Driving Licenses

I am posting a special update just to fill everyone in on the unbelievable bureaucracy of Japan.

Today we tried to get Japanese driving licenses. First of all we needed to get colour photocopies of our documents so that we could get JAF (like the Japanese AA) to translate our licenses. This was the easy bit. We left the house well before 9am on our holiday to go and do this. Next we had to get to the JAF offices. This required 2 train trips, but we didn't realize that it was 2 differently owned lines, so wasted a few hundred yen paying for the whole journey and then having to pay again when we changed trains. Grr.

At the other end, we found a map of the local are and tried to compare it to the online map I had copied. Fortunately Will spotted a few minutes into our route preparation that North on this map was actually downwards. We very nearly walked out of the station in the wrong direction. When you get lost here it is very difficult to spot and/or correct, because there are so few visible landmarks or signs that mean anything to us. We left the station, and then followed my little drawn map. Unfortunately it had a small mistake (online map mistake, not copying mistake) so we still managed to walk around in a big circle for 40 minutes. Eventually we asked a man for directions (and managed to understand them! Yay!) and found the place. They were very helpful and fairly quick and we soon had nicely translated licenses.

Next we had to make our way back to another station (much easier train ride) to meet a friend who had already got his translation but needed to get the licence. It is a problem to get the licenses because the office hours are 9-3 so you have to go on a day when we are off work but it is not a national holiday. Today was the only available day before Christmas, so we were keen to get it done. It was also important because we are going away for the weekend with the aforementioned friend and his wife and hiring a car. For which we need a valid licence. So we were all keen to get it right.

We found our way to Shinagawa station, a huge and confusing place. We needed to change here to yet another privately owned line. What we didn't realize was that where there are usually 2 ticket machines that you walk through to validate the ticket, here there was only one, but you still had to validate the ticket from your old journey as well as for the one you were about to take. I will come back to this problem later, so remember it.

We managed to buy tickets, get through and ask someone which train we needed. The train came and we got on it. By this time it was 12.50. The highways office closes for lunch from 11.30-1pm (in such a short day - I know) so we wanted to get there for when it opened. Unfortunately, whoever we asked about the train clearly wasn't concentrating, because it was a Rapid train - like an express, that didn't stop at our station. So we got off at the next stop and got the local train back to the right station. Phew. Then we walked to the highways office.

We got there and found the right place, queued up for the very small window and handed over our documents. The first thing they said was did we have our old passport to prove we had lived in the UK after the licenses were issued. Who carries an expired passport to a new country!? Well, Ben apparently but normal people just don't. Luckily, I had taken our marriage certificate along (just as something official and just in case - inspired) and they seemed to accept that as proof we had been there at least and resident. They took all our papers from us and we had to sit and wait for ages to find out if we were on to the next step. It was like waiting for a mortgage application or an exam result. While we waited, some other people were being called through a secret door holding money and getting sorted quickly. I don't want to know.

Meanwhile, our other friend Mark (Australian) was having problems. He had forgotten his passport first off, but even with that he was stuffed. He had 2 categories on his licence, and the Japanese officials said he needed a piece of paper from the Queensland DVLA equivalent stating when he had passed each category. This would allow him to have a licence for a car and a 125cc scooter, even though he had taken an exam for a 250cc. Japan have no middle category, so he will have to take the 400cc exam to be able to ride the new 200cc vespa he has just bought. If he can organise the bits of paper from Australia. He also has problems because his passport was renewed while he was living in the UAE, and he has no idea where his old one is. He was not happy. Eventually he went home with his fingers crossed that at least one of us would get ours so we could hire the car tomorrow.

We were approved for ours, but that wasn't the end. We had to get new photos taken because the passport sized ones were too big. Then we had to have an eyetest (truly pointless - Will couldn't see half of it and still passed) and go back to the original window to get a lot of stamps and pay a lot of money. Then we had to go to have our official photo taken, and then wait an hour and 10 minutes for the card to be ready. So we went to a Japanese fast food place over the road and had rice and boiled meat, which was actually more appetizing than it sounds and very cheap. Eventually we got our licenses. Yay!

Now we just had to get home. We got the train back to Shinagawa and tried to go back though the single ticket machine. For some reason, everyone else was fine but I was blocked repeatedly. A man tried to help and got confused. In the end it turned out I hadn't validated my last journey as I came through, so I was stuck. I had to wait while the attendant took my card and left me standing like a lemon til he came back. I never want to go to the highway office again! We got home at 5.20pm. Japanese bureaucracy is really something to see.

On the upside, yesterday I found a Next and bought clothes in english sizes, then went for a fantastic chinese meal, and tomorrow we are going away for the weekend with friends to relax. We can even drive there!