During your first year if carrying a driver`s license in Japan, you are allowed three traffic "points". One ticket can be anywhere between one and ten points. This was not made exactly clear to me at the time I obtained my license, but oh well... I was under the assumption that it was three tickets, not three points...
So I get a letter in the mail that said (after many reads from various friends that could decipher it) that I had to come on down for a refresher course in Japanese driving! (or else my license would be...suspended...canceled...who knows?)
I only got one ticket (going 8 miles over the speed limit...) and got pulled over one time during a safety awareness campaign for seat belts (but was not ticketed?)
After a few mishaps, phone calls and other miscommunications, I was lucky enough to have my friend Mami call and arrange a day that I was not working or anything and looked up how to get there and what I needed for the course. They told Mami I needed to bring a translator, so booked the premier bilingual of our prefecture, Mr. Caleb, a friend who works in the city office.
Off we went, 8 in the morning, bicycling in the rain, then hanging out on the train, then the bus stop, then a taxi (DMVs are never conveniently accessed, at least not for me) and at last we arrived.
The first translated sentence I heard was "There is a class today?"
-not inspiring-
Then everything got sorted. Waiting waiting waiting.
A man finally came out and took us and one other kid to a room. He introduced himself as Okie (aka Tom Cruise) and we were quickly won over by his friendly demeanor, love for 15 minute breaks and, of course, his multi-compartment fanny pack.
List of things that could have been in this fanny pack:
5 weeks food rations
a flint+kindling
folding chair
headlamp
water filtration system
easy-open tent
a gps system
a map of japan
Needless to say it was a loooong class. 9:30-5:30. Basically a work day. But it was fun! I got to drive a Toyota Prius for the first time (LOVE the push button start) and practiced some sweet manuevers on the driving course. They weren't exactly instructional, they were just to show us what COULD happen if we speed/drive recklessly. For one of the exercises I had to go full speed down a hosed down track of pavement and slam on my brakes. I had to do it a few times because it was "not fast enough" to truly demonstrate the damage and destruction I was capable of with my reckless 8 miles over the speed limit driving...
but it was fun, I spun out a few times and we were all entertained!
Before I knew it, the class was over and I was back to bicycling home in the rain. Oh the rain. It's cold, trucks splashed me as they passed, and I fell off my bicycle while trying to swing my leg over because my boot got caught and landed in a puddle in front of my house. But I didn't get hurt so it was kind of fun!
I hear a typhoon is coming, that might account for all the rain and other strange weather shifts of the past week.
Happy Almost Friday! Don't get a ticket in Japan, it's not the best!
I only got one ticket (going 8 miles over the speed limit...) and got pulled over one time during a safety awareness campaign for seat belts (but was not ticketed?)
After a few mishaps, phone calls and other miscommunications, I was lucky enough to have my friend Mami call and arrange a day that I was not working or anything and looked up how to get there and what I needed for the course. They told Mami I needed to bring a translator, so booked the premier bilingual of our prefecture, Mr. Caleb, a friend who works in the city office.
Off we went, 8 in the morning, bicycling in the rain, then hanging out on the train, then the bus stop, then a taxi (DMVs are never conveniently accessed, at least not for me) and at last we arrived.
The first translated sentence I heard was "There is a class today?"
-not inspiring-
Then everything got sorted. Waiting waiting waiting.
A man finally came out and took us and one other kid to a room. He introduced himself as Okie (aka Tom Cruise) and we were quickly won over by his friendly demeanor, love for 15 minute breaks and, of course, his multi-compartment fanny pack.
List of things that could have been in this fanny pack:
5 weeks food rations
a flint+kindling
folding chair
headlamp
water filtration system
easy-open tent
a gps system
a map of japan
Needless to say it was a loooong class. 9:30-5:30. Basically a work day. But it was fun! I got to drive a Toyota Prius for the first time (LOVE the push button start) and practiced some sweet manuevers on the driving course. They weren't exactly instructional, they were just to show us what COULD happen if we speed/drive recklessly. For one of the exercises I had to go full speed down a hosed down track of pavement and slam on my brakes. I had to do it a few times because it was "not fast enough" to truly demonstrate the damage and destruction I was capable of with my reckless 8 miles over the speed limit driving...
but it was fun, I spun out a few times and we were all entertained!
Before I knew it, the class was over and I was back to bicycling home in the rain. Oh the rain. It's cold, trucks splashed me as they passed, and I fell off my bicycle while trying to swing my leg over because my boot got caught and landed in a puddle in front of my house. But I didn't get hurt so it was kind of fun!
I hear a typhoon is coming, that might account for all the rain and other strange weather shifts of the past week.
Happy Almost Friday! Don't get a ticket in Japan, it's not the best!
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