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driver's license

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Tokyo, 2009.09.17

I've got a Japanese driver's license. It took 18 months.

In all honesty, it took only two days. But I'd read all kinds of horror stories about getting your license in this country, so I dragged my feet. For a year and a half.

In the end, the process was more-or-less what I expected of a bureaucratic affair in Tokyo. It went like this.

1. I had to get my existing (Ontario) driver's license translated. To do this I went to the Japan Auto Federation. It cost ¥3000.

2. The next day, I went to the Samezu Driver's testing facility. And spent hours going from office to office. First floor, second floor, back to the first, up to the second, back to the first, up to the third. Done.

In all, I needed these things:

And now I can drive in this country. Mwahahaha. Hahahaha!

rand()m quote

I feel fortunate that I enjoyed the blandishments of modernity. I had hip replacement and root canal. I was able to travel on airplanes. I was able to take cheap food for granted. I went to the movies. I enjoyed rock 'n' roll. And now I'm ready to move on.

—James Howard Kunstler