Driving, episode II: Attack of the Clones

We occasionally have to work Saturdays or Sundays. In exchange, we get a Monday or a Friday off. I scheduled the test for one such Monday, hoping to get my license without having to pay one of my vacation days. I flew to Nagasaki the Friday before and enjoyed a weekend of relaxing in the city. That part was a lot of fun: I met up with Mutia, and we explored a brand new shopping mall, as well as the Ferris wheel on top.

The morning of the sixth, I got to the DMV at 8:45 and checked in with no problem. A nice lady gave me the paperwork to fill out, consisting of the basic information as well as a detailed description of the driving test I took to get my U.S. license. After a few minutes of thinking, and surprised at how well I could recall it, I filled the page with description.

The lady took the paperwork, collected my IDP, U.S. license, official translation, Japanese alien registration card, and two passport-sized photos, and disappeared for a few minutes. She returned the documents a few minutes later, and had me take a seat and wait for my name.

I figured out that the crowd of Japanese people were all there for their written exam. Luckily I didn't have to worry about that; I've heard it's pretty difficult. After they filed off to the exam room, the lady took me to a small room and gave me my written test: ten illustrated English true-or-false questions. "I hear an ambulance coming. It's behind me, but I'm in a hurry, so it's okay if I don't pull over." That's just about the caliber of the test. I passed, and the lady had me wait some more.

Next was my vision test. I peeked through a ViewMaster and saw a bunch of circles, each with a certain part missing--up, down, left, or right. The beginning was a little shaky, only because I didn't quite understand her directions (which were in Japanese): if the circle is missing its bottom, do I report that as 'up' (because the circle is pointing that way--the inside of it looked like an arrow) or 'down' (because that's the part that's missing)? We got it straightened out, and I did fine.

Afterwards, she sat down with me and told me about the road test. She gave me a map of the course, with the path I'd be taking outlined. She explained every part of the course: slow down here, go this fast here, look at your mirrors in this order all the time, etc. Several things were new to me. For the sake of readers who aren't accustomed to driving on the left-hand side of the road (it's really not that big a deal after a few days of experiencing it), I'll describe some of the situations in terms of American road conditions.

Some of the things that were new to me:

-When stopping, pump your brakes no fewer than three times. This indicates to people behind you that you're stopping.

-When approaching railroad tracks, regardless of signs, stop. Roll down your window, and listen for approaching trains.

-When driving normally, occupy the left side of the lane. Do not straddle the center of your lane. Only move to the right side of the lane when turning right or changing lanes. [In America, this would be "Keep right except to pass or turn," only "right" means "on the right side of your lane," not just "the rightmost lane."]

-Before making a left turn, always check your blind spot for bicyclists alongside you. [In America, this would be for right turns.]

-When making a right turn onto a road with more than one lane, turn into the leftmost lane. [For American driving, switch "left" with "right:" if you're making a left turn onto a four-lane road (Glenstone, Airport Blvd, Big A, Atlanta Hwy, etc.), turn all the way into the rightmost lane.]

She explained that there was only one stretch of the course where the proctor would want me to reach 50 km/hr; everywhere else, there was no minimum speed requirement. She reminded me to brake before entering a bend--never to brake during the curve. (I remember talking to Chase about that while driving through the Smoky Mountains in 2004, so that's never been a problem for me.)

She also explained the two most challenging parts of the test to me: the S and the crank. The S is a tight S curve. By tight, I mean the road is about seven feet wide. The crank is a group of right-angle turns (four in all, if you count the turn into it and the turn out of it), on road that's about seven feet wide. For both the S and the crank, nudging the curb, while causing you to lose points, isn't cause for automatic failure. Driving up and over the curb instead of backing up and trying again, however, is.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, two things happened: I got nervous, and I started to appreciate just how much this lady was helping me. I'd done a ton of Googling the Japanese driving test for the past few nights, and I'd heard about most of this, but to have it on official authority made it so much better.

She made sure I didn't have any more questions, and told me the test would begin at 1. It was just then 11, so she told me to go get some lunch and relax. Other people were taking the road test until noon, at which point the course would be open for walking. I found a nearby kaitenzushi place, munched idly, and came back to study the course.