00:05 John Daub: Hello everybody. This video is made for everybody who's thinking about getting a driver's license in Japan to take the driving test or to do the gaimen kirikae (foreign license conversion), which is to transfer your license over from your original driver's license in your home country to a Japanese driver's license. I just wanted to give you some feedback on this series that I'm making on getting a Japanese driver's license. What I can say is that the results are coming in a second. But first, I want to enlighten you on some of the trials that I've had to go through in order to get to where I am today.

00:38 John Daub: So in order to get a gaimen kirikae, you can check out the two other videos that I made. One of them was actually before I took the driving practice. I went to a school and I took three hours of practice. I took the driving test the first time. I'm in Shinagawa at a place called Samezu. The only time you ever come to Samezu is for the driving test. There's not that much here. Yeah, I took the test about five weeks ago and I failed even though I thought I was pretty confident, but that confidence was too much. Don't get confident. Don't get cocky kid.

01:19 John Daub: As Han Solo said to Luke, you have to drive straight and be really mindful of the laws. Again, it's not about what you know or your experience driving abroad. It's about knowing the Japanese laws and that's really important. You have to know the Japanese laws and you have to drive safely, more safely than you would normally on the road. So you can't come into the test and think that you're just gonna pass it right away. That's a recipe for instant failure. So I knew that coming in. So the first time I failed, it was my fault. I was nervous and I never knew the course and the instructor was really rigid. Not the kind of guy that you want to go drinking with, for example. I failed. That's okay. That's my fault.

02:05 John Daub: So the next chance that I had was today. I took that test. I think it was November 7th. December 14th was the next chance and so this at Samezu, there's like a five or six week gap between when you can take the test again. You can forget a lot in five or six weeks. Now I'm here. The 14th. I came here about 20 minutes early. I came in an hour early, which was a big mistake because there's nothing to do here. You can't walk the course like some people on the internet have said. You can walk the course if you come here early. No, you know what course you're taking, but you don't know if it's A, B, or C. There's three courses that they have in there. So I have a map to study all three of them to make sure I got it for next time. So I knew this course. It was the same one as last time.

02:58 John Daub: Three days ago, I went to a place. I contacted a driving school called Kiki Driving School. Kiki Driving School is, I think it's a small business. They don't have their own course. It's not a big school and what it is is it's an instructor who is trained for the gaimen kirikae, the license exchange. He was really nice. He picked me up at the station and he drove me to the driving school in his car. We changed, we went to the school after hours. This was at 7:30 at night and he got a manual transmission. I'm learning to drive on a stick and we went around the course. The good thing about this compared to the other driving school was when I made a mistake, he asked me to pull over and he showed me on a diagram where my mistakes were and how I can improve on it to pass the test. And this is so helpful because in the other one, it was so crowded. The other driving school for practice, I couldn't pull over and they didn't explain things to me the same way. So I was really appreciative of Kiki Driving School's help, but I was pretty sharp after failing the first time. I sort of knew what I needed to do, but it's always good to practice even though, again, Han Solo, don't get cocky kid.

04:08 John Daub: Alright, so today I came in here about 20 minutes early. I checked in. You have to pay again, which is 2,200 yen, which is about $20 for each time you take the test. And I paid the money. I went in, I checked in, room number two. I waited. I tried to talk. I always talk to strangers. I talked to all the other people. I said hi because there's a guy sitting next to me. And he failed also the first time. And he, I guess he took the same day. You take the first available day, of course. Alright, I was number three this time. So the first person goes into the car. The second person drives in the passenger seat. And the third person waits, standby. And there were nine people today. So it was quite crowded.

04:46 John Daub: When I got to the second person, when the second person started to drive, they called me. There's a computer monitor and they go, bing! Number three, go to the platform. So that's what I did. I went to the platform. Today was a good instructor. Today was a really nice examiner. I shouldn't say instructor, examiner. And the examiner was a lot lighter. He's not easy going, but he's a lot lighter. And he, I saw him, I knew it was easier because he spent some time to explain to the person before me his mistakes. The first time I took the test, the instructor was like in a bad mood. He didn't explain anything. Zero feedback. So I didn't know what I did wrong, pretty much. He just said, you failed.

05:30 John Daub: This was the biggest opportunity. Now this is why I failed. This is why I'm kicking myself. Everything was perfect. I was going smooth. I wasn't as nervous, but I knew I gotta be sharp. You have to look left, right. You have to exaggerate at each intersection. You have to, when you turn right and left, you have to do the points and check all your blind spots and make sure you have everything. Signal. There's a triangle on the street. When you turn, never touch the triangle. This is the holy spot, okay? You always turn and never touch it. Turn inside the triangle.

