Quote:
Originally Posted by steven
I haven't used many taxis in my life... but Japanese taxi drivers tend to not have to use navigation systems too often. However, I've noticed that a lot of them tend t be pretty cold as far as friendlyness goes. They hardly ever have an opinion on anything and are almost too polite. The ones who actually talk and carry on a conversation are great and usually funny though.
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I envy your luck on the cold and polite part.
Drivers of every taxi I have ridden in while in Japan have been overly extremely friendly, and have wanted to talk and talk and talk. This is actually one of the reasons I avoid taxis as if the trip is longer than 5 minutes I am driven crazy by the desperate attempts at making conversation. It always reminds me of a tour bus driver trying to get everyone to wake up and be entertained... But if I`m taking a taxi it`s because I am late, or because there is something I need to get done during the trip so it really drives me crazy. It`s like a penalty for needing to use the service.
I don`t think it has much to do with location as I use taxis away from home much more than near it, so my taxi experiences are pretty scattered.
ETA; Recently, navigation systems seem to be pretty standard equipment - but they don`t use them as anything more than a map. If you`re going somewhere strange or difficult to pinpoint, they`ll check it on the navi and get confirmation before heading there. They don`t ever seem to actually use the navigation feature - it`s more of a digital map only. I`ve actually seen a few that were displaying data on the locations of other taxis in the company.