Full Throttle

After a long and hard 3 years of trying, I can finally join the ranks of the driving elite here in Japan after successfully having passed my driver’s license test to transfer my South African license to a Japanese one.

The Japanese driving test is one of the most infamous tests of patience in Japan. Every step of the process takes ages to do, and most people take anywhere from 2 to 10 or even more attempts to pass the practical test.

Even in my case I went 8 times in total with only 4 of those times being able to actually get to drive. Every other time saw me turned away due to some problem with a form or being there at the incorrect time.

Luckily, though, Japan’s public transport system is miles ahead of anything South Africa has to offer, so it’s much easier to travel around when I need to.

What I didn’t enjoy so much though is that my visit school is about 2.5 hours away by train, which means that I had to wake up at 4:30am to get to school by 8:30am. Throw in the rigours of walking through Japan’s rainy season, humidity and snow and getting your Japanese driver’s license takes on a whole new importance.

And now I can finally sit back and sigh with relief after having passed my license. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders, and it means I can get back to concentrating on my language studies and lesson planning.

• Japan