women" as fines for drunk driving or over speeding if they can afford drinking expensive *Moet and Chandon Imperial Ice* or *Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut* and still drive their Ferraris, Aventadors and Benz jumping red lights.

(I am the GHANAIAN villager that came to Japan)

Officially known as Afiba Anyanzua Boavo Twum

Reach me via

https://www.facebook.com/anyanzua

email [email protected]

#patience is a virtue

#driving is not a do or die affair

#Deafening tooting can cause accidents too

#lets learn from the Japanese by increasing astronomically, traffic fines to curb accidents