Just Got My Japanese Motorcylce License!!!

Jonny · Post by **Jonny** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:18 am

There's a fairly long story behind this, and I really should have chronicled it from day to day (yes, it takes that long) but I didn't. Sorry. Let's see if I can break it down into a semi digestible/readable format.

STEP 1: Go to local driving school and pay about $1,500 USD. Yes, I could've just gone to the licensing centre and taken the test straight-up, but given my proximity that would've been hugely time consuming, much more frustrating, and depending on my learning curve could easily have been more expensive.

STEP 2: Take eligibility test. This is a written test taken in many parts. Nothing to do with road rules, but more to do with physical and mental reflexes. The first four parts of this test had to do with ticking boxes. The instructor emphasized doing these tests as quickly as we possibly could. First was reading two opposed sets of text, beit numbers, shapes, alphabet, or kanji, and ticking if they were the same or different. I got started and felt great: "Shit, I'm really killing thi... "STOP!"". Confidence drops a lot. Then there was the same test with only shapes. Next was drawing a triangle within a box over and over and over again. After that was drawing a slash through squares. Each test seemed to get quicker and my hand just reacted slower and slower.

Next was a statement/response test. With each statement I must respond on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. My Japanese is pretty shite, so they let my wife translate for me. There were a couple of pages to go through. It was quite distracting that she was laughing out loud at every odd statement. These are the best I remember (in no particular order):

*I want to die.

*I am a happy person.

*I hear voices in my head.

*I think positively about life and about others.

*I lie awake at night thinking about death.

*People are only kind because they want something from me.

*I think about death often.

*I have deep anger.

These are the statements that linger with me. There were many more and I wish I recorded the whole test for posterity (it would've also been fun to hear my wife trying to suppress her giggles as she translated this gear). Somehow I passed, so on to...

STEPS 3 to 20:These steps are the 18 hours of riding and simulator training that is required. I learned a lot of interesting things; some incredibly positive, some left me scratching my head. Here are the highs and lows:

*Overall the instructors helped me with my poise on the bike, how to shift my weight during cornering, pointed out some bad habits I had, and explained how I could improve my general handling.

*Bikes are Honda CB400 Super Fours. All with about 220,000/240,000kms on the clock. Run like tops, even though the instructors rape them. All burgundy. Blecch.

*I got to slow-race around the circuit with one instructor.

*I had three sessions on the simulator. The first instructor cut the lesson short, and the other two told me that my wife and little son will cry so much when I kill myself.

*The crank, s-curve, iipon bashi (15 yard long, 7-odd inch wide concrete stretch that you have to ride along in over 8 seconds) and the slalom (that you have to take in under 7 seconds) are just fun.

*There are a bigger set of crank and s-curves that I was told to really go at. Not in the test, just practice. "Lean the bike over and accelerate here, here, here..." I feel proud that I scraped pegs during a license lesson.

*Figure 8. Again, not in the test, but fantastic practice. Head up, head up...

*Emergency braking. In the test. In practice I found out that I'm a back brake junky. In my defense, I haven't ridden a regular motorcycle in years, and the last ten have been spent largely without a clutch, so when it came time to stop quickly, my car foot braking came to the fore: squirrelly-arsed that bastard to a long stop that bugged my instructors eyes out nicely. He didn't need to tell me it was shite. He had me practicing over and over again. Good fun, really. Especially when you understand what the problem is and it's just a matter of controlling the muscles and impulses and making them obey. Got better and better with the right hand and tried to forget I had a right foot.

*"Only use your front brake when going in a straight line". Ok, I'll do that to pass your test, but God knows I'm going to try and figure out how to use it around corners once I'm out of here!

Lessons done? Nice work! Doesn't mean you're out of here:

STEP 21: THE TEST: Everyone is prepared to take their test a few times, two or three seem to be about average. Licensing in Japan is just so strict. My test was booked in for the other week but was canceled due to rain. I re-booked for this morning. It's been about 2 weeks since I was on their bike and their course, so, even though I knew I'd take it easy and do my best, I could see myself taking the test at least another one or two times.

Day breaks and it is perfect. I mean PERFECT! Not a cloud in the sky, amazing steely blue ocean, chilly, but crisp. I turn up for the test feeling relaxed, thinking "I'll more than likely be failed on some bullshit technicality to prove some kind of point, but that's ok. I'll be as measured as I feel they want me to be, and I'll just do the best I can: their turf, their rules=my license".

I ride the course: Up here, down there, left, hill stop, then right and pull over, then take off and head on straight and into the bike course, etc. It was a bit of a mindfuck for me to remember, but today, somehow, I feel confident (There is so much bullshit about which turn where, when you should signal, how you should change position in your lane to approach a corner, how you should enter and exit a corner. Get it wrong and it's test over). I ride, I remember the signaling points, I out-brake myself like a motherfucker on the emergency braking section (Huzzah! no back brake lock-up!) I ended up stopping so short of the mark I thought they might fail me, but instead I got an impassive look of not disapproval. I ride the rest of the course with the idiot in my head saying "You've done well. Just don't fuck up here. Or here. Or here..."

