That's right, you heard me. I said I would talk about it in last post.
Driver's License Boot Camp.
Did I just hear a loud "HUH??" from you?
Well, I don't blame you. Not this time.
Even if you live in Japan for a long time, if you are not really part of local community (for various reasons, maybe you are foreigners, went to American schools, etc etc), you might not know the existence of this camp. Hell, if you have never lived in Japan, you would probably never understand this concept from just the name of it.
It's pretty straight forward though.
It's a camp for those people who want to learn how to drive.
That's all!!! See you guys til next post!!!......
What? Too simple? Explain more?
Ay fine. I will do, since I promised that I would...
okaaaaayyy. So some of you may know, in Japan, to get a driver's license is quite lengthy and expensive. Pretty much everyone who is a first timer needs to go to driving school to learn how to drive in school's property with this special car that has sub-brake and sub-accelerator in the passenger seat. All the while you are practicing, instructor is sitting next to you the whole time.
You will also have to take classes to learn all these rules of driving and also some ethic classes to prepare for you to be a driver with a manner.... well it's mostly to prepare you for the written test OBVIOUSLY. Then you take the written AND road test to get the freaking permit. THEN you can drive on the normal road WITH instructor next to you. After like 20 hours of driving, you are finally allowed to take the road test to just GRADUATE the driving school. After you graduate, you have to take the final written test at your local police center or whatever and FINALLY GET THE LICENSE.
God, I hate writing so much. My head hurts now. Can I quit now? What? You haven't even talked about the camp part? UGHHHHH FINEEEEE. But now you get how lengthy it is.
SO the whole point of this camp is to do ALLLLLLL that stuff in only 2 weeks!!! You can indeed do all that in local driving school but it's harder to do, especially during summer vacation, since it could be crowded and harder to make reservation for each lesson/class. And in metro area like Tokyo, it's more expensive.
How expensive???
About.......Three F$%king Thousand Dollars.
I'm not exaggerating. And that amount is calculated as if 1 dollar is 100 yen. Right now 1dollar is about 80 yen or less so that would make it a little shy of $4,000.
Ridiculous right? Yeah I agree too. I'm sure there is a cheaper, more manual way to get a license on your own, but typically people go to schools and pay that much.
Boot camp is a little cheaper, since you usually go to country side and stay there fore 2 weeks and take classes intensively. They also provides you accommodation (usually business hotels) and 3 meals per day (through meal coupon kind of thing). Everything included it was $2400 per person ($1.00 = 100 Yen). Good deal right? Since it's a country side, it's quite nice to relax and people are generally nice... Some people say you can make friends with other camp kids. But being anti-social, I didn't make a single friend. Thank god I went with my sister.
I went to Niigata by the way.
No, no worries about radiation. well.... at least for now.
Did I get a license in the end???
YES.
So a piece of advice from me?
Get a driver's license elsewhere in the world and convert that into Japanese one.
You would save tons.
I should have f$%king gotten a license when I was in states...
Driver's License Boot Camp.
Did I just hear a loud "HUH??" from you?
Well, I don't blame you. Not this time.
Even if you live in Japan for a long time, if you are not really part of local community (for various reasons, maybe you are foreigners, went to American schools, etc etc), you might not know the existence of this camp. Hell, if you have never lived in Japan, you would probably never understand this concept from just the name of it.
It's pretty straight forward though.
It's a camp for those people who want to learn how to drive.
That's all!!! See you guys til next post!!!......
What? Too simple? Explain more?
Ay fine. I will do, since I promised that I would...
okaaaaayyy. So some of you may know, in Japan, to get a driver's license is quite lengthy and expensive. Pretty much everyone who is a first timer needs to go to driving school to learn how to drive in school's property with this special car that has sub-brake and sub-accelerator in the passenger seat. All the while you are practicing, instructor is sitting next to you the whole time.
You will also have to take classes to learn all these rules of driving and also some ethic classes to prepare for you to be a driver with a manner.... well it's mostly to prepare you for the written test OBVIOUSLY. Then you take the written AND road test to get the freaking permit. THEN you can drive on the normal road WITH instructor next to you. After like 20 hours of driving, you are finally allowed to take the road test to just GRADUATE the driving school. After you graduate, you have to take the final written test at your local police center or whatever and FINALLY GET THE LICENSE.
God, I hate writing so much. My head hurts now. Can I quit now? What? You haven't even talked about the camp part? UGHHHHH FINEEEEE. But now you get how lengthy it is.
SO the whole point of this camp is to do ALLLLLLL that stuff in only 2 weeks!!! You can indeed do all that in local driving school but it's harder to do, especially during summer vacation, since it could be crowded and harder to make reservation for each lesson/class. And in metro area like Tokyo, it's more expensive.
How expensive???
About.......Three F$%king Thousand Dollars.
I'm not exaggerating. And that amount is calculated as if 1 dollar is 100 yen. Right now 1dollar is about 80 yen or less so that would make it a little shy of $4,000.
Ridiculous right? Yeah I agree too. I'm sure there is a cheaper, more manual way to get a license on your own, but typically people go to schools and pay that much.
Boot camp is a little cheaper, since you usually go to country side and stay there fore 2 weeks and take classes intensively. They also provides you accommodation (usually business hotels) and 3 meals per day (through meal coupon kind of thing). Everything included it was $2400 per person ($1.00 = 100 Yen). Good deal right? Since it's a country side, it's quite nice to relax and people are generally nice... Some people say you can make friends with other camp kids. But being anti-social, I didn't make a single friend. Thank god I went with my sister.
I went to Niigata by the way.
No, no worries about radiation. well.... at least for now.
Did I get a license in the end???
YES.
So a piece of advice from me?
Get a driver's license elsewhere in the world and convert that into Japanese one.
You would save tons.
I should have f$%king gotten a license when I was in states...
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