Appreciating Road Construction Workers

There's something unusual that I will miss when I inevitably move back to my home country: the road construction workers.

I'm not sure what the attitudes are in other countries, but where I'm from they can get very in your face. I've had a traffic controller pound on my driver's side window for stopping too close to an invisible line and yelled at for not accelerating from a stop position fast enough. Minor things, sure, but I suppose I'm a sensitive person!

As a pedestrian, road construction workers basically ignore you back in my home country. If something falls on you, you're out of luck, and you should have followed the signs.

Here in Japan, you are directed by traffic controllers even with the temporary barriers set up. I notice that they bow to the drivers for the inconvenience of disrupting their drive. The conduct of the construction workers here is much different and much less confrontational than back home.

Somehow, the construction sites are also much cleaner. There's less debris lying around and less personal equipment visible along the roads. In contrast, the home country will have at least spray cans and random steel-toe boots visible somewhere. Torn asphalt would be piled up in a corner of an intersection as well.

These are small, almost inconsequential differences for me in my daily life, especially since I don't drive, but I will miss it when I move back. I'll have to have thicker skin when I move back, for sure!