After almost two months of trying to obtain my Japanese Driver's license before my International Drivier's license expires at the end of the month, I finally got it. There was a monumental amount of paperwork, that took me about a month to acquire and organize. My supervisor translated everything for me, and then went with me to the Licensing Center. Americans are required to visit the Center at least twice. On the first visit an employee, a bored looking young man, made copies of all of my documentation and gave me more forms to fill out. This took about three and a half hours.
Afterwards, Ishida-sensei took me to meet her family who lived close to the Center. Her mom had prepared dinner for us, and her dad was eager to talk about American movies. He especially likes older American films, so we discussed Mary Poppins, Blue Hawaii, and The African Queen. I stunned everyone with my flawless pronunciation of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." Her parents had honeymooned in Hawaii which was the only place they had ever met Americans. And her dad recognized that Katherine Hepburn and I shared the same name. Ishida-sensei helped with some translation, I stuttered the few Japanese words I know, and they used what English they knew. It was a delightful few hours of dinner and conversation.
Her mom had made a special kind of sushi that didn't need to be rolled. It was tasty and looked pretty easy to make at home. I'll plan to give it a try.
For our second course we had somen noodles. Somen is a cold noodle that is popular in the summer months. Ishida-sensei's mom decorated the noodles with festive and colorful toppings.
And for dessert, we had green tea with mochi, a Japanese rice cake. They showed me how to properly turn the mug and stir the tea before drinking.
We spent about four hours there before heading back to Wajima. It was so much fun. Her mom told me about her hobbies, syodo (Japanese calligraphy) and making temari (colorful embroidered handball).
Me with the Ishida's at the dinner table.
Ishida-sensei and I with her mom.
A week later I was able to make my second visit to the Licensing Center. This one was an all day affair.
In the morning, I had two hours of "training" with the driving school. This wasn't so much training to make sure that one knows how to drive on the left side of the road and knew how to drive safely and obey traffic laws as it was a test in how well one can follow the Japanese tradition of procedure. For instance, one must walk in a full circle, starting at the driver's side back wheel and proceeding to the passenger side, around the car before getting in. One is supposed to be checking for small creatures, and presumabley, one cannot correctly determine the whearabouts of small animals if one begins the cirle on the passenger side. It also followed that one was supposed to spend more time thrashing her head about looking for small creatures and childern on bikes than looking at the road ahead of them. They did make an exception for the L curves, at which one could focus on the road ahead. My supervisor rode along in the backseat and tried not to laugh too much as she translated for the instructor, and elderly semi-friendly man who seemed amused by the two of us.
After I could properly make all turns while looking behind me, it was time to walk next door to the Liscencing Center and take my tests. First were the vision and written tests. They were a slice of pie. Then onto the driving course. This instructor was not at all bemused with his job and only spoke when I asked him whether I should turn right or left in Japanese. After lots of bowing, "yoroshiku onagaishimasu"-ing, and arigato gozaimashita-ing, the test was finished. It only took about ten minutes and then I headed back to the waiting room to wait the results with my supervisor. It took them about twenty minutes to determine that I had passed, and could head down to the first floor where they issued licenses.
After another hour and a half I was handed my Japanese Driver's License. Finally.
Ishida-sensei decided that we should celebrate, so she took me around Kanazawa and then out to dinner. It was lovely spending time with her outside of work. We went to the Higashi Kanazawa Tea House District.
On the most photographed street in Japan
We snacked on ice cream hamburgers before heading to dinner. I forgot what they were really called, but mine was delicious. Between the two chocolate cakes there is mochi (rice mush), red bean paste, and I chose soy sauce flavored ice cream. Ishida-sensei had soy bean flavored ice cream.
Mmmmm.
For dinner, Ishida-sensei wanted to show me monjaiyaki, a famous Tokyo dish and one of her favorites. He favorite topping for monjaiyaki also happens to be fish eggs. I was skeptical but agreed to go along. I became increasingly skeptical when we began cooking at our table and it began to resemble vomit.
The chef with her tasty creation.
Next up it was my turn to give cooking a go. We ordered sobameshi, or fried noodles and rice.
In the end, I am really glad that I was forced to go through all of the licensing bureaucracy because hanging out with my supervisor outside of work was awesome. We both got to know each other a little better and were able to have some fun away from the staffroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment