We somehow found our way and we're barking back and forth to each other on which bus we needed to take. There was the stand we were at but there were several different buses leaving from that place. I was nominated, with my Japanese phrase book in hand, to hop on every bus that came by to ask (in my horrible Japanese) if the bus went to this particular stop. About the third time in the bus driver answered the familiar words "Hai"(yes). I turned around, gave the other girls the thumbs up and turned back to him. 

Japanese buses work very differently from what I was used to back home. Once you enter the bus you take a ticket (just like the wait tickets at banks with a number on it) from there you find a seat (it also seems that sitting at the front of the bus is the cooler thing to do, in my observation, than at the back of the bus). Above the driver's head there will be a light up board telling you the prices from stop 1-50 about how much you need to pay the driver once you get off. A very well-thought out system if you ask me. This was my first experience on a Japanese bus and ours seemed pimped out too! There was a lady that spoke at each name of the stop and a light that would move across another screen to say the name of the bus stop just passed and coming up. There also is another odd thing that you'll notice, the bus driver's wear Britney Spears types of microphones and speak the stop name and also say something once they stop at an intersection and drop people off. 

The microphones Britney Spears made famous, now on
shy, timid, Japanese bus drivers.

You really could never get off at the wrong stop unless you were trying too! I never figured out what the bus drivers said when they stopped, but found it quite interesting, as something like this, back home would never suffice. 

I'm not knocking bus drivers as it's an honest career choice back home, BUT there are a lot of miserable bus driver's I've met, in my time, of grudgingly having to use public transport. I can just imagine if they implemented the microphone on every bus driver the stories we would all be exposed to. I'm picturing an grumpy old man, that should be retired, looks like his cholesterol levels could reach critical level at any second and hates his job and makes sure you know of it (I'm thinking along the lines of Chris Farley in 'Billy Madison')!

The stereotype of the bus driver back home, which would
not be a wise choice to equip with a microphone.

What class act stories would we be exposed to then? This would never work. I'm sure the complaints would skyrocket from some of the foul-mouthed bus driver's, I've met in my time, that I could hear without a microphone.