Japanese Driver's License!

Arrived earlier than planned again (6:20) at 5:30, so I had plenty of time to slowly make my way home, shower, have udon for breakfast, take a nap, and then head to school. Glad I only have 3 lessons to teach today, and then I have the afternoon off to go get my drivers license sorted out. Went to the 2nd graders’ classrooms in the morning to find their homeroom teachers, and had a quick speedy meeting about today’s lesson. First up was 2-2 in period 2. I think their teacher is getting the hang of disciplining the kids now, they’re improving bit by bit each week. We played a game called the WOW game, where the kids sit in a circle and count from 1-20, and once 20 is said everyone stands up and says WOW together. It wasn’t too bad, but everyone is still a little bit iffy with counting from 11-20. Then we played the Time Machine board game. The kids played in pairs and paper-scissors-rock-ed to see who would be able to move one step forward. They then land on a number and have to ask and answer each other “How old are you?” “I’m 1!” and so on. Spent the 20 minute morning break being dragged around by some girls from 2-1. They wanted to do the crossword puzzle that’s currently up on the English board, but they haven’t learnt the alphabet yet so they can’t do it properly (but they were still super eager). 2-1 up next in period 3 and they were also a little shakey with the WOW game, but they loved the Time Machine game and everyone played it properly. I swear any activity that has paper-scissors-rock in it is a huge success – the kids here love that game too much! 2-3 in period 4 and they were good as usual, but I think they were the weakest class in terms of counting from 11-20. The other classes have kids reminding each other what number is next (during the WOW game), but in 2-3 the kids had to keep looking at us teachers for the answer.

As soon as class finished I left school and headed to the Gunma Prefectural Traffic Center to get my Japanese drivers license! The tea-lady very kindly packed the school lunch into a plate, wrapped it, put it in a plastic bag complete with disposable chopsticks, so I got to takeaway the lunch with me! I was super thankful for this, as I ended up having to wait 4+ hours for my license. If I didn't have the lunch with me, I would’ve been hungry as! Arrived at the traffic centre at 13:00, got my waiting number, waited a little while before I was called, and then the lady checked all my documents. Everything was alright and in order, though I had to explain a bit how the bank statements in NZ work – you have to have proof that you have lived in the country you got your license in for at least 3 consecutive months. Basically the process is very simple for non-American countries (so glad I’m from NZ yay). You just hand in all the required documents/paperwork, pay the fee, wait, do the eye check, wait some more, get your photo taken, wait some more, and then you have your license! The documents required are:

• Form to apply for the license (you fill this out at the traffic center – the staff will help you with this!)

• Passport: 1 A4 copy of the photo page + any pages that have any sorts of stamps on them.

• Foreign residency card (在留カード): 1 A4 copy of both sides of the card, preferably on the same page.

• Residency certificate (住民票): you can get this easily at the city hall for ¥300. You need the actual certificate + 1 A4 copy of it.

• Drivers License: 1 A4 copy of both sides of your driver’s license, preferably on the same page.

• International License: you will have to give up your International License in order to get the Japanese one.

• Evidence of having lived in the country that issued your drivers license for 3 consecutive months: bank statements, credit card statements, graduation certificate (authentic one, can’t be a copy), etc.

• Japanese translation of your driver’s license: you can get this done at any JAF office.

The wait was pretty long, and you have to wait in the building in case they call you for anything, at any point in time. I fell asleep while waiting, and even when I woke up at 16:00 (when they said it would be done), it wasn’t yet even ready. Finally at around 17:00 they took our photo for the license, and then handed it over to us. The last step was just putting our new license on top of this machine that read it’s chip, then you input a 4-digit password you’d made beforehand, and then check that all the information is correct (address, birthday, country, etc.) and then you’re finished! It’s actually a very easy process, but I think sometimes the list of documents, fear of speaking Japanese, and other nerve-wracking stories from other ALTs can put some people off. The only “hard” thing was the waiting time and not being able to go anywhere else, but that was alright since I was super tired from my weekend trip anyway. Drove home and had some tofu + mushrooms + noodles for dinner.