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Re:Toyota brand Scion is back and it's going to sell a kei t... by kmeisthax on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @07:05PM (#50460905)
The Japanese countryside (which includes suburbs with some farms scattered about) makes American suburbs look pedestrian friendly by comparison. Talking from personal experience two days ago[0], I was in Nagano at night walking around unlit streets barely wide enough for one car, being constantly passed by both cyclists and cars. I felt like I needed high-vis. The closest I can think of would be the American East Coast, which also has lots of chaos layout streets, but even they usually have the money for streetlights and they don't have the severe space constraints of Japan.

Bonus points: near the end of the walk there was a two-lane road that I had to walk half a km to get to the nearest crossing for, and then half a km back. Bonus points for the one car dealership in front of my destination that was only fenced off on the back side just to spite me (or, more likely, they don't want people using it as a pedestrian cut-through). The road blocking my path was constantly jammed with cars. Somehow, Nagano invented the one-lane stroad! Also, Google Maps doesn't have a good understanding of crosswalk locations, because there was a closer one on the other side that you can't really see on foot at night.

[0] I am trying to go to as many Round1s as possible to get a title in Music Diver for playing the game in a bunch of prefectures. The game gets EOS'd at the end of the month (but only in Japan, which is unheard of). Round1 likes building giant locations in the middle of nowhere with terrible transit access. I think the one in Nagoya even had a shuttle bus from the train station - which I didn't use, lol.

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