PRELUDE
Wow a 3-day weekend! YES!!!
I sure as hell could use any extended day off. October is coming soon and that means sports
festival on Saturday. Mini Sports
Festival on another Saturday. Pumpkin Shopping
on another Saturday. That is 3 out of
the 4 Saturdays that I will be working in the kindergarten. I will happily take a 3-day weekend in
September!
Wait…….no…….don’t do this to me now……AHHH!!! Fuck!! It’s
raining!! RAINING!!! How am I suppose to
bike to my usual chill spots?!?!?!
RAINING FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS!!?? Are you kidding me IPhone Weather!!?!? WHY MUST YOU BE SO CRUEL UNIVERSE?!?!!!!!!
Another weekend spent alone in my apartment. Binge watching shows? Movies? I do that on every weekday after work. On weekends, I look forward to going out to
a café. Drinking free re-fill coffees
and just reading. Reading a book. Reading a comic book. Studying? Nah, fuck that. I’m a goddamn teacher. My head is filled with lesson plans and study
materials that I need to make.
Reading! It’s the one
that thing that makes me relax. Takes me
to another world and just let me fantasize about other people’s stories. Great or otherwise.
But can’t you do that at home? I guess.
But there are too many distractions at home. Cleaning, cooking, laundry, television, internet and the
occasional nap just tempts me. Just
five minutes…..and then four hours later I wake up at the thought that I have
to go to the convenience store to buy dinner because it would suck to cook
something up at 10 PM and forget to put the leftovers in the Refrigerator
before I go to bed.
All of this whining and procrastinating can all be solved if
I finally have the money and balls to go to the one thing I REALLY should have
done when I got here. Get a Drivers
License, Get a car and drive safely to all my favorite chill spots without having to worry about the damn rain or snow.
Chapter 1
Sumimasen! Gaikokujin Taijoubu-desu ka?
My Japanese level ability is pretty basic. I can order food. I can ask for directions and can probably
find my way after making a couple hundred mistakes. I can gesture Japanese really well. I can’t read Kanji. I can read some Hiragana and Katakana. Finding a driving school should be easy
right? Nope.
I live in a town that has the driving center relatively close
to me. About a 30-45 minute bike ride
depending on your motivation and bike conditioning. That being said my city has A LOT of Driving Schools, Car Shops, and Car Repair
shops. Some have both to entice
customers for package deals.
I contacted every single one.
I all got the same response.
Uhhh..NO Thank You. Now I have
been working in this city now for Five Years!
I can honestly say I am pretty famous.
The average English Teacher leaves this town within a year. This is a city that relies on Public Buses
for transportation. No trains. The buses can get expensive. 700 yen just to go to the next city that has
the Trains. And then you still have to
pony up for Train fare, which we all knows isn’t exactly cheap! I have been here for Five Years and have
been a total model citizen! And you dare
say NO to me?!?!
‘’Sorry Jack Sensei, our teachers do not speak English. Our Koucho Sensei believes that if we teach
you and you don’t understand; you might cause an accident while driving and
that makes us look bad. We just don’t
accept foreigners who can’t speak and read Japanese really well.’’
Ouch! That sucks. No discrimination. It was all my fault. All those times I procrastinated about
studying Japanese. And here I was not
able to apply to a driving school because the teachers and staff were afraid
of graduating a student who could pose a
great risk on the road. I understood
their reasoning. It just sucks that
every single one of the 7 driving schools all said the same thing. In a way, I respect their decision not to
accept me. It shows their commitment to
put out safe and responsible drivers on the road. When you are driving, you’re not just
responsible for your own self-but for others as well who might be affected by
your terrible driving and your ability to understand the proper rules and
etiquette while driving.
It still sucked though.
Chapter 2
Are you Chinese? Can you speak Chinese?
It was 9:30 on a Saturday morning. I gave up on trying to find a driving school
in my town. I half-heartedly expanded
my search to other town and cities hoping that someone would accept me in their
driving school. I even put in a white
lie that I can speak good Japanese in hopes that I would get a phone cal. That Saturday, that white lie was put to the
test.
A woman was on the other line. She was trying really hard to speak English.
Driving School: Hello my name is Chikako. I am from Driving School. Is this Jack Sensei?
Me:
Hai, Jack Sensei desu.
Hajimashite.
DS:
Ah yes, thank you. Are you
Chinese? Can you speak Chinese?
Me:
No, I am from America.
DS: Ah, I see. In our driving school we have Chinese
instructor that teach foreigners.
Me:
Does he/she speak English?
DS: A little bit.
Me:
I can speak some Japanese.
DS:
Can you come to our school so we can speak in person?
Me:
Yeah!! I can come in today!
DS: Oh, really? Ok, please bring your passport and Zairyu
card.
Me: Ok! Ok! NO problem at all.
DS: Ok please go to front desk and
ask for Chikako.
At this point, I am ecstatic!
I got a call back AND I got a meeting?
Fuck YES!
Now the NY-er in me of course is still pessimistic. I can go there and possibly fuck up the
interview or even worse they charge a premium price for me to go there. Only one way to find out! But first let me
take a shower.
Chapter 3
Why do you want to drive?
I get to the driving school and it seemed like the entire
front staff was attending to me in every way.
They gave me a snack and tea.
