ho ho. this is all very interesting.

my wife was hit by a japanese driver while we were visiting near nara 
last xmas. she was crossing at a lit intersection by a woman driving 
over the speed limit, according to the local cops.

she had to wait in the ambulance until my son and i arrived at the 
accident scene [she was walking alone at about 1030 pm, heading for the 
sunkus for a green tea ice cream] and convinced them that it was 
irrelevant that she spoke no japanese. we're both middle-aged white 
folks, but my son has enough japanese to get across just fine. he was 
managing a bar in tawaramotocho at the time. the hospital was a real 
trip, to say the least. the nurses were great and i could stay with her 
for a week  and a half  until i had to go back stateside to get to work

she spent 3 weeks in a japanese hospital with a majorly munged left 
ankle and broken ribs, the ankle unset, until she was well enough to fly 
back stateside. the japanese doctors didn't want to operate to set the 
ankle because they "didn't want to be responsible for the fact that she 
would not be able to walk again."

less than 4 hours after touching down, she was on the operating table. 
she had the last hardware taken out last week. she walks pretty well, 
and expects to improve even more.

the flight back cost me $10,000. two last minute tix for her and my son, 
only first class was available on the less than 24 hours notice to 
travel and she couldn't fit into coach with the splint on her leg and 
couldn't spend the trip upright because of the ribs. she was delivered 
to the plane at KIX by ambulance. our health insurance covered 
everything here.

i can't even get my plane fare back from tokyo marine fire and casualty, 
the insurers of the driver. she supposedly had 'unlimited' insurance.

i'm planning to be in japan again for an extended [2 year] stay in a 
bout 18 months. i keep contacting the lawyer in japan, but nothing. i'll 
be looking to get my own attorney there in the mean time, and get 
something moving. she had to spend 3 months in a wheel chair, months of 
physical therapy, got aced out of her trek to nepal by the hit, loads of 
pain, yada yada. hell. she wasn't killed.

the japanese cops say they didn't cite the driver because "she wasn't 
speeding much" and maybe my wife was trying to commit suicide because 
she "ran in front of the car." fact is, she was 60 years old at the time 
and hasn't "run" anywhere in some time. she walked well enough before, 
but certainly not very quickly. moreover, she'd just spent the year 
prior beating breast cancer with surgeries, chemo and radiation. it 
didn't help her that the car hit her on the same side as all the 
radiation. the ribs were probably not as strong as they would have been 
without.

japanese insurance companies aren't very quick to settle up, in my 
limitted experience.

regards to all. i've  been lurking on this group for several years; this 
is my first post.

dave cunningham