Road Rage Japan!

I'm going to take a minute to rant about the things I hate about Japan the most: crowds, traffic, and parking. Now, don't get me wrong; I love Japan and all it has to offer, but these are the three things that really grate my nerves. Here's a prime example from earlier today - I planned to go surfing with friends at Shichirigahama, a surf spot only about 4 or 5 miles from here. I was on the road by 0830. It took me about 45 minutes just to get out there, through horrendous stop-and-go traffic. Then, once I got to the public parking lot, not only was half of it occupied by a flea market, but there was a line of at least 20 cars waiting, at a standstill along the side of the main road (Route 134), to get into the remainder of the parking lot. A car could enter only when another car was leaving. I waited ~30 minutes in that line, then gave up this futile effort. To my dismay, there were thousands of people (no joke, no exaggeration) out in the water surfing. So, I continued on westward to Kugenama, another popular break with a public parking lot, another 20 minute venture through snail-like traffic. When I finally reached here, I entered the lot, parked my car (yes, amazingly there were actual available spaces), and went to check out the conditions. It seemed at this spot that every person in Japan, and his/her grandma, was out there surfing. And to boot, the conditions were much worse - the sets were shitty little closeout waves, meaning that as soon as they form, they break all at once. So with each wave, about 50 longboarders would take off simultaneously, then all wipe out almost instantaneously. A very pitiful sight! The weather was chilly, the conditions sucked, and you couldn't swing a limp tuna without hitting another Kelly Slater-wannabe, but I guess these people must have traveled much further than me (perhaps Tokyo), and weren't leaving without getting wet. Nonetheless, I paid my ¥400 for parking for a fruitless effort and motored on out of there, aborting the mission (at least I got to use the public restroom for that fee!) It took me another hour to return home, making my entire ass-burning journey over two and a half hours. In that amount of time, I could drive from my parents house in Jacksonville all the way to Disney World in Orlando. What the hell is going on here?!? I was so pissed off and frustrated I could have just puked! I have never witnessed people waiting for 30+ minutes in line to get into a parking lot - a parking lot for God's sake!! That's like if you went to the mall in the states, and waited an hour just to pull into the parking lot. Would you still want to go shopping? -- hell no!! In such a technologically advanced country, you would think they would have worked this out a little better. I know space is a rare commodity here, but it makes driving anywhere virtually impossible. Anyway, I had to get that rant out of my system! Thanks for humoring me...

Surfs up, parking-lot hodads!