In fact, my license was due to expire this week, so I've already taken care of that little problem. I took a day off work and spent three hours at my local license beaureau (which is where I also did my driving test three years ago and which, ironically, is inaccessible by train!). My morning began smoothly, getting all the preliminary paperwork done in a matter of 15 minutes. But then I was sent to room 304 - where a 2-hour lecture was set to begin at 9:30 a.m. sharp!
What I learned during the lecture was: only first-time renewers have to attend (which explains why everyone in the room was oh-so-young); and, driving kills. Yes - there was a 25-minute video which contained interviews with parents of children killed in road accidents, as well as actual footage of some of these accidents; after the video, just in case we weren't sufficiently impressed/distressed, the lecturer expanded on the dangers of driving dangerously by displaying more recent statistics of people killed in the last week in our very prefecture.
At the end of the lecture - which was a pretty good Japanese lesson - I walked out an enlightened, safer driver and three more years of legal driving in Japan!
3 comments:
All righty, then. Aren't you glad that now you know that driving is a risky business? I'm sure you didn't know that before the loooong lecture, right?
In the US it takes forever to get a license renewed, but only because the lines are out the door. The actual process is brief, which makes the time-wasting even more grievous.
Nice license, and its a good thing that people know how dangerous driving is. But why can't we get stuff in the US as so effortlessly?
Wow - a lecture before getting a renewal. I'm impressed. Driving is treated like a right over here. Heaven forbid you should ask people to even pass an eye or health exam.
Show us a picture of your car!
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