Archive for June, 2006

Ok, more about how I got my license to drive in Japan. After being sent away the first time I got back a week later. This time with a certificate from the Swedish DMV that confirmed that my license was in fact genuine. By now I was ready for anything I thought. You are not only supposed to bring your passport, but also your expired passports if any. Then they ask you when you were abroad for the first time, and what country you visited. Not that it does seem to matter if you get this wrong. I answered quickly “Denmark, 1980″ only to later realize that my first trip abroad was to Norway in 1977.

It all went very smooth up to the point when they compared my address from my ID card with the one I had stated. There was a slight difference. They started by asking my wife if we live together. Innocent question we thought so we said yes. Should not have done that. The next question was then, so why have your ID cards different addresses?

Turns out that the authority that issued the ID card had make a typo! Doh! Ok, we had already taken the day off for this so I went straight to prefectural office to have it changed. No problem, changed in a jiffy. (Is that a strange expression? Maybe I will change that later) So, after a quick lunch things went faster back at the DMV. Test of vision is performed with a machine that looks very old. Not colorblind, ok, next. In a pace that would impress the assembly line at Toyota our photos were taken. Sit down. Look here. Click. Thank you. Next. Half an hour later I exit with my Japanese drivers license. It cost me 3000 yen is valid for 2 years. What kind of car should I get? Maybe I will settle for a small motorbike to start with.

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Japan is known as the home of many different Martial Arts. If you come to stay here you may want to try training. Get a piece of that Mr Miyagi mystery thing. I know I did. Ever since I first saw the movie The karate kid. I thought to myself, do they know something I dont. Is there a mystery aspect of karate that they kept hidden in Japan and never told anyone?

To get started in training Martial Art in Japan is not difficult. Just find a gym and ask if you can join. Thats what I did. If you live in one of the bigger cities it should be no problem finding one. Tokyo is more like a set of small villages that slowly growed and connected than a big city. Think LA more than NY. That means that every neighbourhood has everything. Restaurants, dry cleaning, doctors, shops and martial arts gyms. It is likely not far from your house to the closest gym. If you cant walk there you can probably ride your bike.

When you chose your gym there are a few things to consider. To me it is important that the gym is close to where I live or work. This is to make sure I go. If your gym is to far away it is likely that you skip going the days you feel a little lazy or if it is raining. To get results you have to train regularly. My gym is ten minutes from my house riding my bicycle. It is perfect because while it is close enough I still get warmed up pedaling the bike to get there. You can also chose a gym near your work, so that you can go straight from work to the gym.

As a foreigner doing martial art you probably have heard of only a few dojos in Japan. Remember there are thousands of them. If you promtly want to train at the Honbu dojo of a particular style just because Master Oyama did or at the oldest dojo in Japan in Kyoto maybe thats what you should do. But it is not the easiest way. Most universities also have a wide ranging choice of sports in their athletics departments. Besides football and baseball there is usually a choice of the traditional japanese martial arts: judo, karate, kyodo, aikido and kendo. But then you must be a student of a university.

Now, you will have to chose a style. If you already hold a belt in a particular style it might be a good idea to find a club where you can continiue with the same thing. If you for example hold a yellow belt in Kyokushinkai you simple look for a Kyokushin Club and inquire there.

If you are a beginner, or like me, have tried a variety of different martial arts over the years there are other ways of finding your style. After some basic research of what the different styles are about the best thing I think is to actuallt go to a dojo and ask if you can watch the training. Usually you can watch for free. Sometimes you are offered a free trial to sample the training. If it is possible to actually train with a group, do it. Dont be afraid if you dont understand the language or the moves. Just do it to see if you like it.

Easy enough, but how to actually find the gym you say. Word of mouth. Ask your friends or colleges. Usually the best way to find things out. Internet. Search or browse Martial Arts sights. But thats not the way I did it in the end. After trying all of the above with no result I just went out and started looking for a dojo. There are a lot of martial arts resources on the internet, but it is mostly in japanese and you need to be able to type and read japanese to get any help from that. Check out the difference for yourself if you google “karate yokohama” and then the same thing in japanese: “空手　横浜”.

So, I was new to Japan, had a very limited japanese vocabulary and wanted to find a dojo. The internet could not help me so I decided to check out my neighbourhood on foot. Go to the station. There you will find shops, restaurants and very often a noteboard. If there is no posts about martial art ride your bike to the next station, I did. Or you can also take the train. Doing this I realized that in the blocks a round every station there is at least one or two adverts for different dojos. If it was in japanese I would take a digital picure of it and get help translating it. If it it was something I knew I was not into I would just find another one.

