Gasoline, at last!

Since last Thursday, many gasoline stands are open and don't have any long lines. I could get gas this morning at about 8:15am and I was the only person at the pumps. After the disaster, people were waiting up to 3 hours to get even 20 liters. (Most stands had restrictions and 20L was the maximum.)

Of course, gas has become more expensive, now 148yen per liter. A few weeks ago it was in the 130 to 135yen range. I heard that in Tokyo, it is about 160yen. I was a bit surprised when I checked the internet and found out that the average price of gas in Sydney (Australia) is $1.48. That's about 123yen, so not so much different to around January this year in Japan.

By the way, in British English gasoline is called petroleum, or petrol for short. That is why BP is b + p = British Petroleum :)  In Australia, if you ask for gas for your car, people will think you mean LPG!

The kinds of petrol in Australia are:
regular unleaded petrol = regular = regular in Japan
premium unleaded petrol = premium = hi-oc in Japan (from high octane)
diesel = diesel in Japan :)

There are other types of ethanol or other biofuels, too. You can find a link here.

Luckily, I had filled my tank just 3 days before the earthquake hit so I didn't need to worry about gas. But it was a good lesson to me that I should always keep a full tank, not let the gas run down to the last marker on the digital fuel indicator.

Oh, and if you go to Australia and if you find a true service station (not self-serve) you can say to the attendant "Fill 'er up".  (er = her = the car!)  But if you want to use proper English instead of slang, just say "A full tank of regular, please."


Finally, you might be surprised as some petrol stations in Australia. Many are like convenience stores - they sell EVERYTHING and are open 24 hours a day.