Hello All! I’ve been neglecting this blog for a while, so I figured I’d let you know what’s going on in my life over here in the J pan.  This beautiful, shiny, silver beast of a scooter is going to soon be in my life (or at least the twin… this one was shamelessly stolen from a google image search).  That’s right! I’m finally with wheels!  This means that I will no longer be at the mercy of the frustrating bus system, I’ll be able to stay out past seven, and I’ll expand the radius of my travels by leaps and bounds. My placement is particularly tricky. There’s no train line, because the train runs parallel to the beach (where I live), about 15-20 k away.  The bus that takes you to the train line is so infrequent, and frustratingly routed, that what should be a 20 min drive (Max!) ends up taking an hour plus almost every time.  Add to that the lack of coordination of JR and Shizutetsu schedules (and the fact that there’s no direct route to the line itself  — I must drive 40 min west to go east… ) I’ve been tirelessly trying to get my Japanese scooter license.  A deceivingly simple test in appearance, the 原付 test is something to be reckoned with. Composed of 50 true/false questions, with a 90% passing grade, it seems like it would be quite simple.  Alas the translation is terrible, the questions are often of the trick persuasion, and the fact that they won’t tell you what you missed/got wrong leave you in the dark after you fail… twice. That’s right, It took me three tries to finally succeed at passing this bloody nightmare of a test.  But finally on Thursday May 27th, I passed! Afterward, we were shuffled through various stamp and hanko stations, our photos unceremoniously snapped, and our eager minds soaking up the (unintelligible yet amusing) video on 90 ways to avoid dying on a scooter. Around 1 pm, the moment of nirvana arrived. We were given yellow numbers to wear, and shuttled out to the parking lot, where 8 shiny scooters awaited us; lingering behind flanks of promising traffic cones- almost perceptibly shuddering at rate their losses would fall - powerless against our novice steering and uneven acceleration. From here on, it was total bliss. I sacrificed but one orange cone to the gods of the 原付 , but I feel that his slaughter was not in vain. For Monday afternoon, the Suzuki Verde and I will be together at last. Zoom Zoom!

Hello All!

I’ve been neglecting this blog for a while, so I figured I’d let you know what’s going on in my life over here in the J pan. 

This beautiful, shiny, silver beast of a scooter is going to soon be in my life (or at least the twin… this one was shamelessly stolen from a google image search).  That’s right! I’m finally with wheels!  This means that I will no longer be at the mercy of the frustrating bus system, I’ll be able to stay out past seven, and I’ll expand the radius of my travels by leaps and bounds.

My placement is particularly tricky. There’s no train line, because the train runs parallel to the beach (where I live), about 15-20 k away.  The bus that takes you to the train line is so infrequent, and frustratingly routed, that what should be a 20 min drive (Max!) ends up taking an hour plus almost every time.  Add to that the lack of coordination of JR and Shizutetsu schedules (and the fact that there’s no direct route to the line itself  — I must drive 40 min west to go east… ) I’ve been tirelessly trying to get my Japanese scooter license. 

A deceivingly simple test in appearance, the 原付 test is something to be reckoned with. Composed of 50 true/false questions, with a 90% passing grade, it seems like it would be quite simple.  Alas the translation is terrible, the questions are often of the trick persuasion, and the fact that they won’t tell you what you missed/got wrong leave you in the dark after you fail… twice.

That’s right, It took me three tries to finally succeed at passing this bloody nightmare of a test.  But finally on Thursday May 27th, I passed!

Afterward, we were shuffled through various stamp and hanko stations, our photos unceremoniously snapped, and our eager minds soaking up the (unintelligible yet amusing) video on 90 ways to avoid dying on a scooter.

Around 1 pm, the moment of nirvana arrived. We were given yellow numbers to wear, and shuttled out to the parking lot, where 8 shiny scooters awaited us; lingering behind flanks of promising traffic cones- almost perceptibly shuddering at rate their losses would fall - powerless against our novice steering and uneven acceleration.

From here on, it was total bliss. I sacrificed but one orange cone to the gods of the 原付 , but I feel that his slaughter was not in vain. For Monday afternoon, the Suzuki Verde and I will be together at last.

Zoom Zoom!

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