Getting a Japanese Driving Licence – The practice session

You can book driving practice sessions at Futamatagawa test center on weekends and holidays. I took a session yesterday, 19 May. After the session, I knew I will most likely fail a few times. The session which includes car rental and instructor costs 8600 yen, which is pretty worth it in my opinion for the below reasons.

The test is actually not difficult. It is just driving through a fixed course that you don’t have to remember because the examiner will tell you where to turn. So what is difficult?

This is: presenting what the examiner is looking for.

The practice session really helped a lot because it has been 8 years since I took my one and only driving test back in Singapore. Basic things like signalling 3 seconds before making a turn or changing lanes get forgotten easily. I found out that this driving test is not a test of your skill, or your reaction, or how smooth you can accelerate or brake. It tests your ability to execute a set of actions in sequence, and of course that will be a test of your memory and brain to body coordination by vomiting out the actions to your limbs.

Is it easy to make a turn? Who doesn’t know how to turn? Bet you didn’t know you must stick as close to the curb as possible without hitting it while you turn left. Bet you didn’t know the furthest you can position your car is 1mm away from the center line while preparing to make a right turn. I was so paranoid in trying to perfect those that I kept forgetting to signal in preparation for the next turn.

Oh and they fucking put an obstacle (1) just round a curve, and another one (2) just before a left turn into a smaller street. So for (1), you have to make a lane change while negotiating the curve and for (2), you can’t make a smooth transition back to the left lane because you have to turn left. It got me uncomfortable as I wasn’t presented with such situations at the driving school in Singapore.

I thought the cars we were going to use was the Toyota Comfort taxi cab, but it turned out to be a Nissan Tiida, or Latio depending on where it is marketed. After making payment I was asked to sit in the car and wait for the instructor.

On entering the vehicle, I noted that the gear was in reverse and pulled it out, but thought maybe it was supposed to be the starting position so I put it back in. After a while, the instructor came.

After exchanging some greetings with the instructor, he asked me to turned on the engine as the weather was hot. I asked if there are any specific procedures before starting the engine. He said yeah, but first start the engine cuz it’s hot. I cranked the ignition but nothing happened. I tried it once again and got a weird stare from him, and he asked if I know how to start an engine! I was like, yeah this is one of the things I wanted to ask. Do I need to clutch in? He pointed that the gear was in reverse so the engine couldn’t start without clutching in (it has some safety mechanism I guess?). I didn’t try to start it in manual and I believe  that the correct procedure is to clutch in and I shall remember that.

I think we were taught to clutch in at driving school but after getting my licence, I started all manual cars in neutral without clutching in, and those vehicles weren’t as high-tech as these nowadays. Okay, so I clutched in and cranked the ignition again.

After adjusting the mirrors and putting on my seatbelt, I was ready to go. I still remembered some test requirements so I put them into practice. Check all mirrors and signal away from the curb side. Release the clutch gradually and get her moving. I never had problems with engaging the clutch, so I just need to release it slowly to feel the biting point distance and thereafter I can engage it immediately.

During the session, I was told to keep as close to the left kerb as possible without getting into the gutter. It is the same for a left turn, where we should not swerve to the right before turning left. I kept focusing on keeping close to the kerb but not hitting it, so much that I kept forgetting to hit the turn indicator in preparation for the next turn.

Some sections of the roads are wide enough to hold two vehicles side-by-side, and these are actually two-lane roads, so we are supposed to treat it as such and keep left.

If there is a right turn almost immediately after a left turn into a two-lane-disguised-as-a-one-lane road, turn until the vehicle is 45 degrees left of the previous position and go straight for the center-line that separates the two-way carriage. Position the vehicle within 10cm from the white line on your right (use the side mirror) and prepare to make the right turn.

Besides driving from start to finish, there was also a crank course and S-course, which I never had problems too. This is not a brag, and I am not talented in these two manoeuvres. I learnt flying in highschool and were taught to take something called reference points, which gives pilots an extra sensory organ to feel the dimensions of the machine they are operating. I just used my extra sensory organ, that’s all. And it is not difficult to develop this organ.

The instructor’s feedback for me was that I signaled late sometimes and stopped unnecessarily at junctions which do not have a stop sign, as well as I should speed up more at straight sections. In total, I think I did about seven times around the course in 50 minutes, which really prepared me for the test even though I think I need more practice.

Go for the practice session, it helps.