They kept greeting me while I was sitting down. I felt like a local celebrity. Then came the woman who was going to decide
my driving fate. She asked me why I
wanted to drive. I calmly explained in
Japanese that I have been living in Japan for the past 5 years. My only mode for transportation has always
been a bicycle. I did not like taking
the bus because it took too long and I do not like conforming my schedule to a
bus schedule. She said, she understood
and then proceeded to tell me that driving in Japan is not easy. It is not like driving in America. She said that the learning curve is much more
difficult for foreigners. The driving
test is hard and I must pass both the Drivers Permit and License test with an
average of 95 percent and higher. Our
school has one Chinese Instructor but if you enroll in this school, you will be
taught in Japanese. You can buy the
English version of the textbook we will be using on Amazon. (Master of Your Driving, English
Version). If any of the teachers feel
that you do not understand, they will recommend you take the lesson again and
you will have to pay extra to take the lesson again. If you agree with these conditions, we will
ask you to fill out the paperwork today and the next time you have to pay
130,000 yen for the Drivers Permit course.
If you pass, you have to pay another 140,000 yen for the License course. After that you will have to go to the Driving
Center and present your graduation papers and you will take the paper test at
the Driving Center. If you pass, you can
receive your license the same day. If
you fail, you will have to go back to take the test again on another day. ( I should note that this whole process could
have probably been done after 10-15 minutes.
This lady was really very accommodating with her Japanese and doing a
lot of gestures and was speaking slowly at my request) This whole thing took about 40 minutes. At the end of her dissuading speech to have
me apply to their school, I simply said YES, I’ll do it! It was really that simple. I was determined to drive and I was prepared
for all the challenges ahead.
Chapter 4
Back to School
I should mention that the driving school that took me in was
from the next city. A full hour’s bike
ride from where I live. I was going to
take their summer course. But summer
also means monsoon season in Yamanashi.
Rain, Rain, Rain quite possibly the main reason I was learning how to
drive in the first place. So that I
can’t be stuck at home when it was raining or snowing.
I came back the next
day and was prepared to pay the 130,000 yen.
Envelope in hand and filling out the application in English
(romanji) thank goodness. They made photocopies of my Zairyu Card
(green card in the US) my certificate of registration in my city ( can get a
copy from city hall) and I hanko’d all
the paperwork they were asking me to hanko.
After payment, I was immediately scheduled to meet the Kocho
sensei. (The Principal of the
School) He said (In Japanese of
course) Welcome to the School; we expect the best from you. Do your best!!!) In typical High school student, I loudly
replied HAI!! GAMBARIMASU!
Then came the school orientation. Just like every other school orientation
there ever was, I was given a tour of the school along with other
students. They showed us the driving
course, the classrooms where we will be studying our textbook, the rest area,
the waiting area and how to operate their ticket system that assigns the
driving instructor that will teach you during your schedule. Normally, I would be bored as fuck at
Orientations like this. Seemed like the
other students were as well. Me? Nope! I was taking it all in. I was happy, excited beyond reason. I was back in school! And this time as an
actual student!
One of the front staff managers told me to go upstairs where
I will be given an aptitude test. A
test to determine what kind of driver I was going to be; I was surprised so say
the least. A test on my first
day!?!? I didn’t even get to study! The manager assured me that there was no
failing in this test. Nevertheless, I
was still nervous.
The aptitude test seemed simple enough. For each section, the manager was timing me,
when he said stop I had to move to the next section and he explained how to
complete each section. I never once
finished any of the sections. I felt
like I failed every time he said stop. The questions were very simple. Logic and reasoning type questions. I felt like I was taking a very easy buzzfeed
quiz except the results were going to determine what kind of driver I would
be. I finished the entire exam without
having completed any of the sections. To
be fair one section had 50 questions and I had 2 minutes it seemed to answer as
many as I could. When it was all over,
he shook my hand and said thank you. I
should wait for my next lesson in the waiting room. I remember him telling me, there was no pass
or fail on this exam. Still, didn’t feel
good when you feel like you didn’t complete the test. I went downstairs and waited for the next
test. Luckily it was going to be a good
one.
Chapter 5
‘’D’’ is for Drive
My next lesson was the driving simulation. The
first time I saw it, I was grinning from ear to ear. It looked like those car arcade games you see
in the movie theatres and arcades from a long time ago. Sadly, it wasn’t as fun as I thought it
would be.
The teacher walked us through every single item on the
simulator. The steering wheel, brakes,
turn signals, wipers, lights and the car shifter; it seemed like forever and I
was starting to get impatient. I think
my instructor noticed this as he looked at me during his speech and pointed at
me and said ‘’D’’ is for Drive, OK?’’ I
smiled and said ‘’Hai, wakarimashta’’
The simulator was not fun at all. The thing looked state of the art but it ran
the worst car simulation I have ever seen.
The simulation looked like it was from the 70’s with it being very
pixelated.
But it did its job as it was very responsive to the
controls. The steering, brakes, turn
signals and pedals worked exactly like
they would in the cars. I made the
mistake of thinking that this was an arcade and stepped on the pedal hard when
we were only suppose to go 25 mph. The
simulation noticed how much power I was putting on the pedal and it made
revving sounds so loud the instructor rose from his seat and walked over to me
and explain how to ease in on the pedal.
I quickly learned how dangerous It would have been if this
was a real car and I ended up going way too fast and panicking my way to making
the car stop. Luckily, I was in the
simulator and everything went fine.
Chapter 6
Here we go!
The simulation was over and we were not headed to the course
outside. It was time to drive a real
car. We were assigned individual
instructors and they checked if we
learned all the prerequisite safety checks when getting in the car and all the
instructions before starting a vehicle.
