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For the first time in my life I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge without having to stop at the tollbooth. It felt outright profligate, and was particularly unnerving because one must instantly be about oneself if one wishes to proceed gracefully into the correct parts of San Francisco to accomplish whatever you set out to do. So you can't waste precious nanoseconds being mowed down by not stopping to pay somebody.
I'm thinking this may actually leave space in tourists' heads for navigational imperatives, but it's only a theory. Tourists are lethal, but especially Japanese ones. No. Really. You will find Asians in general are hardest on us when they visit, but the Japanese are particularly hazardous on highways. They do not grok that you are not allowed to come to a dead stop in the middle of your lane to get out and take pictures. Chinese, generally, whether tourists or immigrant, are hard on your nerves on city streets, walking or driving. All Asians wearing hats are impervious to their surroundings driving, walking, standing, sitting or any other imaginable condition upon which you are likely to stumble across them. Just ignore my apparent, but not actual, racism at your peril.
Anyway, I made it to the conference without even one wrong turn. My bill for the bridge toll was in my post office box when I got home.
always and any time....
