mukade 0 Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Hi there, new here. Has anyone else learned to drive in Japan? I am wanting to learn and just looking into it and was quite shocked at the amounts of money involved. It sounds like a total ripoff especially compared to back home (Canada) - almost might be worth going home just to learn!! I find the little learning school courses quite cute though Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 You may well be right mukade. One of those things where it seems you have to jump through expensive hoops for the privelege (sp). Good luck - and do let us know those costs, I'd like a good laugh! Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 So what sort of costs are we talking here? Link to post Share on other sites
me jane 0 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 If you can get the time off work I've heard the intensive residential courses work out cheaper and they practically guarantee you pass, offering free re-tests until you do. Link to post Share on other sites
soubriquet 0 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 You can do a residential course here. Lots of Tokyo people do them. Come up in the winter and learn to drive on snow Link to post Share on other sites
me jane 0 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 Yeah, some of my friends went up Tohoku way. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 It varies from school to school, but generally 250,000 to 300,000. Its cheaper in inaka. Look for a school that does inhouse driving tests, not just driving practice. They are far easier to pass than the "tobikomi" tests run by the police, mainly for existing drivers who've lost their licences. With any school I think you have to take a police-run paper test, but its just true/false questions. The big one now is that they probably won't let you switch over your foreign licence to a Japanese one if you only go home for a month to learn. They will look at your passport to see how long you were overseas after getting your licence. Its supposedly due to Japanese kids getting US licences during study overseas, switching them to Japanese ones, and then causing lots of accidents. The assumption is that if you can't prove you were overseas for very long after getting your licence, you can't have much driving experience. Link to post Share on other sites
mukade 0 Posted July 22, 2008 Author Share Posted July 22, 2008 Price tag was actually just over 330,000 yen all included! Link to post Share on other sites
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