Japanese License Adventure Part I: The Testing

I remember when I got my license in America.  I traveled down to the tiny DMV in Seguin, a mere 40 minutes from home, with my sister.  I took a short written test and a road test through the surrounding area and received my license the same day.  Yeah, today was nothing like that.

Welcome to the Kumamoto Prefectural Drivers License Center.  Just a pleasant 3 hour drive from Ariake.  The first thing you may notice is that it's freakishly huge.

Now granted, I went to a rather small town to get my license in America, but this seems a bit lofty for a place that deals solely with processing licenses.

It even has its own diner and newsstand.  I bought this week's Shonen Jump here.

The diner had machines inside where you bought tickets for the food you wanted, than handed them to the people who worked in the kitchen. I've been to a few places like this before, but I'll admit it took me a while to get everything sorted out.

Enough about the lavish accommodations, though.  I came here to get my Japanese license, and to do that I had to go through several steps.  The tests themselves were fairly standard, save one.  There was a ten question true/false written test that was laughably easy compared to its American counterpart, an eye test, a road test, and an interview.  Yes, in order to get your license in Japan, you may be required to answer such questions as "What was the displacement of the vehicle you drove to obtain your license in America?" and "How many days and hours did you practice driving prior to obtaining your license?"  I did the best I could with the questions and they were actually quite forgiving with the ones I didn't know.  That just left the practical road test, which I had been dreading the most.

The practical road test is performed on a closed course behind the center.  It is incredibly demanding and I've heard of people failing for forgetting to check behind them on a single turn.  Due to my over-correcting on this point and checking ALL of my mirrors for every minor turn and lane change, coupled with touching the curb on the S-turn, I failed.  Not how I wanted the day to end, but not surprising either.  Most people take 2 or 3 tries before they get it right.  I've heard it took my predecessor 7.  I hope to do it in fewer.  Rest assured, when I do, you'll hear about it.