Step 1:
Check underneath the car.
Step 2:
Look both ways before opening your
car door.
Step 3:
In car check.
Seat Check, Seat Belt, Mirror
check. Foot on the brake.
Step 4:
Start Engine, Look at all your mirror for blind spots
I remember getting inside a vehicle and thinking out loud
‘’Here, we go’’ in my Mario voice when I turned the ignition. The introductory course was very simple. It was going around the course. It was that simple. We were going in circles around the course
for 50 minutes. As simple as it was, it
was one of the most fun I have had in a long time. I was operating a vehicle and it seemed so
easy.
I remember when the day ended, I felt like the King of the
World. It was the best bike ride
home. I was smiling the entire way
back. And that isn’t an easy task
considering I was biking back home in an uphill slope. I thought to myself, this wasn't so
hard. Oh boy, was I wrong.
Chapter 7
The classroom napper.
Since I was taking the summer break program. My schedule was pretty tight. One day I was taking all evening classes and
then the following day I was taking morning classes that start at 7. It was all-stressful in my mind but once I
got used to the weird schedule, it was all a breeze. Every day I was taking some classes in a classroom
taught by an instructor in Japanese about driving safely and when to look for
dangers and such. It really did feel
like I was back in a classroom because I was falling asleep and so were the
other students at some of the lessons. I
was following the lessons because the instructor would tell us which part of
the book to highlight during the lesson.
Luckily the English textbook that I had was an exact carbon copy of the
Japanese one so I was able to highlight and follow and study all the important
things that the instructor was giving us.
The classroom lessons were interesting enough. They showed videos that really emphasize the
importance of all the things they were telling us to study on the
textbook. Who could have thought that
making a left turn could involve so many safety checks, bicycle and scooter
blind spots, pedestrian crossings and more.
Something you would have noted as something not as important seemed very
important now, now that you have seen the video of a scooter hitting your car.
However, that did not stop the occasional nap monster finding
you and hunting you down. And when that
son of a bitch gets you, well……there is just no stopping the nap. I really don’t know what is it about
classrooms that make people so sleepy.
All I know was that I was a victim of
the dreaded nap monster.
Luckily, I was not caught. Or if
I was, I was not scolded or told about
it.
Chapter 8
Shake it off!
When you are in the driver seat. I personally don’t feel anything. But there was this one instructor named
Kyoshima who always made it his goal to let me know that I was driving so erratic
that I was shaking the car left and right.
Now normally, I would take this criticism to heart but whenever, I was
not with Kyoshima all the teachers were telling me how good and ok I was. I certainly was not perfect but I seemed to be doing good enough that a lot
of the teachers that were not Kyoshima was really happy with my driving. I remember one day, Kyoshima told me to get
out of the car and motioned on the steering wheel how I was moving the
car. He was making white left and right
motions on the steering wheel. He then started the engine and explained to me
how he felt while I was driving. He
literally drove like a fucking madman explaining how I was shaking the car from
left to right. He just kept saying
SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE. I knew it was a
big over reaction. I was hitting the
passenger door while he was driving and he was making me hit it
intentionally!! When the lesson was
over, I calmly said thank you for the advice and kindly asked the front desk to
never schedule me with that crazy motherfucker again. He was trying to explain that I was never
going to pass the driving exam for my permit the way I drove, and I said ‘’Ok, we’ll see about that’’ which only
seemed to piss him off. It wasn’t until
another instructor told him off that he shouldn’t make a scene and he calmed
down and backed off. Luckily that was
the last time I saw that motherfucker.
No more lessons with Kyoshima. I
was given advice on how to better improve my driving to make sure that I am positioning the car properly. That was my problem. It wasn’t that I was moving the car from
left to right. It was that there was
times where I was leaning left a lot of the time from opposing traffic. And while that was safe from driver
collision, that was not safe from, bicycles, pedestrians and the car itself
when making left turns.
I learned how to position the car by using the side
mirrors and that was the end of the
Shake Shake Fiasco.
Chapter 9
Drivers Permit
The Drivers Permit exam was given in the driving school. There are two parts. One part is a written exam consisting of 50
questions worth 2 points each that total 100 points. You have to get 45 questions right in order
to pass which totals to 90 points.
There is no half-point consideration (1 point). The quiz was a True and False Exam so you
had a 50/50 chance of picking the right answer.
The Driving exam was consisted of an A, B, C, course, 3
courses that you studied and drove during the course of your time in the
school. The entire driving exam was in
fact only about 10 minutes. So in a
driving class of 50 minutes you had about 5 times to practice the same course
over and over again. By the time it was
test day, you should have memorized all 3 courses and passed it easily.
You are given a sheet
of paper, which consisted of 3 columns.
One column has the 20-point mistake column and below it are the list of
mistakes that you could possibly make and
the instructor will deduct 20 points from your sheet. The next column was for 10 and the last one
being 5 points.
You are given 100
points for the driving exam. You need 70
points to pass. At any time during the exam if you are less
than 70 points, the instructor will stop and tell you to get out of the car,
which means you failed the exam.
The day of the exam came and for crying and spazz out
purposes for when students cry and spazz out loud. The test is given early in the morning
before the other students get there.
Your typical schedule starts at 8 AM for driving and classroom
lessons. We were told to get to the
school at 7 AM and we were going to be told which course we will be
driving. We had 30 minutes to prepare
and check over our assigned course. At
7:30 AM we will take the test and at 8 AM we will learn our fate.