Pretty soon I found an interesting place one station from where I live. If the poster looks good, then go check the place out. Once there, look on the signs, are there pictures posted? Does it look good, does if feel like it is something for you? If you like the place then go in and inquire.

Even though my japanese was very limited I decided to go in by myself, rather than come back with a friend who spoke japanese. It is not difficult to communicate what you want. It feels better to know that it was me who found the dojo and went in. Even though I had to get help later with the application forms.
This is the club where I train in Yokohama. Looks more like a dojo in LA than the traditional Japanese style!

After watching the training once I knew I was in the right place. The style was full contact karate. Traditional white gi and color belts, but boxing stance and boxing techniques. For the higher belts they also require you to learn take downs and grappling. I began training there the following week. It is not so much “wax on wax off”, more punch the bag as hard as you can!

Getting a Japanese drivers license requires persistence. Be ready to go to the DMV at least two or three times before you get it. It is a Kafkaesque experience because there are two sets of rules. The ones listed and the secret ones. No doubt you will not know all the secret rules. No way by your first visit. Reading this text will help you get your Japanese drivers license. And hopefully entertain you as well.

You do not need to make an appointment. But you do have to find out when it is open. In Yokohama it is open everyday between 8.30 and 9.30. And 12.30 to 1.30. Make sure first to go to the right DMV. If you live in Yokohama you can not go to the Tokyo DMV. You must go to the one in Yokohama.

The process that I describe here is for changing your foreign drivers license to a Japanese one. First your country must be valid for change. Austria is not. But most other countries are.

The first thing you see in this department is a sign that says “Nobody speaks English here, bring your own interpreter.” It is a good idea to bring someone with at least a decent level of conversational Japanese. Because the questions are many. First you sign your name on list attached to clipboard. Write it in katakana. Then sit down and wait for them to call your name.

By now you have plenty of time to check everything you brought. You will need:

One photograph of you for the application. Passport style. Small. I took my photo in a photo booth in Japan. The size for ID cards is the right one. 30 x 40 mm. But you have to go to the photo corner at the DMV to have your photo cut. They punch out a smaller 24 x 30 mm from your 30 x 40 photo. And just so that you know, this is not the photo that will end up on your license, but we will get to that.

Drivers license. Not to forget also a written translation of it. Check with your embassy if they provide that service. Mine did.

Passport and with photocopies are also needed. If you have expired passports, bring them too if you can. They will ask for them.

Alien registration card. (Gajin card) If you went through the procedure to get this document you are well prepared to battle the Japanese DMV.

In order to change your license to a Japanese one you must be able to prove that you have lived in your home country at least six months after you got your license. This is one of the secret rules. To support this you need a document of some kind. But they will not tell if it will be valid or not until they see it.

After I handed in my documents I strolled around the place waiting. The Japanese Red Cross have put up a somewhat permanent outpost just outside the building. They want you to donate blood. Good idea, people here have plenty of time. Waiting. Maybe people will think about getting in a car crash and need blood. “If I, You know, now, give, maybe I will be cosmically rewarded later, kinda.” I gave none of my blood. My wife does sometimes. Hers, that is.

Posted on the wall was a picture of a murderer. A classic “Wanted” ad. You would think. Only the physical description was so hilarious I laughed so hard I got tears in my eyes. Check this out. It is true. If you don’t believe me, check with someone who can read Japanese. First it says “lefthanded”. Ok, that’s good. Maybe I see the guy writing something. Then it is added. “But not when catching a ball, then he uses his right hand”. See, whenever I meet a murderer I wouldn’t play catch with them. Hmm, lets see now, this guy. Didn’t he write with his left hand before? But now he is actually catching a ball with his RIGHT hand. Oh, no, must be a murderer.

It gets worse. Next line reads “this man can not use his chopsticks very well”. So be careful people. After you have played catch with that nice stranger and you sit down for a meal, watch him. Because if he fails to pick up his noodles with his chopsticks, he might very well be, yes, a murderer.

Well, it turned out that the expiration date on my Swedish drivers license was different from other Swedish licenses that they had seen. It looked strange, they thought. So they asked me to get a document that explained why expiration date looked funny! Ok, I had to leave without my Japanese license. One of the secret rules got turned against me.

To be continued.

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Getting a japanese drivers license II My second battle with the bureaucrats at the Japanese DMV.