I finish and park, thinking "It wasn't PERFECT, but I think I did it."

Did I do it?

Another guy is taking the test. I have to wait... watching...

Finished! He did ok, I think.

Instructor walks in.

Me: Excuse me, did I pass?

Him: What? Oh, of course. Come back in an hour for your paperwork.

JOB DONE!

But then there's:

STEP 22:Now I have to go to the local licensing centre (almost 3 hours drive away), get ratified and take an eye test which I will piss-in because I can read shit as tiny as this whilst standing on my head and getting my nutsack shaved by Natalie Portman.

Once that is done (not the nutsack-shaving, but the eye test) then it will be...

JOB DONE!

scumbag · Post by **scumbag** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:40 am

Wow man... Congrats!

Jaeger · Post by **Jaeger** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 12:20 pm

So here's a question: do you think the licensing process is insufficient, adequate, or overkill?

Oh, and おめでとうございます !!!!

--Jaeger

FastCat · Post by **FastCat** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 12:45 pm

Natalie Portman is in Japan?

Post by **DerGolgo** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 12:58 pm

Well Done! Did you get that funny 400cc license you have over there or for big bikes?

Bigshankhank · Post by **Bigshankhank** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:07 pm

Huzzah!!!! Here's to hoping your wife and son never have to cry over your mangled carcass. BTW I love that instructor, that's the kind of tough love we need in licensing over here.

Zim · Post by **Zim** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:17 pm

Congrats on the license!

Bigshankhank wrote:BTW I love that instructor, that's the kind of tough love we need in licensing over here.

I was thinking the same thing.

Photo · Post by **Photo** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:17 pm

FastCat wrote:Natalie Portman is in Japan?

And she shaved your nutsack? Think she'd want to manscape others, here?

Congrats on your license. Japan has such polite drivers! Nobody wants to kill themself.

thrasherbill · Post by **thrasherbill** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:57 pm

Wow, I thought I had to go through a lot to get my license compared to the WA folks. Way to go making it through that mess!

***EDIT***
...and I would gladly let Natalie Portman shave my nuts. Preferably while wearing this outfit:

Vespalina · Post by **Vespalina** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:02 pm

Oh my lord...what an unbelievable ordeal to get a license!!!
Congratulations on sticking through it and passing all those hurdles!
The driving instruction sounds amazing and I feel like a total whimp for panicking when I had to do my figure-8 in the paltry 8-hour-split-over-two-Sundays class that I took.

I wish drivers over here in the US had to go through all of those steps - maybe we'd have more careful drivers.

HUZZHA! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!

Flatline · Post by **Flatline** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:05 pm

Damn, we really have it easy here. Congrats dude! Sounds like quite the ordeal to go through.

I heard (maybe from you) that there are different licenses for larger bikes. Is that correct?

MoraleHazard · Post by **MoraleHazard** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:26 pm

Just damn. I think there's a happy middle between the USA overly lenient licensing scheme and that.

Great report though, and mucho congrats from my end.

Now you just have to get one of those Japan only UJM modern retros to rip up and down whatever they call their twisties there.

Congrats and good luck w/ the rest.

rolly · Post by **rolly** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:06 pm

Well done!

Jonny wrote:Next was a statement/response test. With each statement I must respond on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. My Japanese is pretty shite, so they let my wife translate for me. There were a couple of pages to go through. It was quite distracting that she was laughing out loud at every odd statement. These are the best I remember (in no particular order):

*I want to die.

*I am a happy person.

*I hear voices in my head.

*I think positively about life and about others.

*I lie awake at night thinking about death.

*People are only kind because they want something from me.

*I think about death often.

*I have deep anger.

This bit is hilarious. But also I have to wonder how they score it. Like, what if you just slightly agree that you want to die or hear voices in your head?

karl package · Post by **karl package** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 4:30 pm

Congratulations!
I got my endorsement out of a cracker jack box.

rc26 · Post by **rc26** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 6:47 pm

Good deal. Now have a few to celebrate.

UndertheGun · Post by **UndertheGun** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:13 pm

I'm not sure if Preist's endorsement story is better or not. lol

If I ride while I'm over next year, I'll be grateful for the 400cc< allowance.
Not an entirely bad thing in my book, aside from the cost. From what I've seen while in Japan, the level of riding is much higher than here in the states.

Flatline · Post by **Flatline** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 2:38 am

UtG, you, like myself, are not a wee man.

In short, you'll look like a monkey fucking a football on a 400cc.

UndertheGun · Post by **UndertheGun** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:23 am

Our SVs are based off of the nearly identical SV400. IIRC, the block is pretty much the same but bored out to 650 for markets outside of Japan.

But you're right. They don't design bikes for people who are 6' 4"+.

Jonny · Post by **Jonny** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:27 am

Thanks for the corngrats, everyone. I was pretty stoked to have passed it first go, and so, while waiting for them to complete my paperwork, did enjoy a pre-10am lager. Yay!

