The Big Day?

I'm pretty sure there's a saying in Japan, "If it dosen't involve a lot of paperwork and waiting, it's not worth doing!" Coming to Japan, I knew how much of a stickler the officials were that all your paperwork be in order. Little did I know that they whole country operates on paperwork. As a matter of fact, their love for beauraceracy and blind eye to how troublesome it is comes very close to that of the Vogon's as described in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Anyway, the same goes for buying a car. Today we take the first step in car ownership in Japan. We actually buy the car! The magnent I'm holding above goes on the front and back of your car if you have less than one year of Japanese driving experience. If you're pulled over and don't have the magnent, you can get fined. If you keep it on for more than a year and are discovered, you can get fined. They also have a different magnent for driver's over 75.

In Japan, the cars are riddled with stickers, no, not fun stickers that let the world know your political opinion on gay marriage (marriage = equality for all!) or that let people know you love to joke around (I miss my ex husband, but my aim is improving!) but official stickers. You have to have a sticker to park not only on base, but out in town...yes, park...even in your own driveway, you can get ticketed for not having the proper prefecture parking permit. Then you need to get a sticker showing you paid your road tax. The road tax seems to be very similar to our annual registration fees for our vehicles. Then you have to show you paid your recycling fee, which the best I can figure is an offset fee to how many people want to junk their cars every year. You also pay your insurance up front for two years.....and the list just goes on.....it's little wonder why so many people depend on Japan's complex and reliable public transportation system.

With that being said, it's unfair and wrong to assume that most Japanese people do not own cars. Many do. They just don't rely on them as much as we do in the US where we have been ingrained to rely only on ourselves, not on the system.

Our car is a 2000 Toyota Vitz, which is essentially a Toyota Yaris, even though the Yaris didn't make an appearance in the US until 2007. It has about 54k miles on it, which is nothing considering it's a 2000 and it's dark blue.

One step towards our independence and one step towards moving off base!