After I actually got here though there was just so much to settle into and things to do around town and winter on its way soon after that I figured I'd save a little money and hold off on getting a car until the next spring. So I did and finally started leasing one then and gave myself a couple of months to get used to driving in Japan before even thinking about finally starting the process of getting a Japanese license.
Luckily, holders of foreign licenses don't have to go through the full licensing process, but just an expedited conversion process. The thing is though, there's two tracks: one for many countries like England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and pretty much most of the countries that JET participants are from, and plenty of non-English speaking countries besides; and another track for all the other countries, of which America is one. Basically what I hear the deal is is that the Japanese government does some exhaustive investigative process on the licensing processes of these other countries to confirm that they're strict enough to basically be equivalent to Japanese licensing standards before putting them on the fast-track list. These people then just have to go to the Japanese equivalent of the DMV office, do a bunch of paperwork and go through an interview process, wait a week to get the green light that everything looks okay, then go back to the office again to finish everything up. Annoying and time-consuming, but you're pretty much guaranteed to come out with a license at the end of a couple weeks.
The problem with the US is that we don't have just one, national, licensing process, we have 50+ separate state ones. The Japanese government isn't going to bother with that mess, so we're stuck with all the third-world countries having to go through the long process. This starts out the same as the short process with the interview and paperwork and waiting for the green light that you're eligible for the conversion process, but then you have to actually take the tests too. There's a written test and then an actual driving test. For Japanese people getting a license from scratch the written test is pretty in depth and a hundred questions or so long and people have to spend a lot of their time taking classes or otherwise studying to pass it. For us conversion candidates though we just get a simple ten question test where all the answers are obvious, so that's no problem at all.
Then there's the driving test. This doesn't occur on the road like in the US, but on a closed course at the DMV. It's got some hills and traffic lights and crosswalks and a fake railroad crossing and even a car parked sticking out into the road, so basically testing these real world obstacles you're likely to face, but also two additional obstacles: a tight, narrow S-curve, and a narrow zig-zag with two 90 degree turns they call the "crank". Besides all this though, they're also testing the choreography of your actions as you're driving through the course: Do you check your mirrors and blind spots sufficiently and in the right order? Are you staying sufficiently to the left (you shouldn't drive in the center of the lane!), and moving sufficiently to the left or right of the lane before turning? And before even beginning the course, have you adjusted your seat and mirrors, and did you depress the brake before starting the engine (the parking brake is still on at this point too)? And even before getting in the car, did you check that the tires aren't flat and that there's not a cat sitting underneath it? So while some of it is a reasonable test of real world driving, some of it is a bit contrived and not really reflective of the real world.
So now that I've laid down all the background, here's how the process went down for me. First I had to send an application off to the Japan Auto Federation with a copy of my license to get it translated. I think this isn't technically required if you can just explain to the interviewer what every line on your license means, but doing this was recommended to us, so I had it done. Now the other thing is that you're only eligible for the conversion process if you had your license in the country of issue and lived there for more than three months. Well, I've had mine for years, but the thing is, I'd gotten it renewed as a enhanced license just before coming to Japan because I was going to travel to Canada at the same time that I had to mail my passport to the Japanese consulate for my visa, so the date of issue listed on the license was less than three months before coming to Japan. So I would have to get ahold of the New York DMV and get some kind of transcript of my license to show that it had actually been issued before that. Luckily it turns out that can just be done on their webpage and is fully automated so that you're emailed a PDF of it within a couple of minutes, so that turned out not to be a problem.
