The Driver's License Saga: Post II
Sep. 14th, 2005 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akujunkanYesterday I got my butt out of bed at the crack of dawn and headed down the licensing bureau.
An interesting thing about the DMV in Japan is that although it is open all day, if one does not arrive between 8:30 and 9:00, one will not be helped. Period. I got off the train at 8:00 am, hiked the three kilometers to the center, and was in line by 8:35.
I handed the woman behind the counter my passport, driver's license and its translation, alien registration card, certificate of residency, and was made to fill out a paper with such questions as:
How long have you been driving in your home country?
Did you take a driving school?
For how many hours?
How many times a week did it meet?
Was there a paper test?
How many questions in how many minutes?
What did it cover?
Was there a practical test?
Was it administered by a private school? Private company? State department? (Three other options I don't remember?)
Where was the practical test administered? State roads? Toll roads? Driving school? Private course?
What car did you drive in?
How many ccs did it hold?
And so forth. I answered to the best of my knowledge and invented the rest.
I was finished with this by 8:40. Then I sat down. Japan is not big on air conditioning, but this place was cooled like a meat locker. I was wearing a suit and I had goose bumps. I actually put my raincoat on to keep warm.
The other foreigners I'd queued up with were finished by 10:00 at the latest. I wasn't called again until 11:30. What exactly had taken so long?
During my wait, the DMV employees had gone through my entire passport and listed, in chronological order, every country I had ever entered or left. They were very concerned by the fact that I had visited China twice. How this possibly affects my ability to drive, I'm not certain. I was very concerned by the fact that I have not visited China twice.
We eventually determined that someone had mistaken my Taiwan visa and entry/departure stamps for those of the mainland.
That misunderstanding taken care of, we moved on to concern no. 2: to whit, the fact that I had apparently departed Taiwan on March 28th and April 9th. I spent the next few minutes feverishly attempting to explain the difference between a visa and a departure stamp. One wonders what these people thought about my Japan visa, which has me 'leaving' the country in the future – 2008, to be exact.
And then came the whopper. I'd made the pitiable mistake of choosing to renew my American license the day after I returned from Japan in 2002. Of course, the receptionist was highly suspicious as to how I had managed to take two months' worth of driver's ed classes in a single day.
It was at this point that I was forced to admit that I have had a driver's license since the age of fifteen. Oh, that did not go over well. We spent the next few minutes going round in circles:
DMV worker: Your license says 2002.
Me: That's the date of renewal.
DMV worker: Your current license doesn't say when you were granted your first license.
Me: ((attempting not to shit a brick))...No.
DMV worker: We can't allow you to exchange to a Japanese license without this information.
Me: But I drove for over a year in my home country after the renewal! That's the only precondition for exchange. It doesn't matter when I first received my license.
DMV worker: Yes, but it is suspicious.
Me: ((gives up the ghost; shits brick))
DMV worker: Can you get official documentation?
Me: No, I'm not even allowed to renew my license overseas.
DMV worker: Without official documentation, it will be difficult for us to allow you to take the test. There's no way you can get it?
Me: No.....
I'm almost in tears at this point, which made me angry, because I do not cry easily. But I need a license before winter, and if I had to wait until January to start the process of getting it, I would just let them fire me. There's no point in going through all the hassle to get a license so I can buy a car to drive for four months, especially not when the going sell-back rate is $500.
The woman sent me back to the waiting area. I gunned down two PET bottles out of sheer nervousness and frustration. Meanwhile, over fifty Japanese test takers got their results back; most of them seemed to have passed.
Finally, I was called back to the front. They'd taken pity on me and decided to let me take the paper test. Eureka!
I went upstairs for the test, which took all of three minutes and seemed to test more for basic brain function than knowledge of road rules. (Sample question out of ten: Is it okay to take sleeping pills before driving if they won't affect my performance?)
I passed, then it was on to the eye test and then to sign up for driving school.
So, the damage please:
Transport to and from the DMV: $4.80(2) = $9.60
Paper test fee: $24.00
ID photo fee: $1.50 x two pictures = $3.00
Driving school registration fee: $30.00
Cost of four hours of driving school: $235.00
Incidental beverages: $3.80
subtotal: $305.40
+ previous expenses ($43.50)
= $348.90
Driving school is an entry all of its own; more on that later.
