It's been over a week now since I took a day off work and headed to Gifu City, where, with the aid of my wonderful and talented friend who can speak Japanese, I took my driving test. And interestingly enough, the test was the easiest part of the whole adventure. As my friend put it, it was the "craziest/most amusing/bewildering day ever!" And I'm finally getting around to telling you about it ^_^
It started out easy enough, after spending Sunday with another friend who lives near the city, we woke up early Monday morning to get to the test center by 830. The girl we stayed with works at a high school in what is essentially a suburb of Gifu City, and though she had initially planned to give us a ride we decided to take the bus. First in to Gifu City and then another one out to the test center. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, the first of our problems came courtesy of Mother Nature, in the form of a nice, light rain, that extended our ride in to Gifu to about an hour. We were at first unfazed as we got to the station with about an hour left before we needed to be at the test center, and we figured since we had JUST done this a month ago (when I
got my paperwork turned in), it should be a piece of cake to get out there, right? mmmm hmmm. Read on.
After finding our gate, and what we
thought was the bus we needed, we patiently waited, still blissfully unaware of what was to come. What we hadn't counted on were the hoard of high school students on their morning commute filling up the entire bus and leaving us standing, crammed in the aisle. Teenagers are teenagers, no matter where you are, laughing and chatting and fogging up windows all over the world. We rode on that bus for over a half an hour before we made it to the high school and the kids all got off, at which point we were able to make our way up to the driver to ask if we had missed our stop since we couldn't see or hear anything jammed amongst all those hormones. I initially relaxed in one of the recently vacated seats as my friend went to talk to the driver, until I heard her gasp "uso!" (no way!)... and we were informed we had
gotten on the wrong bus (>.<)
Panicking, we get off the bus, into the rain, and run across the street to the bus stop going the other direction. Fortunately, a bus pulls up shortly after that and the driver says she'll take us (for 200 yen of course) to where we can switch to another bus that should get us out to the testing center. So we get on the bus. 5 minutes later, we get off, back into the rain, find the next bus stop, and the bus pulls up about 30 seconds later. We're initially thrilled to see it goes to "mitabora" (where the testing center is), but after our earlier mistake (in which we got on a bus going to "mitabora") we make a point of going straight to the driver and asking him if he goes to our stop. To which he replies "no".
?!!??!
Then, very slowly and meticulously, in typical Japanese fashion, he pulls out a schedule and proceeds to find out when the bus that goes to that stop arrives, which is in
35 minutes. Now REALLY panicking, we said "no thanks", that we only had about 5 minutes left at this point, and he agreed to take us as far as he could (for 200 yen) and let us know when to get off.
So we ride the bus. As we were approaching our stop he remembered that there are often taxis stopped nearby and suggested we try to get one if we could.... and luck be a lady there was
ONE taxi sitting there. w00t! After almost getting run over crossing the street, we hopped in.
And got a ride from an awesome taxi driver who took a shortcut and got us there only 15 mins late! Lucky for me, the 830 am appointment was more like a suggestion, they accept people anytime between 830 and 9 am for my particular time slot. phew!
Still jittery and panicked from our expidition, we managed to turn in my documents and I lucked out again and got the nicer of the 2 guys who do the testing. Who actually remembered my friend and I from our earlier visit the month before. And while he was checking that I had copies of 1) my US driver license, 2) the translation of the US license, 3) my full driving record (with the issue date of my original license, along with my *ahem* minor traffic infraction from 1999), 4) the first page of my passport and 3) all of the pages of my passport that have stamps in them (why is this required? who knows), he informs me the copy of the first page of my passport is missing.
(>.<) NO WAY! I had it the night before, I swear! I triple checked everything before I went to bed. But after leafing through the plethora of papers multiple times, I had to admit that it just wasn't there. Not only was a copy of the first page of my passport now floating around somewhere in Japan (a comforting thought), it also occurred to me that all of our public transportation acrobatics of the morning might be for naught as several people have told me they won't let you make copies there. And then he handed me a large piece of cardboard with コーピ (copy) written on it and told me with a grin to run over to the building next door and make a copy. yeay!
Our next task was to fill out some paperwork, which I let my friend handle as my Japanese penmanship isn't anything to brag about, and all the people around us oohed and ahhed at her calligraphic skills. Then I had to take my eye exam. In Japan, instead of calling out letters, you say where the opening of a circle is. Up, down, left, right.
photo from hereI have a habit of mixing up left and right in Japanese so I was practicing how to say them as we walked into the exam room and the guy running my machine proudly announced to me "up down left right ok!" and then I proceeded to do it in Japanese anyway, albeit with hand signals just in case. Then he surprised me with the test for color blindness and all the Japanese ran out of my head and I switched to "green! blue! yellow! red!" ha ha ha ha ha ha
After the eye exam we had a bit of a break, an excellent opportunity to calm down and collect myself for the written test and the driving test. Although I had done the practice course 4 times the day before and 2 times the week before, I was still nervous I would forget something. As we were waiting, the nice test man came up and started telling us how his son is now living in the US working for a Japanese company. And wanting to make a good impression, we did everything we could to engage him in conversation. This drew a laugh from a Japanese guy sitting near us, who turned out to speak excellent English, having just returned from a working holiday in Australia. He was there to change his Australian license to a Japanese one, a process that just requires processing paperwork but still takes the same amount of time as testing does.