06:08 John Daub: Alright, I was good. The guy before me, he was going all over the triangle like this. I was like laughing to myself. Yeah, he failed. You can't go over the triangle. Everything's perfect. I did the S-curve and then there's something called the crank, which is these 45-degree angles. These turns. 90-degree turns. And I got in there. And then after the crank, he said, turn right. And I said, okay. Because I knew the course. I memorized. I turned right. And there's three lanes. There's the lane, the right lane. Then there's a middle lane for people going straight. And then there's the left lane. And I pulled into the middle lane and not into the left lane. Instant fail. Over. And he said, okay, you failed. You did it like you did... You were driving in America. Go back to number four and pull in there and the test is over.

07:01 John Daub: And I knew I failed. I wasn't angry at my... I was angry at myself a little bit. But yeah, I deserved to fail for that. And I'm not going to go back and practice anymore. I think I got this test down. I'm glad I failed now than swerving and pulling in where there would be a car there and getting into an accident. So it's good practice. And failing... I try to take the positive outlook. Failing is the first step to success. I don't know. Somebody smarter than me has an expression about it. So I sort of feel like that. But I really wanted that license today. I really wanted to get it because I wanted to do something over New Year's with you on the Only in Japan Go channel.

07:46 John Daub: So there's my report on driving. I'll be back. My next chance to get the driver's license for gaimen kirikae transfer, the first available time... This is Tokyo. January 23rd. That's like two months away. Now, I'll be away. That's the first available. But I have this way. I just kind of talk to people and say, you know, come on. There's got to be an earlier date or something. And he said, yeah, you know what? Call this number. Jim, thank you very much. Jim promised me a super chat to buy a bottle of sake. And I failed. So he's so kind. He gave me a super chat as a consolation. I'm going to use that for lunch, my friend.

08:44 John Daub: Because I rushed here to get here because I haven't been sleeping well. I slept in late. I rushed here to get here. I'm going to go eat some lunch now. But yeah. Jim, you know Amanda. I see Linda's here. You guys know the trial, how hard it's been to get this driver's license. Just exchange it. Even after I've been driving for, you know, when I was a high school student for many, many years, hundreds of thousands of miles. But it doesn't really matter. It's all about knowing the Japanese laws.

09:05 John Daub: And for those of you who are watching this to learn how to do the gaimen kirikae, because I want this episode to be valuable to you as well. After you get your paperwork and you're allowed to take the driving test, and this is for Americans because Europeans get a free pass. I think Canadians as well. There are certain nationalities that are blessed. And I'm not one of them. Americans have to take the driving test. That's okay. You know, I'd rather be safe than sorry. And if it means saving my life somewhere down the line because I'm a safer driver because of this, then I think that's a good thing.

09:40 John Daub: The thing that you have to know about the driving test is... It's not just Americans. It's a lot of Chinese, a lot of Korean, a lot of Indian, Nepal, Sri Lanka, lot of other Asians. You have to practice, man. You have to practice. You do not know what you're up against. You need to practice. At least get an idea of the laws of Japan and know them. And so you can drive safe, not just to get the license, but to pass this test. You have to know the course. I was shocked that the other nine drivers, nobody knew the course. Everybody... The examiner will tell you to turn left and right. Why would you even wait that much? Memorize the course. There are maps.

10:38 John Daub: Okay, I'm going to pull this out of my thing. I have here a chart. I don't want to show you a lot of the private details, but this is the driving school that I went to. They gave me a guidebook to drive it. Here's the name. This is the paperwork for my next test. And I asked the lady and I said, I want that thing with the course on it. Do you have that? And she said, yeah. She said, I had it already. I go, no, I lost it. So, she gave me another one. This is the information that you need for the practical exam. On the back are the courses. You need to memorize these three courses. It'll make it easier. There's A. There's B. There's C. If you know the route, it takes off all the stress of you trying to understand and listen to the instructor to know where you're going. You can just focus on driving and the checking around left and right.

12:01 John Daub: Exam course. Things that will be checked. This is basically it. This place is 8:20 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. Right after lunch. Those are the only two times during the day you have to take the test. And the exam is issued at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. So, you have to wait even more. They make sure you wait.

12:40 John Daub: I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to know. Abilities to be checked. Cognitive skills. Ability to seek out the information necessary to drive. Judgment skills. Ability to deal with various traffic circumstances. There are no traffic on this course, so I don't think you need that. Safe driving practice. Attitude. Always have a good attitude. Smile. Observe traffic. Physical agility. Safe and consistent driving skills. The exam starts when you get into the car.