You are assigned a group for your driving test. Somebody to sit in the back seat to make sure
that the instructor does not discriminate towards anybody during the test. You take turns switching during the
test. So once you finish your
course. You switch with another driver. Like I said, the course is 10 minutes and
you have to finish it at that time. It’s
not a big or long course. The drivers
permit test you on making turns, driving in curves, and learning how to use the
hand brake properly. So by the time all
3 individuals in your group (including yourself) finishes the test. It is 8 AM.
You are then taken to a small corner and the instructor tells you where
you made mistakes and some things to look out for. He will then later tell you if you passed or
failed the exam.
If you pass the exam, you are then told to quickly go
upstairs to take the written exam. If
you fail the instructor will guide you to the front and help you schedule your
next drivers permit exam.
I drove the A course.
I was the first driver and I was anxious after my exam. I had to wait until two other people to
complete their exam. But when it was
time to learn our fate. I was hoping to
extend time a little bit more. I think
I passed, but did I also park too from the designated parking stop?
The instructor took us in a corner and went through our
driving mistakes and his concerns one by one.
All with the group together, so everyone in your group knew your
mistakes. It wasn’t until he got to the
last student that he told us all that we passed. He told us where to go to take our written
test and we were all told Good Luck on the written test.
You are given 30 minutes to complete the written test. I finished in 10 minutes. I am not bragging that I finished early but
you only had two choices A or B. I
went over the test another time until I was satisfied with my answers. When the test was over. We had to wait until 12 to learn about our
results. The test was officially
finished by 10 AM. We had to wait 2
hours to learn the results of our Drivers Permit exam and see if we can get our
permit to drive on the road.
Chapter 10
CARD ME!!
So during the two hours, me and the other students
frantically checked our books and made sure we made the right choice during our
tests. I was nervous. This test had many misdirects in its
questions. It was probably one of the
longest 2 hours of my life. I was later
told it took 2 hours because the school had to make and prepare the permit for
all the people that passed. So it wasn’t
as easy as ‘’Congratulations, you passed’’
The students taking their lessons finish their driving and
classroom lessons at 11:30 and then have their lunch break. Classes resume at 1 PM.
Some of the students took the time to leave the school so
that gave the students who took the written exam some breathing room when it
came towards learning the result of the exam.
You are assigned a number located on your desk. You have to remember this number because this
is how you learn if you failed or passed the written exam. Your number will be showed on a screen along
with the other to indicate that you passed the written exam. You can only know your results. So you cant go over your mistakes. Even if you pass, you can’t check if you made
mistakes or not.
There was a chime at 12 PM and the students huddled around
the TV to learn their fate. I sat
down. I waited until all the cheering
and cursing faded. Plus I was really
super fucking nervous. By the time I
worked up the courage to look up. There
was already a line forming for the people who passed and failed. One line was there to hanko their
confirmation that they passed the test and need to bring the 140,000 yen
enrollment fee for the License course.
The other line was to re-schedule the written exam. I looked for my number 74. The numbers on the screen were
scattered. They weren’t in order. So I was nervous when I didn’t see the number
on the far left side. I thought for
sure it was organized numerically. My
stomach began to drop when I didn't see it.
I go on to look at the entire screen and I noticed it. I saw my number on the screen. It was on the middle of the screen. Sandwiched in between 248 and 383. I passed the written exam! I was last in line to get my Drivers
Permit. A little white card that had my
name and hanko on it that officially allows me to drive on the open road. FUCK YEAH!
Chapter 11
Happily Broke
In a span of 10 business days I spent a total of 270,000 yen. And the financial part of me was dying. I wasn’t broke broke like I was eating cup
noodles. But that was a big chunk of my
savings.
Monday came and I was sitting down filling out the paperwork
and hanko-ing all the papers to confirm my enrollment at the License
course. It was the same thing but more
extensive lessons and more careful driving.
The classroom lessons were about car details. Where is the engine, gas, and other
parts. What to do when you get a flat
tire, and what to do when you get into an accident. There was a 4-hour lesson for when you have
to role-play an accident situation and go through the process of it all. It was a
long but very informative 4 hours.
However, I was happy!
The driving is now officially on the road. The instructors showing you the new A, B, C,
course that you will be tested on. This
test was long. 20 minutes. There were
lessons about the course but also additional courses that showed you how to
parallel park and how to drive on the expressway. It was extensive and you needed to pay
attention to everything the instructor was saying. Luckily, I had great teachers at the
school. (Except for that asshole Kyoshima) They were patient in showing me what to do
in all the situations I found myself in and made sure that me and the
passengers in the vehicle were always safe from danger. Everyday I was going to school, I was
happy. I was happy because I was that
much closer to my goal in getting a Japanese drivers license. I was broke, but I was happy.
Chapter 12
I FAILED
The license exam also consisted of two parts. The driving part was the school’s responsibility. So if they deemed me worthy to get a
license, I will be handed a certificate saying so. However, the second part was all done by the
Driving Center of my Prefecture. It was
done so to make sure that once a person passes the driving and written exam,
they can get their license on the same day.
So the school prepares you to pass the written exam in a
number of ways. You have classroom
lessons that highlight mistakes students often make during the exam. You are also given access to practice exams
that you can take using your cell phone or PC over Wi-Fi. And lastly, you are given mock exams to test
if you are able to pass the test within the given time limit. (One Hour)
I was pretty confident I could pass. The test was 95 questions of True and False
and 5 Scenario questions where you had to guess what to do during the scenario.
Seemed simple enough.
