License conversion, take 1

Today was my scheduled appointment to convert my American driver's license to a Japanese one. I had to take a interpreter with me, so I brought along my friend, Naoki. There was a license center in Koriyama, but that course was apparently for the people from countries with signatory agreements for driver's license conversions. Therefore, I had to drive to the center in Fukushima City instead, over an hour and a half away.

We arrived at around 0915 hrs, about 15 minutes before my scheduled "appointment." We were directed to the third floor of the center, where I turned over my documentation to the clerks and had to wait. They gave me a form to fill out in the meantime regarding my driving experience back in the states, in Japanese, which I turned in after I had finished it. We were then escorted to a testing room where a clerk went through the form to verify all of my information. It had been seven years since I first got my license, so I was trying my hardest to remember all of the details. Naoki interpreted some of the questions, but it took a few tries in some cases, and we both had to use Google Translate at least twice.

So much counter space, so few people

Finally, we were told to come back in about 40 minutes to take my written exam. Naoki and I went down to the first floor and stopped by the vending machines. After doing all of those things, I took my eye exam and was then given five minutes to answer the ten true/false questions required (in English, thank FSM) to pass the written exam. I got seven right, which was the minimum required to pass that portion of the exam. Some of the questions were a bit weird. I remember one in particular that went kind of like this:

If there are no pedestrians in this crosswalk, but there's a car in between me and the crosswalk, then I can pass this car even though I am less than 30 meters away from the crosswalk.
 
Absolutely nothing that I had read prior to taking the exam had questions or scenarios like this. I actually thought that I was going to fail the written exam. The easiest part of the whole damn process, and I was going to fuck it up. I was actually surprised when I was told that I'd passed it.

The first floor lobby

The clerk then told me to go downstairs, purchase the form and stamps required to take the test (~$22), and fill them out. I did exactly that. I almost had an issue with the picture that I had provided them due to the way I cropped it. The photo was supposed to be 30 x 24 millimeters, which is even smaller than the photos I used for my visa application. I had to bust my ass to get it created and printed yesterday in time for the application process. Luckily, they decided to just use it anyway.

What was especially weird was that for one of the forms, Naoki couldn't write the address in kanji for me; it had to be my own handwriting. My address is pretty long, and some of the characters require more than ten strokes, so it took me a while to write the whole address. When I was almost finished, I was told that I could've just used Roman characters, which would've save me a lot of time. I handed the forms back to the clerk, and she gave me the information on the driving test. I was to take it that afternoon. She gave me a map of the course and a small pamphlet with pointers on taking the test [which, strangely enough, was bilingual]. The test was at 1300 hrs; I had about 45 minutes to get ready.

One thing that Internet forums and even the center themselves recommend is that you go and walk the course. Naoki and I purchased umbrellas from the convenience store downstairs and walked the course in the rain. The course itself wasn't too bad; I didn't have to do any parallel parking or hill starts. Walking the course took 20 minutes, after which we went back inside and waited in the lobby for the test to start.

View of the course from the final stretch

There were three other men taking the test that afternoon. One was a foreigner like me; I think he was from India. The proctor gave everyone who was taking the test for the first time a lap around the course while you sat in the back seat. I tried to collect as much information from the drive as I could. How fast was the proctor going in this section? How was he driving into the dreaded S-curve and the crank? I marked the course map I was given with various notes and reminders and studied them as hard as I could.

There are three people required in the car: the examinee, the proctor, and an "independent third party" in the back seat. The last guy is redundant; you are basically the proctor's bitch, and any missed turn signal or improper lane change resulted in an automatic failure. I was the third person to take the test, which meant that I was required to be said third-party for the person before and after me. The second person was also taking the test in a manual. He took the wrong turn on the route twice and made a few careless mistakes along the way, so I think he failed. The fourth person, in an automatic, was also a bit careless and failed as well.

The license center fleet. Toyota Crowns and motorcycles galore.

And me? Well, I did the best that I could. The clutch felt really worn, and I ended up overrevving a few times. I erred on the side of caution, as I was supposed to for this test. I was perfect in the S-curve and crank. I audibly confirmed checks in all mirrors and head movements, even counting out loud when making lane changes. But the harbinger came when we got to the end. Before entering the carport, I was supposed to stop at a pole, with my front bumper being aligned with the pole as best as possible. The proctor told me to just pull in. I knew at that point that I had failed.

The proctor, thankfully, spoke enough simple Japanese to help me understand my mistakes. There were three that he covered with me:

1. When pulling out of the carport and onto the course, I was late with turning on my blinker.
2. When passing a car on the side of the road, I ended up passing the car way too close instead of giving it more room.
3. You have to slow down at the curves to around 12 mph and proceed with caution. I did slow down, and even pumped the brakes as preferred for taking the test. However, the proctor still thought that I was going way too fast.

He asked me if I went to driving school. I told him no, but I was already driving in Japan and had my own car. He gave me the generic you should practice more statement and then it was over. After I did my second third party duty, Naoki and I went upstairs to wait for the obvious result. I was told that I could call (or in this case, have someone call for me) to book an appointment for next week. They gave me back my documents and then Naoki and I went home. It was around 1500 hrs at this point.

I will probably go alone for the second attempt. The major paperwork portion is done, and although some of the Japanese used was still a bit out of my grasp, I may not need a translator. That being said, Naoki said that he'd come with me again if he had no plans on the day of my exam. He even refused compensation for his time, despite the fact that he virtually waited all day. It's a true blessing to have friends like him. I would've been fucked from the start if both he and the foreign personnel advisor weren't there to help me.

I knew from the start that I was going to fail the first time. A lot of foreigners do, from what I've heard. However, I now have a better idea of how to navigate the course. I know what the car feels like to drive, and what the turns and curves feel like when driving through them. Assuming that those three things were my only errors, I did everything else perfectly. If that's the case, then I might pass the second time. But then again, I've been a bad luck magnet recently, so I won't know if I'll pass until I actually do.

But if I end up having to do a hill start, I know that there will be a third time.

つづく

-wp