Highway Robbery

I'm in a car right now two hours into a four hour drive to Ishikawa Prefecture. I'm going skiing with my adopted host family. I slept for awhile, and when I woke up, it was raining. I napped again, and all of a sudden there was five inches of snow on the ground and the rain had turned to flurries. Every few hundred meters there are signs sugesting that you put chains on your tires. There are even special rest stops for this purpose. But my driver is not scared of snow, so when we stopped it was only for gas. Filling the tank cost $65. Add this to the highway tolls of about $30, and you realize why most people take the train. In fact, my friend theorizes that this is the intended effect. Anyway, I'm back to napping!