I read through the book again from start to finish. I was going kinda fast. Maybe because I felt like I have read
through this book over 20 times by now.
I took the practice test using the website. Out of the hour long allotted time, I finished the test in 24
minutes. Not bad right? Well…….I FAILED. You need a score of 95 to pass the
test. I got a whopping 79. Maybe I should have studied more.
Well you see, those 5 scenario questions that you are given
on the exam. You have to get all 5 of
them correct. No partial points are
given. And since I was using the school
resource to take the practice exam, it showed me all the mistakes I made. And boy was that an eye opener. I was misreading all the questions. I made mistakes on almost all the scenario
questions.
To make it worse the practice exam notes my score and I
needed an average of 90 percent per the school rules in order for me to get the
certificate to show the Driving center.
The rule was that if I do not have an average of 90% or higher on the
practice exam app. They reserve the
right for them not to get the certificate of driving until the average was 90%
or higher. And my current average on my
first exam was a crazy 79. You are given
6 practice exams on the application, all with different questions than the
previous tests. In my panic mode of
trying to bump my average higher, I quickly took the other tests within the
same day and failed them ALL. By the
time I finished with all the exams my average only went up by 1 point.
I spent the next two weeks memorizing all 6 tests and all the
mistakes I made. I slowly but surely
raised the average and even though it came to the point where I was passing the
exam with 90’s or higher. I was still
pissed because raising my average of 79 to 90 was probably the most stressful
thing I have ever done. I would pass
the practice exam with a 95 but still be angry that my average did not go
up. It was the worst feeling ever and
it just totally killed my high on driving.
When I wasn’t driving on the road, I was studying on the practice
exam. Failing sucks and my primary motivation was I do not want to go
to the driving center and fail the written test while others passed.
Chapter 13
WHAT ARE YOUUUU DOING HERE!!??!?!
I thought I was safe.
I mean I was on another city. But
it still was not far enough that I thought I would not bump in to anybody I
know from my own city. I should note
that my house and the driving school was only a mere 39 km away. It was far but on a car I am sure that it
was only like a 30-minute drive and a 55-minute bike ride.
The majority of the school consisted of college students and
High School-errs taking their scooter license.
I should have known that since I was a Junior High English Teacher when
I first arrived here 5 years ago that I would bump into my students who are now
college kids. But with all 7 schools
not enough for them to apply for in my town?
They had to go to the school the next town over?!?!?
Yes, it’s true. One
former student of mine showed up. There
was a big JAKKU! And by the time I noticed what was going on…….Daiki was
walking up to me asking me what was I doing here?!?!?! We laughed and talk about how cool it was
that we were both learning how to drive.
Well he laughed, I mostly embarrassedly smiled through the entire
process.
Truth be told, I actually loved the fact that my former
student saw me. It put all those hot
college girls that were in the school in perspective for me. Oh right, you’re still in college……and I’m a
very old man now.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKK!!!
There go all those romance fantasies eh? Hahaha.
Chapter 14
The Fast & The Furious
It was going to happen eventually. I didn’t even know it was in the
schedule. Well technically, I didn’t
know because I couldn’t read the Kanji.
I just assumed it was more driving on the Road for Course A, B , C. Nope.
Today was the day we are going to drive on the expressway. You know the expressway that has a minimum
speed limit of 70-80 but you can go as fast as 100 mph, but go no slower than
70.
My body started to sweat profusely. I was with another student. We decided to janken who was going to go
first. I chose paper. Paper always loses right? Well in this instance, it did. I lost.
I was never so happy to lose.
The other student was a college student. Short fluffy hair and looks and smells like a
college student. He started driving and
by the time he got us to the expressway.
It seemed like all he remembered was go 100 mph. Good thing I remembered to fasten my
seatbelt in the backseat. We were going
FAST. I wasn’t sure if he was showing
off or not but the instructor said nothing until he went 120 mph to change
lanes. After changing lanes he switched
lanes back to the slow lane but was still going 100 mph. He was relentless. The instructor was clearly impressed. He only made one mistake and that was going
way too fast during a lane change.
Otherwise, he seemed flawless.
Then came my turn, he got out of one of the exits and looped us around a small roadway. The instructor told him where to stop and that is where we switched. He bowed politely as we passed each other. I got inside the car and the instructor was
giving me instructions on where to go and how fast I should be going. However, my mind and body was somebody
else. All I could think about was all
those highway scenes in all those action movies. Cars flipping, Cars, exploding, Cars
colliding with one another, and cars falling off the bridge, I was getting
nervous. My hands were sweating and I
think I even started shaking a bit. All
I could feel was the cars vibration during the other students driving. Can I go as fast and not panic? I just don’t like going fast and not having
complete control of the situation.
I started the car and off we went. And from the beginning it was a disaster, the
instructor kept telling me to go faster.
I was going 60 mph and to me that was too fast. The instructor kept telling me to put my
foot to the pedal stronger. And every
time I tried to do it, I could hear the car rev and I would quickly step on the
brake to slow it down. The instructor
was asking what I was doing. ‘’You are
inconveniencing the other drivers on the road by driving this slow’’. She was right. I was pretty sure just about every car that
was behind me was overtaking me and I was being a danger to the road by going
this slow. My body just wouldn’t
listen. I was still driving around 60-65
mph. The instructor was now yelling at
this point. MOTO! MOTO!! MOTO HAYAKU the
instructor would yell.
Usually if you make a
big mistake, the instructor would put on the brakes herself on the passenger
side and tell us to get out so we can switch.
