2017: An Eventful Year...

2017 was my first full year in Japan as a permanent resident (the funny name that foreign governments give you when they realise you're not going home). Whilst this was not the first time I had lived in Japan (I spent one year at university here some twenty years ago as an exchange student), it was my first time as an adult, fully integrated as a regular citizen. As my wife is Japanese and I am entitled to use her family name when in Japan, it was also the first time I have been in Japan with Japanese bank cards and Japanese health insurance, all with a Japanese name on them and yet belonging to me. Since I also speak Japanese relatively well, it was now possible for me to pass myself off as Japanese (well, until someone saw my face, that is!) and this led to an experience of the country far different to what I had had when a simple tourist or exchange student. In short, an awful lot happened in 2017. And while it was not all good -- and some of it was downright terrible -- I learnt something from all of it. And so, to help me internalise all of what I got up to, and to signal my return to Steemit after yet another a long absence, I thought I'd try to put it all together as a series of articles, starting with my experience of learning to drive in Japan.

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Ashikaga Daigaku, Japan's first university was within walking distance of the driving school

1. Learning to drive in Japan

In January, I spent three weeks in Ashikaga, a small but historic town located in the hills of Tochigi 栃木県 prefecture (where Nikkō 日光, the famous Edo 江戸 period shinto 神道¨ shrine complex -- you can check out some photos I took there in a previous post -- is located) on an intensive course at a driving school. I could have got a license in France and converted it in Japan, but in France they drive on the right as opposed to the UK (where I originally learnt to drive and still have family) and Japan (where I will probably be for a number of years, yet) so it seemed to make more sense to just get it all done in Japan. I had yet to find a job, too, so it seemed like the ideal time to get it over and done with.

The driving school somewhat bizarrely backed onto a small temple cemetery: a warning against bad driving?!

2. Unusual company

Because I was there outside of school holiday time, there were none of the usual high school kids, but there was another conspicuous group of people there that I hadn't expected to see: the Yakuza ヤクザ! It just so happened that a small number of colourful members of Japan's infamous criminal underclass were there to take (or rather, to retake, as they had all had licenses but lost them in various ways...) their licenses, too. One of them had just got out of jail after a seven year stint and was looking for employment (and bore an uncanny resemblance to Pikataro of Pen Pineapple Apple Pen fame), and another was working as a labourer and had lost his license speeding. But the most interesting of the bunch was a mid-level boss from nearby Gunma 群馬県 prefecture who quickly asserted himself as the leader of the pack. This guy was publicly the director of a company specialising in solar panels but was clearly making a killing on the side also - he came to class every morning with an Hermès Birkin handbag and a different set of designer clothes. I'd encountered one or two yakuza in the past so felt no need to be scared and indeed I needn't have been. Whilst they may very well be scary to those who owe them money or who are otherwise embroiled with them, in my experience the Yakuza are perfectly polite, upstanding and model citizens regards to foreigners and seem to take care of their own pretty well, too. We went out for drinks a few times, along with another gaijin 外人 on the course, a young guy from Tunisia working in Yokohama 横浜 (perhaps as gaijin we were considered to be outsiders, too?) and everything was paid for in bunches of 10,000 ¥ by our man the solar panel guy. Cigarettes, drinks, snacks, anything wanted was paid for whilst in exchange one of the two younger men mixed drinks (I never realised how commonplace Japanese bartending skills are in Japan until this point), lit cigarettes, ordered the food and drinks, called for the taxi, asked for the bill, handled the payments etc.

The bizarre architecture of the driving school and surround buildings

The whole experience was both entertaining and eye-opening: the younger and older members of the little group all taking care of each other in the best way they could, showing their respect in the manner the most suitable to their position and means. As gaijin we were being politely entertained but it was clear that this was so much more for the junior yakuza: the labourer belonged to a rival gang so entertaining him was a show of good manners and diplomacy, and as for fresh-out-jail-Pikataro, he was being set up with a job and a new life on the outside.

Daily routine: a typical meal and the timetables that told us where to be and when

When the course came to an end and we had all passed and were ready to leave, the farewells were short but sincere. I jokingly said to my Tunisian friend that he could probably expect a job offer but he later told me that he never heard from them again. It would seem the Yakuza know when not to cross the line, preferring to remain courteous to the end. Just so long as you don't cross theirs ;)

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Nick Sikorski is an organic market gardener and permaculture designer originally from Scotland, trained in France and now farming in Nagano, Japan. When he's not obsessing over heritage varieties of vegetables & herbs, chasing off wild deer or otherwise running around the fields of his mountain farm, he's trying to beat the system, taking photos or trying to better understand cryptocurrencies.