13:10 John Daub: Hola, como esta, Enrique? I'm John. Enrique is my driving course buddy here. I'm reading the things, the abilities to be checked.

13:24 Enrique: Yeah.

13:24 John Daub: Cognitive skills. Judgment skills. Safe driving practice. Attitude. Physical agility. Safe and consistent driving skills.

13:46 Enrique: We're safe. We're safe.

13:49 John Daub: The guy who was before me was pretty nervous. He got up three times. He went over the line. Two times. How could he do that? He stopped the car three times. He was really nervous.

14:15 Enrique: I got contagion by it. So I just hit the sidewalk for a moment.

14:22 John Daub: Oh! That's enough to kill you. That's it. There are certain things that are like, hitting the curb is one of them, and the other one is swinging. What I did was I took a right into the middle lane. And I didn't stay in the left lane. I went to the middle lane. And that's something that Americans would do.

14:42 Enrique: When's your next exam?

14:43 John Daub: January 23rd.

14:45 Enrique: Yeah, same.

14:47 John Daub: Morning or afternoon?

14:49 Enrique: In the 12:50.

14:51 John Daub: Ah, I'll see you again. I'm 23rd, 12:50.

14:56 Enrique: Okay, yeah.

14:57 John Daub: Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow. The lazy ones who don't want to come in the morning, right?

15:02 Enrique: Yeah, yeah, right.

15:04 John Daub: I asked him, I said, is the morning or the afternoon better? Which one is easier? Which one is more stress-free? And he goes, it's the same. It's all stress. Did you practice? Did you study?

15:18 Enrique: I studied. I bought the book.

15:20 John Daub: I'm going to show you the book.

15:21 Enrique: Oh, yeah, if you have the book. You can see it. So, it's a very good book. Gives you good ideas. You can see what is coming on the test. And the signals. And everything.

15:32 John Daub: Yeah, you have to know, right? This is not easy. This is not something that you can just jump in the car and pass.

15:39 Enrique: Exactly.

15:40 John Daub: So, this is the book. It's very complete. You can get it on Amazon Japan. Rules of the Road.

15:49 Enrique: Rules of the Road. Sounds serious.

15:51 John Daub: So serious they put an anime character, mega character. This is in English. It has everything.

16:01 Enrique: You read the whole thing? I've been driving for years in Mexico.

16:04 John Daub: Ah.

16:04 Enrique: Well, we are like serial killers in Mexico.

16:12 John Daub: You're having fun. Was this your first time taking the test?

16:18 Enrique: Yeah, this is the first time I take it.

16:19 John Daub: It's my second time. Second? How did you feel the first one? You know, the gear shift.

16:26 Enrique: You take a... The gear shift was too soft. I'm so used to push... I used to make a sound when I shift the gear. This time it was so buttery smooth. I went from second to fifth. I don't even know how that works.

16:39 John Daub: And from first to like fourth? I got the same thing. This time I was ready for it and I was... That wasn't a problem. I had other problems. I took a right turn and I swung into the middle lane and not into the left lane. Instant fail. But he said, you know what? He said, I thought you were going to pass. You were doing a pretty good job. This is a good thing. You're a good guy, actually.

17:01 Enrique: He was very kind. The other... The automatic... Another guy told me because he was the... Pain in the neck. He was the pain in the neck. I had him last time.

17:10 John Daub: So there you go, everybody. There's a rundown of what you need to do to pass. So thank you very much for being on the show. I'll give you my card.

17:19 Enrique: No, no. You finish and I'll give you mine too.

17:21 John Daub: Yeah. I'll finish it. So this is where we go, Samezu. And thank you very much for the super... That's everybody. I appreciate that. Let me see if I... Shout out. Do you have a channel?

17:31 Enrique: Yeah, I do.

17:32 John Daub: Oh, do you... Give us a shout out.

17:42 Enrique: My channel is... Come watch two failures. Driving failures, the channel.

17:47 John Daub: So let's start off. I think we're going to do a video about this.

17:50 Enrique: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

17:52 John Daub: So this is my channel. Just read the QR code and it's all my social media in there. What's your channel called?

17:57 Enrique: Riken Magic.

17:58 John Daub: Riken Magic, everybody. There was no magic today on the course. The magic will be tonight. Trying to forget it.

18:06 Enrique: Yeah, the Siberian beers. That's what we do. The magic.

18:11 John Daub: So from Samezu, everybody, over and out. Thanks again, everybody, for following me on this journey of failure. But we'll get there. Next month, it's going to be total success. I'm going to do another stream later today. So have a great night, day, wherever you are in the world. See you, everybody.