Gifu City: The Final Dungeon! The Driver’s License Sidequest!!
March 24 (Monday)
Thursday is what promises to be my final and most dramatic encounter with getting my Driver’s License. An 8:30 meeting has been planned. In order to get there for this cursed hour I must leave Kamioka at 4:30. Which means waking up at 3:45 in the morning. I will be prepared for it though. I come armed with a mountain worth of identification, completed paperwork and photocopies. I also added a new member to my adventuring party with Will, a level 22 rogue-class character who’s Japanese skills far outweigh my own. I also have a cell phone, prepped to call my school clerk should translation fail both of us. I’ve been level-grinding myself, practicing against smaller amounts of paperwork that are brought to me daily at school. A book has also been brought (the three musketeers!), since I was warned that I will be kept waiting until at least 11:30. All I actually have to DO is an eye exam and fill out some more papers. It is my final quest in the Driver’s License side-story and the last problem standing between me and a trip to Australia. Gaia help us.
March 27 (Thursday)
A successful sortie into Gifu-city has left me filled with joy and in possession of my own personal Japanese Driver’s License. Will and I left Kamioka at 4:30, but we missed the turn-off to the Gifu Expressway dramatically twice (costing us half an hour). Once upon the Expressway I opened my engine up to previously unheard of speeds in Japan. I doubt any have ever traveled as fast before. We managed to arrive at the destination a full half hour early. Once there I proceeded to fill out some paperwork and then have an eye exam. The time was now 8:30. As promised, we were told to wait until 11:00 or so for me to get the license. Bureaucracy at its finest. By 12:00 I had my license in hand, but was warned that my international driver’s was no longer usable in Japan because of it. That’s fine… or so you’d think. Turns out I now have all kinds of more horrible penalties for if I get into an accident or anything. I also have to have a “beginner’s mark” on my car so that everyone knows I’m driving for my first year in Japan… even though I’ve already been driving for months. Awesome. Time to go to Australia!
Thing I miss most about Canada today: Not having to have a “beginner’s mark” on my car. Embarrassing!!
Thing I love most about Japan today: How many times people warn me to be careful when driving because the roads here are more narrow than in Canada. Your concern for my safety is never ending!
Nicki said,
March 27, 2008 at 10:25 am
I found your blog randomly trying to search for why I have to have a beginner’s mark on MY car (I’m on the JET Programme). I’m from Canada too and I’m so embarrassed that I have to have that stupid beginner’s mark and my fellow English ALT doesn’t!! Boo urns!
fulmen said,
March 27, 2008 at 1:16 pm
For me it’s because they have the year that I took the test on my license (Manitoba, by the by) but not the exact date. But, since my license was renewed more than 3 months before I came here they have proof that I had my license for at least 3 months. So, in their horrible bureaucratic system this means that they use the date of my renewal and therefore I haven’t had a license for over a year, according to them. I imagine something similar happened to you.