Day 294 { Finally / Unfair Treatment } - Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Day 294 { Finally / Unfair Treatment }

Woke up at 5:15 am AGAIN this morning, based on my inspiration day before yesterday (while reading my Bible), to go to the license center before Friday which I planned for. So again I was in Okayama city, and I met up with the other guy who was supposed to do the exam with me. Our IC picked us up and took us to the license centre and we saw yet another person who work for our company, paying for the exam as well..

This is the amount of money I have spent so far on this thing after 4 attempts:

2900 x 4 = 11,600 Train fare
2400 x 4 = 9,600 Exam
700 x 4 = 2,800 Lunch and breakfast
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24,000 (or about US $240)
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After the three (3) of us did the driving exam...we were talking about what we did wrong and how we failed and what not... So while I was there, my friend Gregory who is in New York, called along with my cousin Andre in Jamaica... I had to come out of the room with the other foreigners who took the exam as well because those who know me, know that my mouth is very loud... 

So I was there chatting with both of them and laughing very loud... They were there encouraging me and saying I will get the licence this time and what not... About 28 mins after us talking, the examiner was ready to call us in so I hung up with them.... Then I joined the line of foreigners (about 7 of us) waiting for the judgement...So everyone went before me and failed and now I was about to hear my verdict...Then he asked me why did I turn on my indicator at a corner as well as something about I should have slowed down more at a blind spot... So I was there holding down my head then the man said...something in Japanese and my IC shouted "YOU PASSED !!!" .... and started jumping... I was in shock and disbelief for about 5 minutes... I felt bad for the other guy because it was like 11:30 am and we had to wait until about 3 pm to get the license... They then made me watch this video about driving carefully in Japan etc etc.. Then they finally gave me the license. It felt like a million dollars... Well not really but I was very very happy to get it. The license have some sort of chip device inside it so it cannot be duplicated and it can be recognized by a special computer....

I was the only foreigner who passed today, and as such, I was the only foreigner in a sea of Japanese people collecting the license... While I was in the line, this Japanese man was giving some instructions and talking on this mic.. then I heard him say, "Gykokujin something something" ... Myself as well as my IC was surprised when he said it... It's like he said "you non-Japanese or you foreigner please to come this way" .... I don't know if it was a racial thing, but obviously he didn't care... After a while he then called me in in front of the others to take my picture, which was a good thing...Because the amount of Japanese persons collecting their license was about 70 BUT only 1 foreigner...... Is this strange or what????I notice one other blatant thing about their supposedly "Give the foreigners a hard time" licensing system. And it is that, the Japanese persons who are taking the exam are allowed to have a passenger in the back seat... I don't know if this passenger is a friend or someone else taking the exam... But the point is, they are allowed to have a passenger... But guess what??? The foreigner CANNOT have a passenger in the back seat. Could someone explain this to me???

Anyway, yes Richard I have been playing Ninja Gaiden since its inception on Nintendo, it and Shinobi...And you are so right, every single Ninja Gaiden is hard.... The only ones I have never actually played are the ones on X-box 360, the game gear and the Nintendo DS versions.