License conversion, take 2

Today was my second attempt at the driving test. I left Aizu at around 0800 hrs to be early for a 1030 hrs appointment. I ended up arriving an hour prior. I was now in Tackawanna, but I had no translator with me this time. Today was a bad day for me to go; intensive practice for the wind ensemble was scheduled three days prior. I ended up having to miss all of it except for the last hour.

This place again...

The last time I was at the center, I was given a yellow "report card" containing information about whether or not I passed the written and driving tests. Despite this, I had to buy the form for the driving test again (essentially paying for the test), fill out the information on said form and another that I had already filled out, and then give them all of my verification documents again. This time, I was allowed to write my address in romaji. The clerk accepted my documents again and told me to report back to the lobby at 1300 hrs.

Wait, what?

Wanna drive a bucket loader on public roads? There's a test for that!

I got up early, drove over 90 minutes on mountain roads, and arrived an hour before I was supposed to show up, but I still can't take the test until the afternoon? As it had turned out, I was supposed to show up between 1030 and 1130 hrs. This meant that I was stuck on the grounds for three and a half hours before I could take the test. And because they took my IDP and passport, I couldn't go someplace else or get something to eat off site.

This guy was taking his exam for large vehicles. Did well on the S-curve, but I think he failed overall.

There were quite a few more people today. We were divided into two groups. I was assigned to go last in a group of five. Everyone in front of me failed due to careless mistakes. Some of these people were taking the test for the first time, so that was to be expected. I saw one guy in another group go for a 20 minute lap around the course, and then a 25 minute feedback session in the test car. Poor guy looked he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

So, William, did you finally pass your driving test and get your super-cool JDM driver's license?

No.

>tfw your daily finds out about your affair with your friend's car

Again, I made three basic mistakes. Here they are:

• I accidentally stopped too close to the stop line next to a stop sign.
• The proctor commented that I was not activating my blinkers early enough. It's supposed to be 30 meters from the turn. I come from the land of freedom, so obviously I can't into metric.
• I went too fast around that last curve again. I was taking it at just under 20 km/h (12 mph). I was taking all of the other curves at about 10 km/h.

The reason why I made that last mistake twice was because just before that, I was required to speed up to 50 km/h (~31 mph) after exiting a curve that came after a lane maneuver. It takes quite a while, even though I started accelerating as I was exiting the corner, and immediately after that, I have to brake to make the turn at a low speed, because you have to take curves at a snail's pace or else you will automatically fail. I'm pretty certain that even with the blinker issues, if the stop line didn't cause me to fail, this did. Then again, what can you expect from a car with a rubber band for a clutch and god awful brakes? I'm really going to have to pump the brakes hard next time, maybe enough to give the proctor a heart attack.

Four computer monitors put together streamed PSAs and news in the lobby. This one was an "Internet stranger danger" PSA for women.

After some more waiting, I got my documents back. Right under the driving test column on my report card was another "failure" stamp, this time darker than the first one, as if to symbolize my ineptitude towards passing that test. I left at about the same time I did last time, and had the foreign personnel advisor book another appointment for Tuesday. So that means another three-hour roundtrip to Fukushima City, a quarter tank of gas spent, and another day of productivity out the window. And I'm probably going to fail again. I start my new internship in October, so at this rate, I have two more chances to pass. After that, I probably will not have much time to take the test unless I skip work, and that will now cost me money in addition to the above.

Governor Malloy, if your eyes somehow pass over this blog post, then stop what you're doing right now, call the Japanese government, and get that signatory agreement going. Even if it doesn't pass for me, let it be there for someone in the future.

And with that, I'm done with today.

-wp