Gasoline

Today I took an important step to becoming more independent in a different country and got gasoline for my car.

Up until now, Kyle has shared the car with me and he has gotten gasoline for both of us (though never very much because it's expensive). I know this car gets really good mileage and the needle moves very slowly, even when near empty. But I got nervous today and decided to take a crash course in "How to get gasoline from a Japanese pump" rather than risk misjudging the fuel capacity and getting stranded on some back road.

Luckily, the pump attendant (there are some self-service pumps over here, but also some where your gas is pumped for you) was an older guy and he was very nice. After some "wakarimasen," some pointing to the halfway mark on my tank gauge, and some bantering of numbers in both Japanese and English (fifteen liters, juugo liters, nisen hyaku en, etc), we managed to work everything out.

I'm embarrassed that I didn't know where the switch to open my gas tank was. I felt like such a dumb blond (or dumb redhead) standing there with a blank look while the attendants leaned into my car to look for my switch, and then showed me where it was for future reference. If I had enough Japanese skills I would have like to say "It's a new car! I'm not some mechanically challenged woman!"

Gas is pretty expensive here. In the end I think I got about 15 liters for 25 dollars. But the car is an economy car and doesn't use a lot of gas, so it should last a while as long as I don't do any long road trips. Not really planning to go farther than the next island anyway, and if I use the car for work I can hand the gas receipt to my boss Matt.