Day 163 - Licence Test / PS3 / Acrobats / Jamaican Restaurant
Yes so today was quite an eventful day as you can see based on my heading... again I woke up at X's apartment then we headed off to Okayama city. She was following me to meet up with an IC (Independent Contractor) from my company, who would carry me to take the written driving test. So me and X got to Okayama at about 10:30 am and we were supposed to meet up with the IC at 12:00 noon. It was raining heavily in Okayama, and we heard that some flooding may take place... We eventually went to Mcdonalds of course then headed over to a store where I took some passport-size photos in this automated machine thing. We then headed back to where we were supposed to meet the IC. We saw a lady there in front of Mcdonalds, which was our meeting point, and she was there looking at her watch. We figured it was her but we decided that we weren't going to say a word and see if this Japanese lady would come over to us... Well yes she did come over to us and we went to the licence centre while X went back to her city.
This IC lady was new working for my company but she was very very nice. She formerly worked for a travelling company but she said because she had 2 children now, she quit that job and started to work for my company since this month....(Bad Idea) ... She has travelled to many countries in the world being a tour guide (darn I would love a job like that) ... this lady is 38 and she looks like 25... What's up with these Japanese ladies?? .. So yes, she took me to the licence centre where I was thoroughly interrogated by 2 Japanese men... 1 in Japanese, that my IC had to be translating for me, and the other in English. The questions include :
~ When did I get my licence (which was already on my Jamaican driver's licence)
~ When did I take my driving lessons (which was from 2003)
~ The dates when I took the lessons in 2003????
~ How many lessons did I take???
~ How much the lessons cost in Jamaican dollars and Japanese yen????
~ How many questions were on the written test in Jamaica ???
~ If I still have my learners licence from 2002 ????????????????
~ What's the process of getting the learners licence in Jamaica
~ What type of car I did the driving exam on in Jamaica in 2003????
But you basically get the idea... they even took my passport and asked me what was the landed stamp for????? and what was the Brazilian visa... I think they were surprised to see so many visas in my passport.
Now, the question that got me really curious was the one about If I have my learner's licence from 2002 with me here in Japan..... What the heck would I be doing with that??? 2002 I was still in my first year at University!!! ... I should have asked him if he still have his.... Anyway, after that 45 minutes of interrogation, they took my passport and other papers maybe to further investigate my cause... So I sat with the IC and we were talking... She said she had no idea why they were asking me so many weird questions and what purpose they served..... After 1 hour of waiting, they called my name, gave me my passport and other documents then gave me the written test which was in English and Japanese.... The test only had 10 extremely easy (Thank God) true and false questions.... Questions like:
You must stop at a red light (true or false)....
So of course I got everything right...then they took me to a little machine to check my eyesight... Yuh done know my eyes are big already so I got all those correct as well... they then took me to this place and gave me a paper with the course for the driving test... I will have to take that test on September 22 when I get a day off from work....If I had just 1 more week of holiday, I would have taken the driving test next week, but suh life guh.... while the English speaking interrogation Japanese man was walking with me, he asked me if I know Usain Bolt.. so I said well "We went to the same University, but I spoke to Asafa Powell before"... He was like "RREALLY!!!!", I said "Yes, he also went to my University"... He was like "wow, Sugoii (amazing) " .... I should have asked him, if that could by-pass me doing the driving test :D , that every single foreigner fail on their first try... Some fail as many as 7 times.. the good thing is that you can take it today and tomorrow and the next day if you wish, that's if you have 2400 yen to spare each day...
After the man showed me the optional 2 courses that they will choose for you on the day of my driving lesson... The IC dropped me off in Okayama city... It was right here I heard about the Storm in Jamaica from a Jamaican friend and instantly I started to worry about my mother and sister... My mother told me that the storm was heading there but she didn't tell me that it reached...
I then walked to the Jamaican store and bought some stuff like Jamaican Jerk seasoning and dem things deh...The owner then gave me directions to the Jamaican restaurant which was also in Okayama city... I was also supposed to meet another Jamaican friend in Okayama city, for us to go to a Chinese Acrobat show thing, so I was going to look for the Jamaican restaurant but ended up turning off into the store, Bic Camera because my phone wanted to charge.... I charged my phone then a PS3 caught my eyes..
I was like nooo I will buy it next month, but it was too hard to resist.. Soooo I now own a PS3 !!!! And for the other game heads who read my blog, I bought the games Ninja Gaiden and Devil may cry 4, unfortunately, they didn't have Grand Theft Auto 4 ... I want that game so badly... So yes I bought the PS 3 for the equivalent to US$ 300 yen and the 2 games for equivalent to US$ 20 each... Is that a deal or what??? Ohh It's a 40 GB PS 3 that's the only thing... Another thing I am realizing about myself is that I don't really play games too much anymore, I guess because I much prefer the good outdoors....
Yes so I bought the PS3 then rushed to meet XX who just came back from Jamaica like 2 days ago... We then took a tram to go see the Chinese Acrobat thingy... It was AMAZING!!!! Some of those things I saw, seemed impossible... I remember while taking the pictures, this Japanese lady was fanning me down and gesticulating that I should stop taking the photos... But I noticed that a Japanese man was up at the top taking pictures and his flash was on and mine wasn't... Why didn't she tell him to stop??? When I noticed that they weren't going to tell him to stop, I took out back my camera and snapped several more pictures...
After this amazing show, me and XX went to search for the Jamaican restaurant... But remember I was coming from X apartment plus I bought the PS3, plus I had my laptop with me, So these things were pretty heavy.... I went to a locker place by the station but apparently, we need a special card to close it... So guess what I did... I left my brand new PS3 and my little pulley in an empty locker but didn't lock it, then headed off to the Jamaican restaurant which was a good 15 minutes walk from the lockers... Mi mad dont??? Any way we found the Jamaican restaurant quite easily.. even though it was partially hidden in a lane.. looking like one of those lanes somewhere in Downtown, Kingston... This time we knew that no one will hold us up or try to pick our pockets though...
Even though thank God, in all my years going and passing through Downtown, Kingston, I have never once got held up, picked or anything like that... Many of my friends weren't so fortunate though... Some avoid Downtown, Kingston altogether... So any wayy, (mi chat too much innuh) .... we found the Jamaican restaurant where XX had, Jerk pork.... Or should I say, the Japanese version of Jerk pork... While I had stew chicken with rice and peas ... Oiishi (Delicious) ... XX Jerk pork wid fried rice wasn't suh oiiishi though... Her rice had too much black pepper on it and it never tasted so good at all...
After we ate, I had to rush to the locker and guess what??? My things were right there still intact :) ... Don't try this stunt anywhere else in the world my friends :D... Actually, we should pay for this service, but I guess because it was securely locked and we didn't have a card, it was free of cost, but extremely risky as anyone could have stolen my stuff... But, this is Japan for yah.... So I took the train home and XX went on her merry way...
This was a fun and interesting day wasn't it ???
Peace and love people
This was a fun and interesting day wasn't it ???
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