“You were looking, but you were not seeing.”

“You were looking, but you were not seeing.” No, these are not the words of an ancient Japanese proverb, but instead they are the words spoken by one driving examiner at the Japanese Department of Motor Vehicles when explaining to one JET teacher the reason she failed failed her driving test.

I have been driving in Japan for nearly one year on an international driver’s license, but in order to continue driving in Japan legally after August I will have to successfully pass the Japanese drivers test. However, this is not an easy task as the test is based on both understanding how to drive a car and also having a "heart for driving" as my instructor explained. Take a look at one of the driving courses:

In efforts to prepare for the test I have been taking driving lessons at about 40 dollars an hour. During my fist driving lesson my instructor explained to me that if I had been taking the test that day I would have failed before I even started the engine. Why? I didn’t check under the car for kids or cats, I didn’t properly introduce myself, I didn’t look for motorcycles or bicycles when opening the door to get into the car, I shut the door the wrong way, and I looked at my hand when putting the car into neutral. Thus, by the time I actually started the engine to start the driving test I had already failed.

Last Friday I took a vacation day from work and drove 3 hours away to the testing center. Everyone at my office wished me luck and with practice under my belt I was actually feeling like I might have a chance at passing.

When I arrived to the testing center I was signaled into a small office for the interview before the test. This procedure is only supposed to take about 30 minutes, but instead it lasted an hour and a half. The biggest problem was that I didn’t have my Tennessee driver’s license officially translated into Japanese. My office even called the testing center a week before I even went to ask about the necessary paperwork. They explained that having my license translated wouldn't be necessary as we could do it together during the interview. Apparently, we were misinformed.

So why did the interview take and hour and a half? Well, the ten times that my interviewer went into the back to check something took about 45 minutes. Answering his questions about America and then singing the Tennessee Waltz took another 20 minutes. Listening to him explain to me how to get to the place where I should have my license translated was another 10 minutes, and the rest of the time was spent. . . well . . . translating my license!! When the interview was finished they politely explained that I could not take my test until I had the proper paperwork. As to why we translated my license for them to tell me that I had to have my license translated - I'm not really to sure about that.

From the testing center I drove another hour towards Kagoshima City and paid to have it it translated. The only differences between the "official" translation and what we had done earlier that afternoon was the the second one was expensive and written on really fancy paper. It was long day!

Tomorrow morning I will return to the testing center. Wish me luck!