A taxi to the Heavens －天へのタクシー－

“Where are you going to, love? 

Isn’t it odd the way some taxi drivers become instantly familiar and casual with their passengers?  They often start chatting about their lives, hobbies and the city, whether their passengers are in a mood to talk or not. 

Imagine if the pilot of a plane took the same attitude. 

“Thank you for flying with British Airways.  We are currently cruising at around 30,000 feet.  Speaking of feet, I just bought a pair of new shoes.  Since my divorce, I have decided to start treating myself.  You’ve got to treat yourself once in a while, don’t you think?  Please fasten your seatbelts, as we are experiencing a little turbulence.  To be honest, mates, I don’t know why people bother with seatbelts on planes.  If we fly into a mountain, I don’t see how a seatbelt is going to help, do you?  [Beep, beep!]  Sorry about that, folks.  That cloud is just sitting there in the middle of the sky, as if it owns the place.” 

I recently took a taxi with a driver who was very chatty.  My family and I were taking a taxi home from Ikebukero, and the driver chatted about various new buildings and shops that had opened up in the area, and his opinions on them.  Then my wife said that there was a planetarium in Sunshine City. 

“I’ve been there, and I don’t trust the planetarium,” said the driver.  “The stars aren’t real.” 

I thought maybe that he meant that the show was somehow inaccurate, perhaps that the planetarium cut the number of stars they showed to keep the picture simple.  But that’s not what he meant. 

“How can you see the stars in the daytime?” he asked.  “So it must be fake.” 

The odd taxi driver seemed to believe that the planetarium was scamming its customers, because it did not have a real telescope. 

If driverless cars really do become as successful as some people predict them to, perhaps human taxi drivers will disappear.  I’ll miss them.  Robots can’t give you the same quirky experience.

 

Vocabulary:

to cruise – to travel smoothly at a moderate speed

to treat oneself – to give oneself something luxurious or special

turbulence – violent or unsteady movement of air or water

inaccurate – not correct; containing a mistake or mistakes

to scam someone – to cheat someone, especially for money