Japanese DVLA part 2: Back on the Road

After the botched first attempt, I applied for a translation of my licence. That arrived last week so my supervisor arranged an appointment for me for at the Seiro-machi Licensing Center in Niigata and yesterday I went. Because I can't drive, I took the 6.30am bus from Tokamachi to Niigata and got to the centre in plenty of time. I handed over all the documents and copies I was asked to bring and patiently waited while they were checked by the guy at the desk. I missed a couple of copies (you need copies of ALL your visa stamps in your passport) and had to have my photo re-taken (800 yen) but that was all in order. Then it was time to pay for the eye-test and licence-issuing (about 4,000 yen/ 20 quid). The eye-test was easy; look into a machine, wait for a sequence of 'C' shapes to appear and and say which side (up, down, left, right) the gap appears, then name the colours of three lights. After that, one more photo, my licence was issued and I'm allowed back on the road!



So, lessons learned? Well, don't leave changing you licence until July. Fact is, I could have changed my licence at anytime this year, and since I decided to stay for another year in February, I should have done it then. Then I wouldn;t have been without a car when I had time to use it. Second, what your supervisor is told over the phone might not necessarily be correct. I think the problem comes from the way Japanese use the word 'maybe'. To avoid sounding forceful and disrespectful, people will say 'maybe you can' when they mean 'you should', e.g. 'maybe you could do English Club tonight' is actually an order. But, some Japanese people don't like to admit that they don't know something. So, they'll say 'maybe you can' when they mean 'I'm not sure, but you could...' e.g. 'maybe you could bring your documents to the Nagaoka Driving Center'. So, second lesson is that I should ask around more, and especially listen to people who have already done what I want to do (so, I should have read Acquiring a Japanese Driving License info from the Niigata Jet Website).