[Sangetsu]

Okay... After weeks of working on getting my Japan drivers license, I got a little closer yesterday. The last time I went to the test center I was turned away and told that I needed to get additional paperwork from immigration. The paperwork was finally returned to me, so once again I headed back to the license center.

I was the first person in line when the office opened up, and luckily (this time) there were no problems when I submitted my paperwork. After I gave the clerk the paperwork, I was told to take a seat and wait for my name to be called. Luckily, I brought a book with me, it took more than an hour before my name was called.

After coming back to the counter, I was given 2 additional forms to fill out, and I was sent to get 2400 yen worth of payment stamps to stick to my application form. After getting all of this done, I returned the forms to the clerk, and I was told once again to wait.

This time the wait was short. The clerk came out and called a few names, one of which was mine, and then she led us to the testing room. The test was a simple one, only 10 or so questions, in English (poor English). After the group I was in finished the test, we were led to a machine where we took a vision test. The object we were looking at was a letter "c", and we had to speak into a microphone, telling which way the open side of the "c" was pointing. "Hidari, migi, shita, ue, migi, shita..." The test was easy, and only took a minute.

After this was done, we were informed that it was too late for us to take a driving test that afternoon, and we were directed to the appointment window. I made my appointment for next week, hopefully I'll do well, or at least learn enough that I don't fail it more than once. As far as I have been able to learn, it still takes a foreigner an average of three attempts to pass the driving test.