She could not do it in this situation.
We were in the expressway and there was no way she could risk stopping
in the middle of the highway just to switch drivers.
Before I knew it, I was getting annoyed with all the yelling
that my body just acted on its own. It
started going 70 mph, 80 mph, 90 mph. I
didn’t hit 100. I didn’t even know I was
going that fast. I was too busy keeping
my eye on the road. By the time I
realized the bad yelling turned into good yelling, I finally noticed that I was
driving at 90 mph on the expressway.
HALLELUAH! A furious yelling instructor saved me.
The expressway lesson was finished and the other student was
dismissed easily. The instructor told
me that the expressway lesson should have been a 50-minute lesson and that we
were both allotted 20 minutes each. I
took 30 minutes. She told me that I
would need another lesson and that I should sign up for another expressway
lesson. I did and the following day I
did the expressway lesson with another student.
Everything went well. I drove on
an average of 85 mph it seems. The
instructor wondered why I was so nervous from the previous lesson and what was
the difference now. And to be honest, I
couldn’t really tell you. I just
remembered there seemed less pressure this time. Maybe I was overthinking it the first time around. Maybe I should stop trying to control
everything and relax. Let nature takes
its course.
Chapter 15
Parallel Parking
A New Yorker Driver has this great ability to Parallel Park
in an incredible short amount of space.
Growing up, it was one of my father’s greatest time consumer. I remember he would just drop us off in front
of our house and it would seem like he would be driving around in circles trying to look for parking. Then there was the challenge of trying to
fit such a vehicle in such a small place.
It seemed crazy to do and even crazier to think about. There was no doubt in my mind that this was
going to be difficult.
The instructor explained how to parallel park. The problem was that they were teaching me
how to parallel park using poles and cones.
And to be honest it was the easiest thing in the world. The only big criticism I received was that
I was going way too fast when reversing.
I should be careful and anticipate some dangers. Dangers like idiot pedestrians trying to use
the open space to cross the streets and other stupid stuff like that. I got it and it was not as hard as I thought
it would be. I can parallel park. (Or Can I?
Can I really? Keep reading)
Chapter 16
ROAD TEST
Today was the day. It
was Road test day. The rules were
explained to me in the previous lesson.
I would come in at 7 AM again. Same time as the Permit test and I would
be randomly given a Road Course to take A, B , C. For some strange reason I wasn’t
nervous. The Road test didn’t have any
challenging parts. It was literally
driving on the road making lane changes and executing turns properly. They were looking to see if I was doing my
safety checks while turning and if I was following procedure when I was making
a U-Turn. Once you completed the
looped course around the city you are to
drive back to the practice course and perform two different type of parallel
parking. One for the left and the other
for the right side and you get two chances to do it, if you fail the first
time.
I ended up getting Course A which I loved because it was the
easiest to remember. I was worried that
I forgot which part of the road I was suppose to park and put on the hazard
lights so I asked a few of the teachers about it before hand. They told me where and I felt slightly
relieved.
We were given another point sheet for the Road test but all
the mistaken points where different.
Thankfully, I could not read any of it, which made things easier as I
did not have to think about doing the test perfectly.
The test began and everything seemed to be going well
until I made a giant mistake. I was starting to enter a lane to make a
right turn and instead of hitting the brake to slow down, I ended up hitting
the gas pedal to accelerate. I hit the
brake suddenly and the car stopped in the middle of the road. I quickly recovered and drove again to enter
the right lane. The instructor didn’t
even give me a chance to recover. He
opened his book and deducted points off my exam. Fuck.
I couldn’t wallow over that mistake.
I just kept going. Then another
mistake, it seems; another right turn in
a traffic light and I was personally waiting for the lights to change to enter
the lane. Except there was light
traffic ahead and by the time there was an opening, I didn’t bother to take
it. Minus points. To be fair, I didn’t mind that much. The downside of that scenario was that if I
went too fast I might have caused an accident entering the lane. If I went too slowly the vehicle ahead would
have had to brake suddenly and that was going to be even more problematic. I would take those minus points anytime. I finished the loops course and in the back
of my mind, I was thinking about those two times the instructor opened his book
to write something down. We drove back
to the course and I was told where to go to take the Parallel Parking portion
of the exam. I was done in literally 5
minutes. The instructor congratulated
all the students in the vehicle and told us to wait inside the school to
announce the results of the test.
Chapter 17
SWWWEEEEEETTT!!
The wait was not that long.
The students who took the exam did not look worried. They were all playing with their phones. There was no second part of the exam. The written portion of the license exam would
be given by the Driving Center of my Prefecture. 9 AM came and we were all gathered together
by the instructor who graded our Road Test.
The instructor called every individual and highlighted all the times we
made a mistake and told us how to improve on those mistakes. The instructor told me that swinging my foot
around is not the best way to brake. I
should lift my leg to switch to the brake.
He didn’t mention the right turn lane mistake. Maybe he didn’t think it was a big deal. By the time he finished telling us all our
mistake he took a deep breath and happily said you all passed.
Congratulations, please go to the
classroom ahead where there will be a speech given by the Kocho Sensei and he will
walk you through the next process.
There was no big WHOOPEEE!!! YAY!! We all went inside where we all just smiled
at each other. Meanwhile, I was singing
a little song, doing a little dance and I was yelling SWEEEEEEET! In my head,
it was great. I gave myself an award or
two.
We noticed there was
one person missing in the group. One
person failed. The student left
immediately it seems. Maybe they were
just too embarrassed to let anyone find out.
