Japanese road traffic is quite different from that in most Western countries. In the West, when a car honks it is usually not a good sign – it generally means: ‘Get out of the way!’ or ‘You idiot!’ and ruder things. In a very crowded country like Japan, however, you need your horn for other purposes. The Japanese drive small cars, but their roads are even smaller! To squeeze past each other they need their horns and a car honk most often means ‘Excuse me’ or ‘Thank you!’

In Japan the green (go) traffic light is called ao, which really means blue. The Japanese word for green, midori, is fairly new; it only came into use in the Heian Period (794–1185 AD) and according to some sources the distinction between midori and ao was not formally taught through school text books until after the Second World War.

Green was traditionally considered a shade of blue, and even today some things that are really green, like vegetables – or traffic lights – are still known as ao.