A JAPANESE MAGIC BUS DRIVER

A Japanese Magic Driver

Wearing Sparkling White Gloves is the Bus Driver

Growing up in villages of East Africa and later on moving into its cities, one big challenge that I experienced was copping up with the reckless tax drivers while crossing streets.

A friend of mine once asked a Kampala Tax Driver, why he had almost knocked her while she was crossing at a Zebra-crossing and the Driver replied her “Gwe Zebra?” literary meaning “Are you the un knock-able Zebra?”.

Conversely, as I move along streets of Tokyo and Sendai, I am usually amused by the meticulousness and hospitality of “Japanese Bus Drivers”. Below you will find why I chose to call the Japanese Bus Driver a “Magic Bus Driver”;

1.He only makes a 2 Minutes Delay Margin: Across the Japan Cities’ bus stops, you will find a Bus Schedule that stipulates the different arrivals of the different “buses that pass-by your current bus stop”. Public Buses begin circulating the city at 7am till 9pm, with a schedule that has several intervals like 7:45am, 8:10am, 8:34am and so on. Trust me, just like the figure is 8:34am, irrespective of rain or some traffic jams that could have happened along the way of the given bus, once the clock ticks 8:34am, magically  you suddenly see the bus arriving. Imagine a bus that moves say across Kampala {Old Tax Park – Gayaza}, Nairobi {City to Garden Estates},Dar{Posta-Survey}, or Kigali {Kanombe-Rubangura}  and makes a stopover at each of the bus stops along the way while respecting the different schedules marked at each bus stop.

This might seem to be the same throughout all developed economies, but wait! There is the Bullet Train {Shinkansen} that traverses the Main Cities of Japan. Shinkansen travels at a speed of 320km/hr and departures around every 9 minutes, has all its seats and toilets cleaned at every stop and guess what, it only makes a “6 seconds average delay time per day”. I repeat 6seconds delay after a figure got by summing up delay time of its over 10trips a day.

2.He says Arrigato Gozaimasu to each of the over 50 passengers: You cannot believe it, unless you have boarded a Japanese public bus. The Driver, despite being meticulous on keeping his over 50 passengers bus on route, he will pose as each passenger gets off the pass to say “Arigato Gozaimasu –Thank you” and this is done for each passenger. It is not just that, the Driver will also once in while “say a word to welcome passengers on board over his/her microphone”.

3.He sticks to a constant speed of 40km/hour: Whereas the Japanese driver will keep the 2minutes delay margin only, he will not rush or try to accelerate past 40km/hour. I once sat right next to the driver to see if there could be a lock on his accelerator pedal like “our failed Technology in East African Buses that called SpeedGovernor”. A SpeedGovernor was a fabricated sensor (most probably made from one of the Jua Kari) that would cut fuel flow to the Engine whenever the driver accelerated past 90km/hour. The Technology worked for a few months and later disappeared. In Japan, things are different, the speed governor is naturally embedded in the Driver’s Leg, the buses can race up to 180km/hr but to the magic Driver, driving at 40km/hr is the best choice especially when you have over 50 people at your back.

4.He also tells humorous anecdotes and teaches history&culture. This time, it is not every Japanese Bus Driver, but if you happen to board other Public Buses, like the one I did board called Loop Sendai Bus, then you get to test another experience of the magic driver.

Loop Sendai is a bus that traverses the city of Sendai {Biggest Town of Tohuku Region}, passing by the city’s historical sites and natural beauties. For your Information “Sendai is a lovely city full of green”.

The Driver of LoopSendai Bus has a microphone attached to his chin and will simultaneously drive as he explains history of Sendai, throws some jokes {that leave those who understand Japanese laughing to crack their ribs}.

5.He monitors in real time every centimeter of the entire Bus: The bus has 8 mirrors (that is: 2 usual side mirrors, and 6mirrors inside the bus). The Bus Driver synchronously crosschecks through all the 6 mirrors, before takeoff to verify if all passengers are okay, not to mention that he occasionally poses to see if you are dropping the exact fare into a coins case embedded onto the bus.

Now that I got a Jitensha, I hardly get to meet the Magic Driver again, but he is a man I respect and had I not seen him old, may be my dream would not have been today's but rather a Bus Driver too.

Dutahe!!!.