So after getting the translation back you use a vacation day to take off work, because of course the office isn't open on weekends, and fill out a couple of forms to kick off the process. One of them is asking about medical conditions you might have that would make it dangerous for you to drive, and if you've ever had your license revoked or suspended or anything like that, and if you've ever gotten any traffic tickets and what for, and the other form is a detailed description of the licensing process you had to go through to get your license in your home country. What kind of tests were there? A written test? How many questions was it and how long did you have to complete it? Any hearing or vision tests? A driving test? Was it out on the road, or on a closed course? How long was it? Were you driving your own car, or a DMV-provided one? What was the make and model of it? Did you have to take any classes? How long were they and what did they cost? Did you have to provide any documents and what were they? Anything I didn't remember I just guessed or made up a plausible answer, and for the make and model question I just said it was "mid-size". The forms were in English and Japanese, or at least they provided a translation on a separate card, but everyone there only speaks Japanese, so if you don't you had better bring a translator. (There was an English-speaking Pakistani guy there the same day who had his other Pakistani friend acting the translator.)
After the forms a lady came out for the interview. First it was just going over the answers on the forms. Since it was dual-language I answered it in English, but now I had to translate my answers for her anyway, so I would have just written in in Japanese from the beginning if I had known that. Then the license translation I had gotten still didn't mention a couple of lines on the license, like the code saying I had glasses for example, so we went through that, and then I provided the license transcript and translated that for her. Then she went through my passport asking about the visas to make sure that I had been living in the US for the requisite three months (and if I hadn't been there at least a year I would have had to put a "new driver" magnet on the back of my car like all the newly licensed Japanese drivers have to). Then she took all this info back to the office and said they'd call me in a week to tell me if I was eligible. I don't know what else they had to do on their end to determine that.
So I got the call and came back the next week (having to use another of my vacation days to do it). The windows are only open for two hours first thing in the morning and two hours right after lunch, and last week's process I could do in the afternoon, but this one had to start in the morning, so I had to wake up early to drive the hour plus into the city for this. First was the written test, which was a piece of cake (although I think I saw on the tester's paperwork afterwards that I had actually missed one of the questions?), then the eye test, which was also fine, then a long wait during which I went to the convenience store to get some lunch, then in the afternoon the driving test. Besides all the trouble of actually taking the test, they even make you memorize the course you have to drive ahead of time! I don't know if maybe they want to avoid giving you instructions in the car because they're afraid it would prompt you as to when you're supposed to signal or something like that, but as if it wasn't hard enough to keep in mind all the actions you're supposed to be acting out while actually driving at the same time, now you have to try to remember where you're supposed to be turning and everything too.
So I started the test and thought it was going pretty well, we went into the first obstacle, the "crank", the narrow road with two 90 degree turns, made the first turn fine, but on the second just barely nicked one of the poles with the front bumper. So the test ended there and I was told to go back to the start and parked and the examiner went through all the things I was doing wrong, which was quite a lot apparently, things like taking the turns too wide, or steering slightly in the opposite direction before entering a turn, or not staying to the left, or all these things that I thought I was doing fine, and I felt like maybe he was just pinning them on me without even having done them because they were stereotypical American driving habits or something.
So I was super upset driving home (after all, I still had my international permit) and the worst part was there wasn't even a good day any time soon for me to retake the test. I had my annual family vacation coming up on the other side of the world, and I didn't think I'd be in good enough shape with the jetlag after coming back to retake it before school started back up again, and I didn't want to skip out on any of my classes to do it either, so I'd have to wait until the end of September before I'd have a good day to do it again. Oh, did I say that was the worst part? The worst part was that today was my birthday too. :(
Well, August ended and school started back up and luckily my international permit didn't expire until the day of the welcome party for the new JET arrivals, so I was able to drive to that at least, and then I was licenseless. Had to go back to taking the bus up to my elementary school every week and couldn't drive anywhere like back to the mountain to climb it again this year, or out to any viewing spots to see the changing leaves or anything like that.
But finally we had a sports competition one weekend at the end of September, and the school festival the weekend after that, so I had two weeks where we had replacement days off during the week that I could go back to the driving center. Of course I couldn't drive there this time, so I had to get up even earlier than before (because now I could only take the test in the morning, not in the afternoon), take the train up to the city, then take a bus out near the driving center, and walk the rest of the way there.