My friend stayed behind with our new Japanese friend as I went to take the written test, which is in English, along with the 4 other people who were in my testing group that morning. As far as I know they were all from Brazil, and were taking their test in Portuguese. As expected, the written test was pretty easy, the most difficult part being trying to figure out what the question is asking. I finished first, in about 10 minutes, and went back down to wait for the driving test.
Once we were all ready we headed out to the driving track. We had a group of about 10 people, the 5 of us taking the test, my friend, the two men testing us, and a few people there with the other group, including a man who had lived in Brazil when he was younger and now makes his living helping Brazilian people pass the Japanese driving test. They then split us into 2 groups, all the guys in one car and me and the only other woman testing in the other. It may be that the men were testing for a manual license (since my car is an automatic I took the much easier automatic license test), I'm not sure. At any rate, I got the nice man for my test (yeay!) and I got to go 2nd (double yeay!).
The test proceeds thusly. The tester gets in to the front passenger seat, the testee the drivers seat. I hop in the back and put on my seat belt. She's nervous, but starts out well. He initially offers to help guide her through the course, but she said she was ok so we all sat in kind of an awkward silence for most of her test. Like I said, she started out well, and I was thinking cool! maybe we'll all pass! and then she went a bit fast down the hill and cut the pass a bit close and I thought to myself uh oh, and then in the "crank" section (where you have to make your way though some very sharp turns) she
hit the poles. Which is an automatic disqualification. I felt so bad for her! But he surprised me and let her keep going, and we went though the rest of the first half of the course at which point she ran over the curb, which is another disqualification. At that point I could tell he was annoyed, and he told her to go back to the start and finish.
I was already nervous, and after witnessing her failure I was even more so. She got out and I moved to the driver seat. My tester gave me an encouraging "let's pass!" and "good luck" ^_^ and said "lets go!" I had rehearsed the order you're supposed to do everything in so many times, even though he seemed eager to get started I still went through all the motions. Put on the seat belt. Adjust the mirror. Turn on the blinker. Put the car in drive. Remove the emergency brake. Check no cars are coming. The whole time I kept saying exactly what I was doing, to make sure he knew I knew what I was supposed to do.
And off we went. And can you believe just as I make my first turn and he tells me to change lanes the blinker switches off mid-way and I didn't get it back on before I changed lanes. D'oh! And he pointed it out and I said "ah! you're right! I'm sorry" but he didn't seem too bothered by it. He helped guide me though the rest of the test, and all the while I'm talking. "ok, let's turn. and here we go! check! check! check!" I make it though the crank and the s-curve no problem, manage not to hit the curb, and at the train tracks roll down the window "yep, no train coming! let's go!" lol
At the end I park and he tells me "you missed the blinker but your driving was ok" and then, in a rather cheeky move, he asked me if he could have a kiss! lol and I thought to myself, crap, is this a test? Like for a bribe or something? But I just smiled and cheerily said "sure!" to which he laughed and said "no no no! I'm married" ha ha ha ha ha
My friend had been waiting and watching with the other observers, and she said I looked the best out of everybody. Once we were all finished we went back to the waiting area to await the results of the test. And boy was it a loooooooooooong wait. Over half an hour at least, and when you're waiting to find out results like that, it feels much longer. Periodically, my tester would come and chat with us, and since the guy who lived in Brazil is there fairly often they seemed to know each other and we all chatted and joked around. My friend and I are a pretty powerful combination here, I draw them in with the blond hair and she wows them with her wit and Japanese ability -_^ It never works as well when we are separate, lol
During all this we find out that 2 people out of the 5 passed, and the Brazil guy passes along that I was one of the 2. My friend and I let out a shout of glee!!!! hopped around, hugged, waved at our new Japanese friend who was still waiting to change his Australian license, and were all around cute and obnoxious and filled with relief ~(^o^)~
The next step involved filling out some more paperwork, paying for the license, and getting pictures taken. Three of us did it together, me, the other guy who passed, and our new friend. Thanks to running around in the rain and humidity, my hair had curled up horrendously, add to that you aren't allowed to smile in pictures (which of course meant I couldn't keep a straight face when it was picture time) and I ended up with a REALLY funny looking license picture. Doesn't even look like me, ha ha
By 1230 we were all finished and ready to head back to Gifu station and catch a train home. So we said goodbye to our new friend and went out to the bus stop, to wait. As we were sitting there and I was sending messages out to say I PASSED! our new friend drives by in the back of his parent's car and hangs out the window to wave. After waving back, my friend joked they should have given us a ride, and we go back to waiting for the bus. And then out of nowhere our new friend shows up and says "hey want a ride?" d(^_^)b and his parents gave us a lift to Gifu station. His dad was a riot and has incredibly good taste in tv (his favorite shows being LOST and 24) and we all sang songs karaoke style and then they told us they want us to become friends with their daughter and invited us to visit them out where they live in the western part of Gifu prefecture.
With the lift we got to the station much earlier (not to mention free-er) than we would have on the bus and had time to buy some lunch before we caught the local train back to Takayama. What started out as a questionable morning turned out to be a fantastic experience!
"Craziest/most amusing/bewildering day ever" indeed!
