Yay! It's my first day driving to work in my car (first car) that I got with my Japanese license… - Feed Post by Arachkid
Yay! It's my first day driving to work in my car (first car) that I got with my Japanese license (first license, nothing like living in the inaka to push that particular change), and I will need to figure out the A/C on the way home, apparently. I know, I could just open the windows, but... no. :P
posted by Arachkid
Comments 7
How many tries did it take? My prefecture is in the top 20 for automobile accident fatalities, so the license examiner is quite strict. I've known someone who has gone 16 times to take the test. On average, one usually has to take the test 4 or 5 times to pass. I've only gone once, but I think I'm going to try again once I move to another prefecture.
I went through an actual driving school, which wasn't horrible for the driving and learning, but I chose to have their written tests in English, and their English sucks (but that led to me getting a translation or "fixing" gig, so that's all right). The instructors are kind of harsh, but luckily for me on the final the other driver cranked the car into an obstacle three times, so I think as long as I didn't do anything wrong, they were going to let it go through, and they did. The prefectural written test is well done, but there are some terms that didn't match the terms from the crappy textbook, so I guessed on those, but first time pass on the prefectural written test. I think it would take an absurd amount of times if I went without the driving school, and to be honest I wanted as much instruction as I could get, so I didn't mind forking over the big bucks for that. My prefecture is apparently #25 for fatalities (Gunma), but I think in the top ten for overall car accidents. It's the prefecture with the highest car ownership, though, which just goes to show how rural it can be. It even trumps Okinawa, where there is no train system.
Man, if I lived in Gunma I would definitely have to have a car. I would love to take my Nissan 200SX there. People who have watched Initial D are probably automatically disqualified from obtaining a license there though... >.>- I don't think they expect foreigners arriving in Japan to know what Initial D is, to be honest. Living in Gunma isn't horrible without a car, it's just that I am a father now, so that pretty much prompted that change. I was never fond of the idea of driving as half of the rules are actual rules, and then half of the rules are there because people will break the first rules. I think the UK and Japan should have an agreement where you could get an international driving license off the hop, though. Just have to answer a 5 question test, I believe?
- Yeah, it's easy to get an international driving licence. It would be kinda fun to do the Japanese driving test though. Would be funny if I passed it cleanly, since I didn't pass my UK one properly but rather was let off on the fact I got more than the maximum number of minors...
http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/foreign/submenu.htm
"What To Do if a Massive Earthquake Hits While You are Driving" o.O
And the "Traffic Safety" pdf shows over twice as many people in Tokyo die walking than people do in cars... So maybe it's safer to be driving anyway! :D - Ah, you went that route. I live in a prefecture probably as rural as yours (Tochigi), but I simply can't justify paying that much to get my license. There's a driving school you can go to that costs about 3 or 4000 yen here, and you can drive for about 40 or 50 mins around their course. The person inside the car with you will give you pointers for the test. That's most likely my next step if I keep failing the actual test. Trying to get my license is the next monkey I want to get off my back. Enjoy driving!
- Eh, I figure I'm old enough that getting extra instruction couldn't hurt (got my license before 40, yay!) and of course got some Japanese learning done along the way (nothing like approaching an intersection and having to ask あの。。。右折て何?). I also love smartass opportunities. One teacher took three minutes to ask all the youngsters if they knew English, then went up to the front and said "英語分かる人がいますか", to which I promptly answered "はい、わかりますですけど。。" which brought everyone else to laugh until they were in tears.
My prefecture isn't bad where I am, in that I can get to the Takasaki line fairly easy and be in Shinjuku in an hour and a half by train, but there is a good amount of Gunma which has little or no train - or just a train that runs once an hour. I'm sure there are good parts of Tochigi, too, like if you have access to the Utsunomiya line.
