Motorcycle test

After getting back to Japan last week Monday, I went to the Japanese DMV (called something else), inconveniently located about an hour and a half by three different trains and a nice 20 minute walk. I signed up to get my motorcycle license, scheduling my riding test for today. Just for the record: I already have my license in the US, but they make you take an abbreviated test here in Japan anyway.

Well, I failed spectacularly. Ok, not spectacularly, but I failed, dammit. For those who don't know, in the US, the test is fairly simple: you demonstrate the ability to do things like weave between cones, get up to a certain speed and then brake within a certain distance, ride properly through a turn, etc. In Japan, the test is much harder. For one, it depends on what size bike you want: you can get licenses for 1) mopeds, 2) up to 125cc bikes, 3) up to 400cc bikes, and 4) unlimited. Not only do you ride different bikes for the test, but you do a different route (don't ask me why; seems to me like you should do the same course just on different size bikes). Well, I'm an ego-maniac, so I thought I'd just go for the unlimited license. The test is a bit harder than the others, but this way I can get any bike I want, though I plan to stay in the 400 cc range. The course includes a cone weave, a fifty-foot ride across a one-foot wide platform raised about two inches (and stay on for a certain amount of time), an S-curve and two-right angles, as well as a thirty-foot ride over these metal bumps about three inches high which I think are supposed to replicate rail-road tracks, though I've seen any tracks raised like that. The funny thing is I failed on what I thought would be the easiest part: the raised platform. Rode right off the damned thing about five feet into it.

Frustrating as all hell, because I now have to wait a week to take the test again. In the meantime, I have no way to practice, which is really the worst part. It's not just that I need to practice these skills, but I need to get used to doing them while also practicing road rules, like looking and signaling, because unlike the US motorcycle tests, Japan also tests those things as well.

Well, I don't feel too bad: out of about 12 guys, only one passed. And I was one of about five guys to go off the platform. Cest la vie. I think I'll do better next time, if only because I won't be so damned nervous.

Other than that, I've been rock climbing a bit, going in for a few hours a couple of times in the last week. I live about 10 minutes from the gym by bike now, which is so much better than the 45 minutes or so it used to take, walking and riding the train. I probably ride my bike a few miles a day right now, going to the station, market, etc. I need to make sure that I don't get lazy when I get a motorcycle.

Hope all is well...Aloha.