The 24th year Challenge.

Well, everyone. I passed my driver's test....after 5 times. It has been a dreary two weeks. I had to take a total of 1 full day and 4 half days of my paid vacation to be failed four times. Apparently in Japan, for foreigners, getting your license is quite hard...not hard...frustrating. Even if you already have a license of your own, there is still a waiting period of X amount of times they want to see you drive before they pass you, regardless how well you do. Case and point, here were my mistakes:

1st time: Too fast on the big turn (about 25 km/h)= 15 mph...go slower!
2nd time: Too fast on the big turn ( I went 20km/h, he wanted 14km/h) 14km/h= 8mph ARGH!! and too shallow on my right turn.
3rd time: Too wide on my right turn......................
4th time: Before the big turn, I didn't use my foot brake THREE times (hello?! where did that come from) Pon, Pon, Poooooonnnnn

Then the 5th time, I woke up without a soul. They sucked it out. No makeup, bad hair, good appearance was not my goal. When I drove, I felt myself make a bunch of mistakes. In all my other tests I drove real well, but this one felt awful. I even stalled the car once. In the end, my examiner lectured me yet again of what my mistakes were (I didn't go into the left side of the lane after signaling to turn left before 30 meters of the turn, I merged in 20 meters.) I was waiting for my "Zan nen deshita", something I had heard 4 times already, but he turns to me and says "OK."

So finally, I have my license. Before this ordeal, I had taken my picture in a photobooth for the License Center. It was a great picture and I was happy that I was going to have a real nice picture on my license. Of course, when I passed they wanted my to take a whole nother picture, where I am minus a brush, liner, or anything that could hide the exhaustion from being in such a place. My license reminds me of what I can't control and how in those cases, perservering and trying my best is all I can really do. The satisfaction of finally getting what was so hard to get makes up for the turmoil of going through such unesassary steps. When I see the exhaustion in my face on the license, I remember the big challenge that I overcame.