We got a car!! But wait, don't celebrate yet....

Thar she is, in all her glory, our new car. A beautiful 2000 Toyota Vitz. Let me just say after buying a car in Japan, I will never complain about having to wait at the DMV. Ever. You literally bleed money during the car buying process in Japan.

Our car was $2500...okay, that's fair. They say spend about $1,000 for each year you know you will be in Japan on your car. While we'd like to be here more than 2.5 years, it's still a fair price for a small car in great condition with low miles.

Then you have to pay for a full 12 months of liability insurance upfront which is $500. Okay, that's cheaper than in the US, but in the US we have to option to do a payment plan, not so here. Then you have to pay for Japanese insurance (wait, didn't we just pay for insurance? Yes. You have to have two, one for base and one for out in town). The good news is that the Japanese insurance (JCI) follows the car, not the driver. The previous owner has already paid two years for us. So, no money lost there.

Then we have to register the car to park on base. The woman at the vehicle registration office on base worked quickly and when she finished handed us a stack of papers equivalent to a small novel. She explains the paperwork and can tell by our deer in the headlights look we're overwhelmed. She starts over. We still don't get it, but we do know the next steps.

The next steps (explained below) have to be completed within 7 days of buying the car, otherwise the fine can be in the thousands of dollars. The official offices you have to visit are only open during the exact hours you are at work. Of course.
So back to the process...we now have to take this small stack of paperwork issued by the base vehicle registration office to the LTO office (not sure what LTO means) in Yokohama, which is an hour drive away and it takes all day as you have to visit three different floors with your ever growing stack of paperwork until they issue you a temporary licence plate.

They have people called "LTO runners" whose sole job is to take your car from Yokosuka to Yokohama and navigate the maze of official buildings for you. The cost to hire one is about $50. It's $50 well spent as most people (such as ourselves) have never driven off base and it's a tough drive for your first venture out to town. So, we hired our runner and she's coming to pick up our car tomorrow afternoon. We don't have to go with her.

Then, you have to give the runner 20,740 yen, which is the cost to register your car and equates to about $290...so for those keeping track, in addition to the $500 we just paid for base insurance, we now must pay $50 to hire a runner, and $290 to pay four other fees spread amongst three different floors in an official building in Yokohama.

Got it? Are we done? Nope. Now, we take the stack of paperwork, which by this time has grown to the size of War and Peace, the temporary plate, and ourselves to the City Hall in Yokosuka (at least that's within walking distance of the base). They issue our permanent license plate, and provide us a battery of stickers that indicate we have paid all of our fees.

Are we done now? No, of course not. Now we take the stack of paperwork (by this time you're probably carrying it in a backpack and considering getting it bound at Kinko's to make an attractive coffee table book) to the base vehicle registration office where we started our journey. The base finalizes your car registration on base and issues you your base sticker, which allows you access to the installation.

And now, you are done. At least until it's time to pay your road tax again and then you do the whole process over. Can't wait for that.