i got my japanese driver’s license on monday!!! you have no idea how exciting that is. . . my international license was only valid for one year (as is everyone else’s from every country in the world). . . however, while australians, brits, canadians, etc. are only required to take the eye test (maybe written test?) and sit through a thirty minute lecture (all thirty minutes were translated to me as “drive safely”), americans are required to take a driving test as well. . . from all prior reports, the driving test is hell. . . only one person had passed it on her first try. . . i know of one who passed on her second try (mainly because she knew some retired cop who put in a good word for her). . . and everyone else i know passed somewhere between their sixth and tenth attempt. . .
monday, i went to the driving center (without sayaka, my trusty translator, as i had a theory that the foreigners who wowed the guys with their japanese would pass more quickly). . . they have you do a written test (so easy. . . six minutes, ten questions, true or false, yes they had an english translation) and an eye test before you have the honor of trying the road test. . .the eye test is where i managed to charm the guys ;) . . . i was trying to do everything in japanese, but with the color blindness test, i was afraid that if i didn’t respond quickly, they would fail me, so. . . my responses came out as follows: yellow, blue, 赤 (aka=red). . . the two guys in the testing room apparently found this english/japanese mix hilarious. . . brownie points always help. . .
hell began after the two initial exams. . . at eleven o’clock, i entered a classroom with eight other people (six japanese guys, one vietnamese guy, one indonesian girl – who has been trying, and failing, to get her license for six months but comes back and tries again almost every day –, and me). . . we had to draw for the courses (A,B, or C), all three of which i had memorized the night before (along with three hours of studying and a practice run on the miniature streets of japan in tsuyoshi’s monster car – which is actually just an suv type vehicle. . . but compared to my minica, well. . .) . . .anyway, the vietnamese guy drew courses for the foreigners. . . he somehow managed to draw course A, the most difficult of the three. . .
when the officers came out at one o’clock, guess who i got. . . one of the officers from my eye test earlier in the day. . . a definite miracle. . .
quite honestly, my driving on the test was wretched. . . you have to do a million head checks and say “よし” every time you look anywhere. . . seeing as how my high school drivers ed instructor yelled at me for not doing enough head checks, i was certain i would fail on at least that one point (therefore i was looking everywhere. . . but not actually seeing a thing due to nerves). . . if you look at the following website
http://www.geocities.com/fbgrable/driving.html you will have a better idea of what i was going through. . . the head checks, s curves, crank turns, lane changes, etc. etc. . . . all basics of driving, but japanese people have these systems and like things to be precise. . . that and, if you read the site, the driving test is more about taking the japanese system seriously. . . respect for people, details, perfection, the system itself. . .if you are ten centimeters too far left in your lane, you can fail. . . same goes for the right. . . if you turn your blinker on 25 meters before the turn and not 30, you can fail. . . it’s crazy and terrifying. . .to me anyway. . .
but. . . the point is, i drive better daily on real roads. . . my head checks were late, my turns were too wide, i even took both hands off the wheel at one point (when i stopped to wait for another car – not while moving), which is an automatic fail in most cases. . . on real roads, i would have killed four or five old people on motorbikes because my head checks were late, as in i was mid-turn when i remembered to check my blind spots. . . on most days for most people, i would have failed for all the mistakes listed above. . .but somehow, miraculously, i passed, on my first try. . . the officer actually thought i was a good driver (despite the flaws listed above which he did point out). . . i was in shock. . . i maybe still am in shock. . . i literally checked my wallet on tuesday morning to make sure that it wasn’t a dream and the license was really there. . . it was. . . it is. . .with the 2 points against me for my speeding ticket back in april. . . another reason i thought they would never give me my license. . . as long as i don’t continue speeding, hit a pedestrian, or run into the japanese mafia, i can drive in japan until december 2008. . .yay. . .
