Preparing to be a Japanese Driver
Well the day is fast approaching but with any luck, next Wednesday at approximately 13:40:32 JST I hope to be a fully legal Japanese Driver. I say with any luck because this test is going to be hard. The Test is one of the Joys that all car driving Americans are entitled to while on the JET program for more than a year. If you are born in virtually any other english speaking country you get robbed of this Joy by paying 5000 yen and getting your home country’s license translated. How lame is that? Who in there right mind would rob a good portion of foreigners of such Pleasures as having points deducted for such minutia as ’starting a turn too far away from the white line’ or ‘not accelerating fast enough’
So maybe the more accurate thing I should say is that with a LOT of luck I’ll pass on Wednesday. I have yet to meet any American who’s passed on the first try although there is rumors of a couple. If I fail on my first attempt I might have to consider taking a driving school. I don’t know how much they cost but if it’s affordable I’ll do it. There’s not much of an option really. If I do fail I will be in quite a pickle though because my international license runs out on Aug 1st. So actually getting back to the testing center will be quite hard. The infinite wisdom of Aomori has supplied only one testing center for all of the prefecture and for us foreigners the time between 1 pm and 2 pm on days when the moon is blue and there are exactly 3 frogs croaking outside is when we can be tested.
If you happen to live in Aomori, know me, and have read this …take this as a notice that I might be requesting some car favors in the near future 