Public eye #26

Riro Akinaga, driving instructor

Do you often come to Yotsuya?
RA: I only recently moved to Tokyo… When I was younger I often travelled up to Tokyo with my father. He often stayed at The New Otani Hotel on business – so it's kind of nostalgic to be living here now. I remember a yakitori [grilled chicken skewers] restaurant in the basement of the hotel; it felt pretty posh at the time. [Laughs] My father loved yakitori.

Whereabouts are you from?
RA: I was born and raised in Kyoto.

What kind of things did you used to do when you came to Tokyo before?
RA: I usually wanted to go to places like Harajuku, but my dad preferred Ginza so we usually ended up going there instead. [Laughs] We also went to Alta since they carried the kind of brands I liked. It’s not like there was a rule that we had to buy new clothes when we were in Tokyo, but since coming to Tokyo was kind of a special occasion, we often ended up buying them while we were here.

Apart from with your dad, did you also used to go shopping here alone?
RA: The first time I went shopping alone was also the first time I travelled by train alone – I think I was in my first or second year of elementary school at the time. I went to Harajuku. My Dad was really worried. I remember him telling me that if I got lost then I should come back by taxi – he put ¥20,000 in the bottom of my bag just in case. [Laughs]

Are you living here now for work?
RA: Yeah. I was thinking of leaving Kyoto anyway, and then a job came up at a Tokyo driving school.

As an instructor, right?
RA: Exactly. [Laughs]

Aren’t instructors usually middle-aged men?
RA: The average age is definitely on the high side, but there are also a number of female instructors. There’s even a special staffroom for female instructors.

Do students ever request that they be taught by a specific instructor?
RA: Instructors are designated randomly – by a machine… although students do occasionally make requests anyway. Just the other day, in fact, a student asked for the same instructor who had taught them previously.

How about the reverse, can students specifically ask not to be taught by particular instructor?
RA: There is a system in place whereby a student can nominate an instructor that they wish to be taken out of the selection. If an instructor is nominated five times then, depending on the reasons given by the students, that particular instructor must then receive special training from a senior instructor.

Have you ever been personally nominated?
RA: Once. I was pretty shocked. Plus, since it was my first nomination it really bothered me. After asking why, I found out that the nomination was by a male student that I hadn’t even instructed before. As it turns out, the student asked that ALL the female instructors be taken out of the selection, on the basis that female instructors make him nervous. [Laughs]

Is there anything about living in Tokyo that bothers you?
RA: I wouldn’t go as far as to say there is anything that bothers me as such but, sometimes, when I tell people I’m from Kansai, they ask me to ‘say something funny’ [Laughs] or ‘add a punch line’ for example… I get the feeling that this kind of humour is more popular here than it is in Kansai.

What about driving manners in Tokyo?
RA: They’re better here than they are in Kyoto [Laughs] – the taxis around Kawaramachi in Kyoto, for example, are terrible. In terms of general driving manners I think I’m better off doing what I do in Tokyo.

I’ve heard that the road manners in Osaka are pretty scary…
RA: Really? I don’t think they’re that bad. Actually, if I had to compare the two, I’d say that it's the pedestrians who have the scariest road manners in Osaka. [Laughs]

More from Riro:

‘I’m not really used to the dialect here yet. When I’m speaking I sometimes accidentally make students laugh or feel the need make witty remarks…’

‘I’m a big fan of pretty stupid practical jokes. For example, secretly sprinkling furikake [a dried seasoning for sprinkling over rice] over the heads of slightly balding teachers. I’ve been called “the devil” before.’ [Laughs]

‘I’m planning on staying in Tokyo for a while, but I think I’ll probably go back to Kyoto eventually. Having said that, I’m really just going with the flow for the time being, so it’s just possible that I’ll never go back.’