so. . .that was a bit lengthy. . . in other news. . . i will be leaving for the korean dance festival this friday, july 28th and will return to japan on saturday, august 12th. . . while i have a lot to report about dance, i will wait until after my trip. . . i can’t believe i am finally, actually going to korea. . . i’m guessing sangmee can’t believe it either :) i’ve been talking about it for such a long time. . . anyway, here’s the link to the festival website if you are interested. . .
http://moderndance.co.kr/finally, my second pet cockroach. . . i found him in my bathroom after dance one evening and screamed (probably waking everyone in the dormitory). . . he was fairly small and still kind of a brownish color (the big, old, scary ones are black. . .you may ask how i survive in rural japan. . . most days, i do not know). . . anyway, he was too fast for me to kill. . . after a night of bug nightmares and a few too many jokes from the teachers about how cockroaches like to creep around the house at night, i bought some little sticky traps (like the ones for mice only smaller –cockroach sized). . . almost every home in japan (or at least kochi) has cockroaches in the summer. . . the tv commercials show these adorable little cartoon cockroaches eating poison and taking it back to share with their families and then all dying together in their little home (which of course is somewhere within your home). . . my traps were really just about as sad. . . the glue traps are not simply sticky glue with food in the center but carefully designed cockroach houses. . . white house, red roof, shutter entrances, mats on each end for the poor thing to wipe its feet on (so it has nice clean feet when it touches the glue). . . no joke. . . it looks like a little play house for bugs. . . it kind of makes me want to cry – like the time i wouldn’t eat my mickey mouse pancake (only then i was like three years old). . . but really, why do they have to make things so cute? it feels ten times more cruel than just putting out an ugly patch of glue. . . at least from my end. . . suppose the cockroach doesn’t really know the difference as he dies either way. . .
anyway. . . that’s all i have to report for now. . . i still have pictures from kyoto and kobe and random events around kochi that i need to post. . . if i haven’t already forgotten the details (although it may be lucky for you if i have). . . how do these blogs get so long?
one last thing. . . my supervisor is currently reviewing the japanese procedure for cpr on an imaginary person in the boe office. . . he’s worried that his wording will be off. . . suppose he will fail his test for the emergency response team or whatever they are if he changes a word . . .personally, i could care less if he says ‘please call an ambulance’ vs. ‘call 119 now’. . . i imagine most unconscious people feel the same. . . my point is, the japanese start training people on how to memorize precise procedures at the age of zero and it just gets worse from there. . .面白いですよ。 じゃあね。
BBC made a mistake and interviewed the wrong guy
**click this link for the story. . .
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/16/bbc.interview/index.html**then click this link for the actual interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnm9jZK1dU&search=bbc%20interview%20gomahttp://portal/portal/mypage/mypage.asp?UserID=10496**don't cheat.....if you don't read the story, the video won't have any meaning
taking a bus to osaka (3+hours?) . . . and then dancing all day staturday. . . i believe relaxing a bit/ sightseeing on sunday. . . and returning. . . while i am obviously extremely excited, i am also getting pretty stressed out. . . as the only person on the team who has never participated in yosakoi, i have no idea how to use narko or maneuver my happi or scream random words in japanese (it's like trying to learning things like woohoo in english. . . よちょれ and わしょい are not particularly useful for daily communication). . . aside from those challenges, my teacher put me in all four of the dances both in the street version (which everyone does) as well as on stage. . . since we started learning the first dance in june or july, two of the dances have been pretty well drilled into my body (including the chants and narko and happi). . . a third dance is coming along (although we spend very little time on it in rehearsals. . . as in running it once maybe every week? if that). . . the fourth, however, is my biggest source of stress. . . apparently my teacher has decided not to actually teach it to me. . .i finally asked him for a video of it (but have no time to watch the video). . . we NEVER practice it in rehearsal. . . i have no idea how he expects me to be in this dance. . . learning combinations is my biggest weakness in dance. . . so, yeah, that should be interesting. . .
