1st Japanese motorcycle test

Hello All,

Last week I went to take the 400cc motorcycle test, which would allow me to drive any motor bike that is as you might guess, 400cc or less. A friend in Kitakyushu has a 230 Honda that I can ride if I get my license, so I gave it my best.

That being said, my best was not very good... hence I failed. The tester did say I did better than he thought I would, and I told him I did much worse than I thought I would. It is one of those times when you have it all pictured in your head and you know pretty much how it is going to go. Well, it did not go quite like that!

We got there an hour early, but after all the paper work, I only had 15 minutes to memorize the 5 minutes of course driving on the bike. Once on the bike, I rode for about 1 minute or so, and then fell off the balance beam that they want us to ride slowly over. This is an instant failure, but they allowed me to continue the test for practice (almost unheard of in Japan.) I then did the figure 8, and blanked on the rest of the course. I pulled over and raised my hand, but could not understand the proctors Japanese over the loud speaker, and over the sound of the bike while wearing the helmet. Well I went back to the starting point, and they said I could just ride through the obstacles that I had not done yet for practice. I was really happily surprised, so went back out on the course. I went through the slalom course, and the emergency braking exercise.

To be as honest as possible here, there are only 3 things I feel I could have done worse during this test.

1. I could have dropped the bike. (This would have hurt me, and the bike.)
2. I could have rode on the right side of the road. (It is second nature to be on the left in the car, but the bike was really different. Not sure why, but it was.)
3. I could have lost my temper. (Would not happen, but this would have been worse...)

Well no one passes the first time on the driving test. I have actually never heard of anyone passing the first time in Japan. But I don't expect to pass the second either, although I hope to do better than this time.

I REALLY WAS UGLY!

Note from Shiho: There is one Japanese guy who has a blog, and he has taken and failed this test 30 times... but he is really looking forward to the time that he does pass! Also, think about it! Steve is taking this test in a foreign country and in a foreign language!!! I did NOT think he was ugly at all! He is a brave man ;)

Hope you are all well and talk to you soon,
Steve and family

PS: We went to the beach on the way home, and had a fun couple of hours there.

New pics at these links, enjoy:

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/1017MasudaBeach

http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenkenyon/AugToSept07