A friend of hers was calling and texting her but with no success.
The Kocho Sensei came in soon after and told us what to do
next. Basically we had to Hanko a sheet
saying we understand the rules and regulations f safe driving and promise to do
it at the best of our ability. At least
that is what I was told by Chikako. We
were given a certificate, a first year driver sticker to put in our car and a
paper that has the list of the all the prefectures driving center phone
numbers. Since there were a lot of
college students attending the driving school, they had to contact their prefectures
driving center to schedule an appointment to take the exam. If you were taking the written exam here
in Yamanashi, then all you had to do was show up the day of the exam and take
the paperwork that was given to you by the driving school and hand it in to the
test proctors.
By the time it was finished we were all escorted out of the
school building. Just like that at 9:30
AM the whole thing was finished. I was
one step closer to receiving my Drivers License.
Chapter 18
The Long Night
The Road test was on Saturday and the Written test was on
Monday. I had one day to keep doing the
practice exam using the app the school provided. At this point I had my average bumped into
91%. It still was not fun taking this
practice exam. I would keep passing and
passing all the practice exam. There
were only 6 exams and I must have taken it 10 or more times each just to
increase my average to a 90% passing rate.
However, I was still making just about the same mistakes over and
over. I would always get 96 or 98 points consecutively and sometimes a
100 points at some points. But they
still didn’t make me happy. I had to get
a 95 in this test and a 96 was barely passing.
I just couldn’t risk taking the exam and have to wait to another time to
take it again. All I did on Sunday was
read the book again, take the practice test, read the book again and this loop
continued. Non-stop I was going and I
was still not happy with the results of my test. By the time the day was over I was able to
bump my average up to 92 %.
It was midnight and the instructions to my exam were to be at
the driving center at 8 AM. 8:30 AM the
test proctors would start accepting applications for the written exam. I set my alarm up for 6 AM. I was anticipating every worst-case
scenario. If I couldn’t bike there, I
had to take the 7:17 bus and had to walk an additional 20 minutes to get to the
driving center. If I missed the bus then
I would have to walk 10 minutes to the convenience store to call for a taxi and
wait for the taxi to take me to the driving center. I was preparing for the worst.
My mind was running amok and I couldn't sleep. 1 AM came and I was still awake. I was pretty much counting down to 6 AM so
that I can take a shower and take all the materials I had prepared the night
before to take to the driving center. 2
AM still awake. I was getting worried
now. What if I start to get sleepy
during the test. 3 AM still awake. By this time I was starting to get
anxious. If I don’t sleep soon, I might
oversleep and miss the exam altogether.
Somehow, someway I ended up falling asleep. The alarm on my phone went off and I couldn't
get to the shower fast enough. A quick
shower and a change later, I was on the road on my bike and it seemed like I
could not bike fast enough. I was going
fast. Dangerously fast. I left my house at 6:40 AM after doing a bike
check. I got to the driving center at
7:10 AM. Nobody was there yet.
I went inside and it seemed like a ghost town. Only the cleaning lady was there vacuuming
and tidying up the place. I went inside
the common room / cafeteria and I decided to do another practice test. All the lights turned on at 8 AM and by the
time I got up to the test center, it was packed. There were two groups taking an exam at the
center. Drivers Permit and Drivers
License. I had maybe 7 or 9 people ahead
of me on the line. We all handed in our
application, paid the stamps we needed to pay, did the eye exam for the test
and we were all told to go inside a classroom where we would take our License
Written Exam.
Chapter 19
Oh No, Not Again!!
By the time all the applicants finished their pre-requisite
checks for the written exam it was 9:15 AM.
The test proctor came and welcomed us all to the exam. We were given our answer sheet and we filled
it our accordingly to the proctors instructions. The test started at 9:30 AM and for the
Drivers Permit applicants they finished their exam at 10 AM. If you chose to not go to a driving school,
you have the option of hiring a private instructor that is listed by the
driving center. They will help you
schedule your road and written exam that is given by the driving center.
The License exam was an hour long and we were scheduled to
finish by 10:30 AM and the results would come in at 11 AM on a TV screen. Just like the Driving School results
system. You were assigned a number that
was located on your answer sheet. You
have to remember this number to find out if you passed or failed the written
exam. If your number is shown on the
screen then you passed, and if it doesn’t you have to schedule another exam.
I asked that my test was given to me in English. Luckily, my prefecture had this option
available to foreigners. My test was
laminated and was given to me . There were a few test proctors monitoring the
exam to make sure there was no cheating.
A lot of the test proctors came to check on me to make sure I had filled
out the answer sheet properly and that I could understand the exam sheet
properly.
I have NO Idea who translated this exam sheet but it had to
be the worst translated exam sheet I have ever seen. This was not like the app I was using to take
the practice exams. This English was so
bad that they had words that were misspelled and words that made no sense at
all. I wanted to say something but I
could not risk being given another sheet and having to start from scratch. Luckily, I could understand what each
question implied so I tried to answer the best way I could.
I finished in 35 minutes and that gave me about a good 15
minutes to go over the test once more. I
found some trick questions and changed one or two answers. One was for the better but the other was
changed mistakenly. I wallowed over that
one mistake for a while.
10:30 AM came and our entire test was collected. They told us how the results were going to
come in again and we just waited patiently at the waiting room, starting at the
TV. My number was 328. And I was preparing for the worst. I was thinking about my exit strategy out of
the driving center if I failed. I was
already planning on doing another study cram session at my local library and
home.
