...and I got it!

Finally, I am eligible to legally drive in Japan!!! whoo hoo!!

I actually did drive last year using the international license I had though. But since the Japanese Law has changed, doesn't matter if the international license is still valid or not, if I stay in Japan for longer than a year, that license will not be in effect. Loving to drive and having known there's a possible chance to drive around here (at least with rental cars), I decided to go ahead and apply for Japanese License. It sounds insane how much Japanese pay for their driving class and how much it costs them to get just a license (roughyl more than 300,000 yen?) Fortunately, I don't have to follow those rules. I can just get the original license transferred and complete the driving test (without having to get enrolled in driving school). Plus it'll only cost somewhere around nearly 10,000 yen in total (more if you have to retake the driving test). Being a foreigner here, who says you don't have priviledge over the Japanese?!?! Getting a license here is definitely not cheap, but it is reasonable enough.

First, I had to go ahead and get my driving license translated into Japanese. I did that with JAF (Japanese Automobile Federation) for the cost of 3,000 yen. Sometimes the embassy of your country offers such service as well.

Then, it was time for the driving test application. The driving test site is always somewhere far out from the city and very inconvenient to get to. I had to leave home around 7.30 a.m. to be able to make it in time for application period. The day I went, there was another foreigner in line in front of me who seemed to have quite problems with his original license. I don't know what it was about though, but that made me have to wait for hours until they got that matter out of the way and turned to work on my application. After getting paper documents settled, I went on for the eye-sight and color blindness test. Then, true/false traffic rules exam. By then, it was already noon. They gave me a map of the course I had to drive and let me out for lunch.

I came back again at 1 p.m. I was the only foreigner for the driving test that day, so I didn't get to see anyone driving before me to get tips of how I should drive to pass the test. I thought i went there quite prepared to handle all the ridiculous check points for the test, but obviously I was not enough prepared. I also didn't know we had to remember the course we are to drive by heart! So yeah... first time ended up with the failure.

The rules goes that if you are to drive pass railroad track, you have to stop the car, visibly turn your head to check right and left before proceeding. Three seconds before changing lanes, you have to give the signal and actually turn your head to look at the blind spots. When making turns at the intersection, give signal for 3 seconds, head turn to check behind traffic, move the car to literally being nearly on the lane separators. All that has to be done 30 meters before the actually turn - apply for both left and right turns. On and on...

That day, I came home a bit disappointed. I usually have quite a high pride on my driving skill (not that I never had any accident, but well...). So failing the driving test was something I had to learn to cope with...

I didn't have a chance to retake the test until yesterday, the interval of more than a month. The test time is even earlier than the application period, so I had to leave home even earlier. Fortunate me, there was another foreign guy in line to drive in front of me. So I got to sit in the car observing the way instructor judged and commented his driving. Poor him, he failed eventhough he completed the driving course. Mere reason was that he didn't keep the car that close to the lane separators when making turns! So I redid what he did wrong and yeah... I passed on the second attempt! Yahoo!!! (thanks to that Thomas guy though.) Now no illegal driving in Japan anymore! hee hee =P

** and finally I got my computer back! yeah!!**