A couple of things I forgot to mention. There are 18 hours worth of lessons, but at most you can only take two lessons in one day. The driving school I went to was relatively busy, so most days I could only take one class. I started this adventure in mid OCTOBER and I've only just finished! Life gets busy and with the school being busy too, it just blew my plan of 2 lessons every day until it's done completely out of the water. It felt like it was never going to end, and as much as I love motorcycles, that really drained my enthusiasm. That part of the system sucks arse.

I now have a 400cc license. In Japan there are three classes of license: up tp 125cc, up to 400cc, and unlimited. The 125cc license costs about a grand, and for all intents and purposes is fairly useless (unless the rider is simply too tiny to learn on a 400 comfortably). The 400cc (about $1,500) is important because not only does it get you started, but you must already have that permit to go for the unlimited license (which will cost another $1,200 or so). So, all up, an unlimited license through a driving school will cost you about $2,700. Madness. That part of the system sucks arse.

Jaeger wrote:So here's a question: do you think the licensing process is insufficient, adequate, or overkill?

Oh, and おめでとうございます !!!!

--Jaeger

ありがとう！本当に嬉しいです！　*^^*

As everything, there are problems with the system (as stated above: cost, amount of time required), but in some ways maybe that's a good thing. If those points discourage people whose bro told them to get a bike because it would be mad fun, bro, then that's possibly not a bad thing.

In general the instruction was good (apart from that front brake thing) and I'm very glad I went the school route because I have come out a much better rider than when I started and I've been given very useful information to help me continue to improve.

I don't know much about the testing requirements in the US, but in Australia you can get your license in a day if you can already ride, two days if you can't. Often I wished that was the case in Japan, but at the end I'm glad for what I had to go through.

It's hard to say if it's overkill or not. Let's just say it is VERY Japanese, so to those who are unfamiliar or inexperienced with the culture or are simply too impatient it would definitely feel like overkill. If you can stop, listen, and say "hai" a lot, then you may find you pick up some smaller details or points that may otherwise be easily missed.

Regarding the initial test (ticking boxes and thinking about death, etc). The results said that I can be too over-confident. Which is not a good thing to be on a motorcycle, and is also a fairly accurate description of me. Spooky.

Oh, UtG, I believe you'll be able to ride any capacity machine here if you have an international license. However, if you end up with something other than a tourist visa then you will probably have to get a Japanese license. Australians, and I think Canadians (and lots of other people) can just show their passport, home country license, take an eye test, and Robert's your fathers' brother. Americans, on the other hand, have to take the full written and practical tests. That's a bitch.

Next step: Purchasing a Machine.

Pattio · Post by **Pattio** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:29 am

Thanks for sharing that- It's nice to hear a first hand account. I had the general idea that it was 'difficult and expensive' to have a motorcycle license in Japan, but never knew the specifics.

I can hardly imagine how much better off I would have been if I had to go through a process like that back when I started riding. otoh I could never have afforded it.

(threadjack)

UndertheGun wrote:
But you're right. They don't design bikes for people who are 6' 4"+.

The Japanese don't but the Austrians & Germans sure do. The 'murkin riding position is also tall-guy friendly allowing you to spread your legs as long and wide as you need. pro homo.

(threadjack off)(pro homo)

Oh and Jonny- go with your instructors on the front brake thing as best you can. The point is not 'how can I learn to be on the brake in turns', its 'how can I learn to be on the gas in turns', which involves doing the necessary braking some other time- meaning before the turn. Just roll with it.

Jonny · Post by **Jonny** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:52 am

Thanks for that, Pattio. It's things like that where I was probably let down by both my lack of language and weak moto fu. It's cool, though, how just a simple statement or suggestion can get you moving along an important educational track. You saying this:

The point is not 'how can I learn to be on the brake in turns', its 'how can I learn to be on the gas in turns'

...now makes some of the things one of the instructors was asking me to do make much more sense. Cheers.

Damn I'm itching to get a machine!

karl package · Post by **karl package** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 8:33 am

Jonny wrote:I don't know much about the testing requirements in the US, but in Australia you can get your license in a day if you can already ride, two days if you can't. Often I wished that was the case in Japan, but at the end I'm glad for what I had to go through.

karl package wrote:Congratulations!
I got my endorsement out of a cracker jack box.

I bought a CB550 when I was around 20. I rode it home after purchasing it and then took it to a very small parking lot a few blocks from my house. After about an hour or two of accelerating, braking and doing turns as slowly as I could, I went and took my test. I believe it was 20 written questions and then out to the parking lot with a Missouri Statie for a very simple riding test. I passed on the first try. Subsequent states that I have lived in have transferred the endorsement after taking or paying for the written exam. My previous motorcycle experience was riding a dirt bike through a field for 15 minutes about 6 years before that and riding around the block on a Honda 250 earlier that year. The only person I knew that rode had gotten heavy into the biker lifestyle (He bought a Harley, started hanging out with 1%ers and got involved in the meth) so I never even knew about the MSF until years later.

goose · Post by **goose** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:47 am

Congratulations Jonny!

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Just Got My Japanese Motorcylce License!!!

Just Got My Japanese Motorcylce License!!!