So I did all that and took the test again. At one point I forgot that there was a turn coming up until too late, and had to change lanes, but managed to mostly finish edging into the lane by the time I reached the red light. Then I went on to finish the course, actually made it through the crank this time, did the S-curve for the first time (since the test was halted before getting to it last time), and thought I did pretty well, except for that one mistake which hopefully would only take a few points off, but not enough to fail me. Whelp, it did. Turns out that while edging into the lane at the light, I crossed over the stop line, which is an automatic fail. Aside from that, the only other thing the examiner commented on was that I didn't check behind me at a turn for possible pedestrians, so if it weren't for that one dumb mistake I probably would have passed. And then the bus was late so I missed the train and had to wait three hours for the next one. :( At least I got some reading done on my phone for a change.
Well, like I said, I also had days off the next week, so I went back a week later and did it again. And fucked up the crank again, even worse than the first time. The examiner had me finish the course anyway though and didn't mention anything else wrong. He said that if it looked like I was going to hit it it was fine to back up, but the problem is in that car the seat is so low and the hood extends so far out compared to the little kei car with the high seat that I'm used to driving, that you can't tell how close you are to the poles to know to back up to begin with. At least I didn't have to wait for the results to be announced this time, so I got back to the train station in time to catch the early train.
So wasting half or more of a day going into the city, paying for the trains and the test, only to fail it and have to repeat the whole thing again was really getting to me, so I finally broke down and decided to try taking a couple lessons at the driving school in town. The worst part about that crank is that it's so apart from real life that there's no way to practice for it except to take the test or go to a driving school. I think maybe at the center or driving schools you can pay to use the course during certain times, maybe even in their cars (if it was in my car there'd be no point, I could easily pass it in that), but in any case with the expired permit I wouldn't be able to drive without an instructor anyway.
So I dragged myself to the driving school outside of town (20 minutes by bike) and signed up for a couple lessons on the weekends. The first one I drove with a young guy who just took me for a quick spin around the course before going through the crank many times, and the S-curve a few, and I nailed it every time, by a wide margin. (I wanted to back up on one run, but he took me out of the car to see just how much clearance I had.) I swear their car must have a shorter hood or their roads must be slightly wider or something, but if not it looked like I would be all set.
The second lesson the next weekend was with an older guy who took me on a more generic drivethrough of the course rather than focusing on the obstacles exclusively and was especially critical of my driving around curves which he said was too fast, and also that I should be pumping the brakes two or three times while approaching them rather than just one longer push. I had read online that this is the ideal behavior, and although the examiners never mentioned it, it couldn't hurt to try during the next test.
The next problem was finding yet again another good day to retake the test. In late November there was a test day where I wouldn't have any classes, but then it turned out that my elementary school visit the week before that would be cancelled too, so I'd have another set of two days to retake it in case I failed the first again, so I took both these day off and trekked back to the driving center on Thursday and went through the whole process again. There were a bunch of guys there taking the test for construction machinery and trucks, so I had to wait over an hour for my turn, but I got through it without any mistakes finally and the examiner didn't mention anything I did wrong afterwards, so I thought that was a good sign (because how unfair would it be to fail me without saying what I needed to work on?)
So then I waited for the results with the construction guys and I passed! It had been dragging on for so long at this point and I had gotten so used to it that I didn't even feel that excited, and I still had to drag myself home on the late train afterwards, so I figured I would be more excited once I got home and could relax. So we had our pictures taken and in a few minutes got the license. And then I walked back to the bus stop, took the bus back to the train station, waited three hours for the next train, and finally got home at 4:30 (having gotten up at 6:30), and now I was finally done and rejoiced.
That evening we also had a party for a visiting teacher from Osaka, but the minute I walked in they asked me how the test went and so I became the secondary guest of honor for the night and had to say a little bit about the process. And then, because I hadn't driven it in so long, my car didn't start the next morning. D:
