Baby you can Drive my car

As of last week, Trips and I both got our Japanese 'professional driver' licenses! Look out!

Trips also managed to aquire a set of wheels for us...our awesome Nissan Super Saloon. Well, it was free anyway and got us some much needed independance.

When we got it, Trips soon discovered that it didn't have any shoulder straps in the back seats, which was a concern for the child safety seats. He made a call, and within the hour had bought our 2nd car, a nice Mazda Premacy, for a couple thousand.

We haven't yet accomplished all the necessary tasks required for driving the Premacy, so we've been in the Super Saloon. I've driven it onbase. The opposite thing wasn't so difficult. Trips, on the other hand, has been brave enough to take it offbase. This is a brave task for four reasons, at least. First, of course, we're still getting used to everything being opposite - opposite side of the car, opposite side of the street, controls are even opposite (the cars on base are said to have extremely clean windshields because of the tendancy to hit the windshield wipers when trying to signal). Then, there is the fact that the Japanese are very much offensive drivers. Third, even though there are alot of cars on the road, there are just as many pedestrians and cyclists. They are everywhere and just as offensive in there actions. But, because there are so many pedestrians, there are many pedestrian crosswalks, so the speed limit stays low, which ties us into the the forth reason. The speed limit also stays low because most of the streets, even some of the main roads, are extremely narrow. And here we are in this large van. The combination of all of these aspects makes driving a large vehicle not such a good idea. The tiny car is king around here. Oh, I just thought of a fifth reason. It is acceptable in alot of places to just pull the car to the side of the road for temporary parking, say to run into a store or something, so there's alot of weaving around parked vehicles. I have to give my hubby big props. We haven't hit a thing in 2 days of driving! I have decided to wait for the smaller car. I think Trips may consider junking the Super Saloon soon and getting something smaller.

So, there we'll be, haplessly making our way up and down the crowded little streets of Japan. And, as if we won't stand out enough just by the mistakes we'll be making, it's guaranteed all will know that we are American, first time drivers! If you take another look at the picture above of the Super Saloon, you'll notice a yellow and green emblem. This is called a wakaba mark. It distinguishes you as a new driver in Japan (good for 1 year). It is actually a pretty cool thing 'cause in case of a minor accident, if you are driving with this on you're car, you are basically dismissed on any fault (the elderly are allowed a similar emblem). But, not only will everyone know we're newbies, but American newbies at that. The Y on the license plate signifies an American owned car.

The past two days we've loaded up the van and gone on drives around the Miura Peninsula. I have to say, we've done a pretty good job of navigating our way around. Nothing in Japan seems to be built on a grid system! We've discovered new areas of the peninsula that we hadn't seen yet with housing agents and got to go see the beautiful home of one of Trips' coworkers. The freedom to get beyond the base on our own time was nice. I wasn't convinced the girls thought the same through the cries, whines, and screams.