That will be all.
An interesting thing about the DMV in Japan is that although it is open all day, if one does not arrive between 8:30 and 9:00, one will not be helped. Period. I got off the train at 8:00 am, hiked the three kilometers to the center, and was in line by 8:35.
I handed the woman behind the counter my passport, driver's license and its translation, alien registration card, certificate of residency, and was made to fill out a paper with such questions as:
How long have you been driving in your home country?
Did you take a driving school?
For how many hours?
How many times a week did it meet?
Was there a paper test?
How many questions in how many minutes?
What did it cover?
Was there a practical test?
Was it administered by a private school? Private company? State department? (Three other options I don't remember?)
Where was the practical test administered? State roads? Toll roads? Driving school? Private course?
What car did you drive in?
How many ccs did it hold?
And so forth. I answered to the best of my knowledge and invented the rest.
I was finished with this by 8:40. Then I sat down. Japan is not big on air conditioning, but this place was cooled like a meat locker. I was wearing a suit and I had goose bumps. I actually put my raincoat on to keep warm.
The other foreigners I'd queued up with were finished by 10:00 at the latest. I wasn't called again until 11:30. What exactly had taken so long?
During my wait, the DMV employees had gone through my entire passport and listed, in chronological order, every country I had ever entered or left. They were very concerned by the fact that I had visited China twice. How this possibly affects my ability to drive, I'm not certain. I was very concerned by the fact that I have not visited China twice.
We eventually determined that someone had mistaken my Taiwan visa and entry/departure stamps for those of the mainland.
That misunderstanding taken care of, we moved on to concern no. 2: to whit, the fact that I had apparently departed Taiwan on March 28th and April 9th. I spent the next few minutes feverishly attempting to explain the difference between a visa and a departure stamp. One wonders what these people thought about my Japan visa, which has me 'leaving' the country in the future – 2008, to be exact.
And then came the whopper. I'd made the pitiable mistake of choosing to renew my American license the day after I returned from Japan in 2002. Of course, the receptionist was highly suspicious as to how I had managed to take two months' worth of driver's ed classes in a single day.
It was at this point that I was forced to admit that I have had a driver's license since the age of fifteen. Oh, that did not go over well. We spent the next few minutes going round in circles:
DMV worker: Your license says 2002.
Me: That's the date of renewal.
DMV worker: Your current license doesn't say when you were granted your first license.
Me: ((attempting not to shit a brick))...No.
DMV worker: We can't allow you to exchange to a Japanese license without this information.
Me: But I drove for over a year in my home country after the renewal! That's the only precondition for exchange. It doesn't matter when I first received my license.
DMV worker: Yes, but it is suspicious.
Me: ((gives up the ghost; shits brick))
DMV worker: Can you get official documentation?
Me: No, I'm not even allowed to renew my license overseas.
DMV worker: Without official documentation, it will be difficult for us to allow you to take the test. There's no way you can get it?
Me: No.....
I'm almost in tears at this point, which made me angry, because I do not cry easily. But I need a license before winter, and if I had to wait until January to start the process of getting it, I would just let them fire me. There's no point in going through all the hassle to get a license so I can buy a car to drive for four months, especially not when the going sell-back rate is $500.
The woman sent me back to the waiting area. I gunned down two PET bottles out of sheer nervousness and frustration. Meanwhile, over fifty Japanese test takers got their results back; most of them seemed to have passed.
Finally, I was called back to the front. They'd taken pity on me and decided to let me take the paper test. Eureka!
I went upstairs for the test, which took all of three minutes and seemed to test more for basic brain function than knowledge of road rules. (Sample question out of ten: Is it okay to take sleeping pills before driving if they won't affect my performance?)
I passed, then it was on to the eye test and then to sign up for driving school.
So, the damage please:
Transport to and from the DMV: $4.80(2) = $9.60
Paper test fee: $24.00
ID photo fee: $1.50 x two pictures = $3.00
Driving school registration fee: $30.00
Cost of four hours of driving school: $235.00
Incidental beverages: $3.80
subtotal: $305.40
+ previous expenses ($43.50)
= $348.90
Driving school is an entry all of its own; more on that later.
That will be all.
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no subject
on 2005-09-14 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-14 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-14 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2005-09-15 01:18 pm (UTC)