Thank you

I was waiting at an intersection today, kind of in a hurry, but really not. Enough that any small thing would set me off if I wasn’t careful.

Well, true to form, something did very nearly set me off.

A fire truck. For the stupidest reason too.

Fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars in Japan all turn their lights on even when they’re just on patrol. It’s hard to know at times whether it’s an emergency or not, and today it most certainly was not an emergency.

The fire truck was simply trying to turn right at a traffic light. A traffic light with no arrow for turning right. A traffic light with space for only one fire truck to line up in for one light cycle. A traffic light that meant instead of getting to go on the first light like you’d expect, I had to wait for a whole other cycle of the lights. The kind of thing that would set off a guy in a sort of hurry like me.

But I needn’t worry. I’d calculated things like this into my schedule.

Just. But only just.

Thanks to a certain fire truck.