{"id":316,"date":"2006-12-27T20:22:17","date_gmt":"2006-12-27T11:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-12-27\/316"},"modified":"2006-12-27T20:22:17","modified_gmt":"2006-12-27T11:22:17","slug":"flashing-lights-in-my-rear-view-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2006-12-27\/316","title":{"rendered":"Flashing Lights in my Rear-View Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>Standard Japanese Police Car<\/div>\n\n

\n\nThis evening while driving in Kyoto, I looked<\/span> in my rear-view mirror and\nnoticed a police<\/span> car coming up behind me with its lights a'flashing. It pulled<\/span> up right behind me.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nI then did something that would probably freak out most Americans: I\nignored<\/span> it.\n\n<\/p>

\n\nI didn't pull over to let it get around (or to stop and talk to me). I\ndidn't<\/span> speed up, but I didn't<\/span> stop, either. I just ignored<\/span> it.\n\n<\/p>

\n\n\nWhen traffic caused me to stop at an intersection, he just stopped behind\nme. I listened<\/span> to music on my iPod (I think<\/span> it was C\u00e9line Dion's “O Holy Night<\/a>,”\nwhich must be the best rendition of any Christmas song, ever<\/i>.) When\nthe light turned green, I went ahead<\/span> and the police car (with lights\nflashing) turned to a side<\/span> street.\n\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\nIt still takes some getting used to, but police in Japan often leave their\nflashing lights on while doing their normal patrols — it's only the\nsiren that means “pull over” or “get out of the way.”\n\n<\/p>

\n\nIn America, the flashing red lights of an emergency vehicle (e.g. fire\ntruck, ambulance, police car) or the flashing blue lights of a\nlaw<\/span>-enforcement vehicle are piercing sights that immediately grab the\nattention (especially if first seen in the rear-view mirror!). Lights have\nno such special meaning here. Heck, you can mount a red<\/span> flashing light on\nyour car or motorcycle if you want. I've seen plenty of motorcycles that at\nfirst glance seem indistinguishable from a police<\/span> motorcycle... I have to<\/span>\nreally look at the rider (e.g. for gun-shaped holster) to know whether it's\na police<\/span> officer (so I know<\/span> whether to slow down \ud83d\ude42 )\n\n<\/p>

\n\nAlso freaky, at least for an American, is that garbage trucks here tend to\nhave blue flashing lights, exactly the same color as an American police\ncar's. I've not yet been pulled over by a garbage<\/span> truck, though.\n\n<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This evening while driving in Kyoto, I looked in my rear-view mirror and noticed a police car coming up behind me with its lights a'flashing. It pulled up right behind me. <\/p>

I then did something that would probably freak out most Americans: I ignored it. <\/p>

I didn't pull over to let it get around (or to stop and talk to me). I didn't speed up, but I didn't stop, either. I just ignored it. <\/p>

When traffic caused me to stop at an intersection, he just stopped behind me. I listened to music on my iPod (I [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}