Thursday, September 6, 2012

Getting a Japanese Driver's License - part 3 of 3!

Before I tell you all about my trip with Mikey I thought I should finish my saga about obtaining a Japanese driver's license.  Actually the two stories are kind of connected since, as I mentioned previously, I planned to take my second attempt at a license right before picking my brother up from Sendai Airport.  I printed out directions to go from my place to the Sendai Driving Center (which has parking spaces) to the airport and had even selected a fast food restaurant at which to eat once I had collected my notoriously hungry brother from the airport.

Of course, things didn't go as planned.  I woke up on August 2nd to find an email from my father saying that Mikey's second flight from Atlanta to Narita Airport in Tokyo had been delayed by four hours, so he wouldn't be able to catch the flight from Narita to Sendai.  At the time we thought that Mikey would be able to catch the flight to Sendai the following morning.  As it turned out that flight was already full so the airlines had him spend the night in Tokyo and take the shinkansen up to Sendai the following morning with the promise to reimburse him.

Due to the plane difficulties, I decided to take the bus to Sendai since I wouldn't be picking up my brother from the airport that day after all.  I arrived at the Driving Center with little difficulty since it was my third time there.  I had to retake the eye test but didn't have to retake the multiple choice quiz.  I paid the exact same fees as before.  I was informed that the practical test would follow
 the same route as before too.  I wonder if the test is always the same for foreigners or if I happened to get the same one since I came on a Thursday both times.  Anyway, I was still pretty nervous before the test but luckily I got the chance to observe someone else drive before me (a guy from Brazil).  He... didn't do so well.  Even when he first started the course he tried to turn on his blinker but turned on the windshield wipers by mistake (which is a common mistake since the blinkers are on the right-hand side in Japan).  So, the guy ahead of me didn't pass but I had a chance to calm down a bit before my turn and so I was feeling pretty good.

So, when my turn came I made extra-sure to remember all of my mistakes from before and to avoid them.  During "the crank" I made a wide turn into it so that I could avoid the dips on the side of the road.  When stopping at the stop sign I probably sat there for a good five seconds before turning.  I made sure to check my mirrors constantly.  One thing I noticed was that I had misremembered the part of the course where I was to turn right at the traffic light (where I had entered the wrong lane during my first test).  I thought that the lane-dividing lines there were all white but in fact the line separating the right-turning lane from the left/straight lane was yellow.  And the line separating the two directions of traffic was white...  No wonder I got into the wrong lane before!  Anyway, at the end of the test the instructor told me that I probably should have stayed a little closer to the left side of the road but other than that I had done well.  Then I got the blue paper of acceptance, since I passed! 

After that all was well.  I took the test around 2:30 and after I passed I went up to pay the license fee.

- the total for the day was ¥7160 (as before) + ¥2050 (license fee) = ¥9210 (about $115)

One kinda nice/kinda annoying thing about getting a Japanese license is that they give the real license to you on the day you pass.  In the US they give you a temporary paper license to take with you and they send you the real one when it's ready (I believe it took about a week for me).  While it's certainly nice to have the real thing right away it takes time to prepare the license and take your picture and process everything so I ended up waiting a couple of hours before I had my physical license in hand.  During that time I waited with the other foreigners who had passed (there were three of us all together, we must have broken some kind of record!).  The other two ladies who had passed were from Brazil (one was the wife of the man who had done the practical test before me).  The other girl was about my age and she told me that it was her ninth time taking the driving test.  She said the first seven times she had tried to take the manual transmission test.  She was pleased that she had passed the automatic transmission test on only her second try.  I was duly impressed (and slightly horrified at the amount of time and money she must have wasted during her endeavor).  

At 4:15 we all had our photos taken and within the next fifteen minutes we had our licenses in hand.  Since my US license proved that I had been driving in America for over a year I didn't have to take the green and yellow "new driver" bumper sticker, for which I was grateful.

Next time I'll tell you about my brother's arrival, Himeji, and possibly even Hiroshima.
Look forward to it!

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