11 AM came and the entire screen lit up. People were cheering and screaming. Some were good and some were bad. People were taking selfies in front of the TV. They passed.
I was too nervous to look. And
again I let people do their cheering and crying before I checked.
I checked the TV screen and did not see the number 328 no
matter how hard I looked. Left, Right,
Up, Down. It just wasn’t there. My heart sank to the ground. I started to line up to the failed line.
The last person taking a selfie in front of the TV left and
that is when I noticed something.
Wait……that looks like my
number. 3…….2…….8……THAT IS MY
NUMBER!!!! Son of a Bitch it was in the bottom of the screen and it was being
blocked by all those selfie taking motherfuckers! I was ecstatic. I quickly stepped to the right and I was
thumping my chest silently yelling FUCK YEAH!! QUEENS NY BABY!! REPRESENT!!!!!
I lined up to the passing line where I was told to go back to
the classroom and await instructions towards receiving my license.
Chapter 20
The Longest Day Ever
The test proctor told us that they are preparing their
documents for our license. We were given
a card that had all of our information in it.
We had to confirm that our information was correct. Name, Birth Date and Address all had to be
checked. After which it was 11:30 and
the test proctor said it was lunch break time.
Come back at 1 PM and we are going to have one more meeting.
I biked to a nearby 7-11 and purchased a rice ball and
drink. I was grinning from ear to
ear. Come 1 PM I would get my license
and I can finally drive on the road by myself.
I went back to the driving center, ate my rice ball and killed time by
watching You Tube videos.
1 PM came and it was not what I was expecting. The proctor gave us another speech about
Road Safety. He informed the group that
there would be a lesson at 2 PM about joining a Road Safety Group. The membership is free and I would be given a
card telling me I was a certified member.
Most of the group declined the class but some actually signed up. The class was 40 minutes long.
2:40 PM came and went and we were told to go back to the
classroom at 3 PM. By this time I was
starting to become impatient. I did not
sleep all that much the day before. The
lack of sleep was starting to get to me.
I was getting cranky. I had been
at the driving center a full 8 hours by now and
all I have ever really done was take a one-hour exam and wait the rest
of the time.
3:10 PM and a different proctor is here to tell us that we
are now going to take your picture for your drivers license. I was excited. This was a big step. We were all lined up for the picture and was
now one step closer to our license.
The entire group finished at 4 something PM. The cards were now being printed and will be
given to us row by row.
But first, another safety video, this video only had one
goal. WASTE MY TIME. The video showed up pictures and clips of
people getting into all kinds of accidents.
This is to emphasize the importance of driving safely on the road. It was like that until all of our cards were
finished. Some took the opportunity to
just sleep, while others played with their phones. The proctor didn’t seem fazed by any of
it.
I lost track of time by this point. My phone was running out of battery so I
decided to conserve the remaining battery to make sure I had enough to play
some music to bike home. A test proctor
came in and congratulated us once again on a job well done. Called each row individually and told to pick
up our cards. After which, we can all go
home. There was a nice lady outside the
classroom selling license covers and I happily bought one.
And that was that. I
am officially a licensed driver in Japan.
It was the happiest bike ride of my life and looking back at this
journey, I would not change a thing. I
could have given up my search for finding a driving school and just keep
biking, but I was too stubborn to quit.
When it felt like all the chips were not going to fall into place, a
small miracle happened; somebody decided to take a chance on me.
Epilogue
A day went by
and I celebrated like any irresponsible adult would do. I rented my first car. I visited the rental center expecting all
kinds of flack about a fairly new driver renting a car. I got none.
I rented a Kei Car from Toyota which was the Pixis. At first, I was not in love with it. It was small and it was only 660cc. The previous day I could not help myself
looking at Yahoo Auctions and Goo Net in regards towards purchasing a car. And here I was driving a Kei Car and all the
while I was looking at getting a white plate car (over 1000 cc)
It only took
a short time for me to fall in love with it.
The car was great actually.
English navigation system and Bluetooth connectivity made it much more
impressive. It had lane assist feature
and a back camera to help with
parking.
I took it for
a ride and it was easy to notice I was a noob on the road. I was braking way too late at the traffic
lights and to make things worse parking was not how I was thought at
school. I ended up fumbling a lot on
the road and I can only hope that it gets better with more and more practice.
The absolute worst
part was parking at home, my apartment
has designated me a parking space.
Except the parking space that was given to me was in an irregular
spot. I had a front corner road spot,
which means I had to maneuver the vehicle perfectly or risk damaging the car
from the vehicle behind and next to me.
It was not
pretty any time I tried to park at home.
The pressure of oncoming traffic and maneuvering the car to my spot was
difficult and time consuming. Now I can
finally relate to my father when it came to parking. The actual act itself is not hard but
factoring in outside forces……well that is when it becomes difficult.
A month later
and another rented car and I am still having trouble parking in my spot.
Practice,
Practice, Practice it would seem is the only way I could master my spot. Renting a car is expensive so I have been
only renting a car for 2 days for when I really do need a car or I have some
place I want to go to.
By now I have
purchased my first Japanese car and it is a Nissan Note. 1500 cc for an affordable price. Dealing with a lot of the paperwork for it
is a pain in the ass. I ended up buying
it from a dealer in Kanagawa Prefecture which also adds to the difficulties
when it comes to registration, parking information and payment
negotiations. I can only hope that I do
not get ripped off. I can’t wait to be
on the road again. But this time, with
my own car.
