One thing I love about Japan is its predictability: Trains run on time, people are unfailingly polite and taxi drivers wear white gloves, a sign of propriety.
So how in the world did I find myself in the passenger seat as an eager accomplice in a car chase? Keep in mind that I don't like car chases, not even in movies or on TV. When we get to the screeching, burning-rubber point in a movie, that's when I take the opportunity to get up and go to the bathroom or get another beer. Or both.
I was on my way home from Kyoto and was going to catch the last passenger ferry to my small island in the Seto Inland Sea. From Kyoto to Okayama I took the shinkansen, then changed to the local train at Okayama. The train would arrive at my station at 17:54, giving me just enough time — six minutes — to walk to the ferry terminal. I'd done this hundreds of times.