licence day

Today I went to get my Japanese driving licence. This mostly involved lots of waiting around.

I set-off at 8am, along with a translator, to the test centre. We arrived at 9.10am and went to sign-in but were told by an angry-looking woman that foreigners can only sign-in after 9.30am and so to come back later. Eeeeek! As if I wasn't nervous enough! This woman looked at me like she wanted to kill me!

At 9.30am we went back and signed-in. I gave all my documents to the woman and went and sat in the waiting area. She said at would be another hour.

After about 30 minutes she came out and gave me some forms to fill-in. These asked questions like; Did I attend a driving school in England? How many lessons did I have? How much did it cost? Was my test on a course or on the streets? How far was the test (in METERS)? etc. I did this, with the help of my translator friend and then handed the forms back to scary 'I hate foreigners' lady.

After another 15 minutes a smiley, old man came out and asked if he could interview me. My heart leapt! 1) it was not super scary evil woman, and 2) he was cute and smiley - I can work with this!

He asked me a couple of questions from the form I filled in, but in more detail. He was very impressed with how expensive my lessons had been in England and how many I had taken. He said it must be difficult to pass in the UK. Of course I agreed, wholeheartedly! The interview only lasted 5 minutes and thanks to my friend P, who had previously translated all my answers for me, I was able to answer them all by myself and not look like too much of a tit.

After the interview I waited for another 10 minutes and was then told to go downstairs and pay 4500 yen (about £30) and to fill in some more forms about my general health and stuff. One of the questions was whether I had fallen asleep at work. Hahahahaha! Almost!

More waiting. 20 minutes later I had an eye test and then had a photo taken on a swanky machine. The smiley bloke asked me if I wanted a few pictures and to choose the best one, but I said no, anything will do if I can have a licence!

More waiting. After another 30 minutes smiley came out and presented me with a beautiful Japanese licence with my mug-shot on it. WoO-HoO! ご苦労様でしたto me!