So I finally got my driving license. Or rather, I finally exchanged my driving license. Since I have the fortune of having a driving license of a country with which Japan has a bilateral agreement I don't need to retake any tests but only exchange it. Now it sounds easy and in theory I reckon it is too. I shouldn't complain, as I said I didn't need to retake any test.

So what does one need? Well you need your original license and you need an official translation of the license from your embassy. With there two things together with your alien registration card, a photograph, your current passport and preferably any old passport(s) too. Why do you need the old passport(s). Well, in theory you need to be able to prove that you have been in the country of issuance for at least three months after getting the license. This can actually be rather difficult to prove especially if you live in a country where the citizens' passports are not stamped when leaving or returning to the home country. Now, I didn't have a hard time, probably most thanks to the fact that I got my driving license 15 years ago, but it might be trickier of your driving license is newer.

So I go the the driving license centre. Enter an anonymous looking building and inside it looks like something from the Soviet-era. It is grey and lots of different counters with only a few chairs, or rather black fake leather sofas.

I first go the counter which says foreign driving licenses in Japanese. After a short wait, the man behind the counter accepts all my documentation and tells me to wait, which I do for 45 min. He then calls me back and hands me some papers and tells me to go to a different counter to pay. I go to the specified counter, pay 4500 yen, and gets directed to some atm-looking machines where I choose a code after having shown a man that I paid my 4500 yen. He in turn directs me to a different counter to have my eyes checked out. This part I was actually worried about. On my original driving license it doesn't say that I need glasses while driving, however that was 15 years ago and I don't think my eye sight is as good as it was then. Fortunately however I pass the eye check and is just about to leave when the man calls me back and asks me about my arm and as you all know loyal readers I had a wee operation three weeks ago. So he directs me to yet another place for a health check-up or rather a consultation, but before that I have to get a stamp for what I don't know what but still, yet another counter.

After that I arrive at that health consulting room. An elderly woman asks what happened and then asks my why I didn't tick the box if I have ever experienced paralysis, convulsions or spasms. Well I said, all those actions are involuntary actions and I have complete control of my movements except for some temporary loss of muscle strength in two fingers. I see that "operation persuasion" is in need and I spend 15 min trying to get her to let me go without any terms stated on my driving license. At last she seems ok and lets me go.

I go back to the original counter, for something that I have forgotten now, and then quickly on to get photographed. This is quick and now all I have to do is get my driving license....for which I of course have to wait at yet another counter, this time on a different floor. I wait 30 min, get my license and now all I have to do is to go to a machine to..........I have no idea, but it seems that I need to activate it or perhaps it did something completely different, I still haven't gotten the foggiest.

So after a little more than 3 hours I am a lucky holder of a Japanese driving license. Now, as I said in the beginning, I got away easy.

I might as well continue posting about things that I come across on the internet. Next up is something that perhaps only people in Japan or people that have lived in Japan will understand, still I thought it was pretty funny.


Now, the two biggest regions in Japan are Kanto, which includes Tokyo and Yokohama, and Kansai, which includes Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. The regions are bigger than the cities mentioned above but they are still the major cities. The relationship between the regions is a love-hate kind. Or at least people from the Kansai area loves to hate Kanto. Kansai people and especially Osaka people claim that Tokyo people are stiff and boring people, which Tokyo sometimes say that Osaka people are loud, rude and scary.お互い様やな。

Anyway, enjoy the clip.

Here is it, the music video that has cause so much debate in France and also in other parts of Europe. I have still to hear anything about it here in Japan. The debate is not surprisingly about all the violence in the video. Some organisations are against while others try to understand what the band, Justice, or the director, Romain-Gavras, are trying to say. Anyway here is the song, Stress.

justice stress (official video)
Uploaded by 75_prod

I can't help but thinking about the debate surrounding Prodigy and the song "Smack my Bitch Up" and how fast the debate ended on that one. Does any anyone even think of the foul meaning of the actual words, or are we just taken back by the fact that it turns out to be a woman that we are following throughout the video, which I think is rather cool.

So what is my stance on the whole thing. Well, I am not sure. First of all I don't live in France so I have no experience of the sometimes chaotic situations, with alienated youth seeing no future and riots with the police. Sitting here about 10,000 kilometres away from Paris I reckon I have a hard time seeing how the video would actually influence people from doing the same in real life. However I am certain that others might think differently.

So I've been away for a couple of days. I reckon no one really noticed but then again I guess it is time for me to realise that the world doesn't revolve around me, no matter how much I would like to think so.

I've been to the hospital for three days, which is a second best personal record for me. Last time was for appendicitises a week in hospital, this time for cubital tunnel syndrome. No, it is not a mental syndrome and instead of me trying to explain it, look here.

I feel a bit handicapped, especially since the splint locks the elbow so I can't bend it meaning that I cant move my hand closer to my body leading to some strange situations such as not being able to hand over exact change or scratching the upper right arm. On top of this, I am left handed meaning that I can't write anything. My signature when leaving the hospital was rather two circles than a signature. Apparently I will have the splint for at least two more weeks. Right now it feels like I can't stand it for another 20 minutes with all the itching.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released their new report on broadband penetration, speed and price per Mbs, together with a composite score in different countries. In the top as you can see it is two Asian countries followed by the Nordic countries together with France. Why France is there I have no idea, but perhaps it thanks to their early implementation of Minitel.

However, even though Japan is number two and the country with the highest average speed this is not an accurate picture of the actual picture (according to me that is). While it is true that here in Japan many households have a very high theoretical speed, I have 100/30Mbs. However, since most servers are in either Europe or the US the internet* as a whole is not necessarily faster here. I will give you some examples. Game servers are fairly limited here in Japan and even including China, Korea and Taiwan the amount is not even comparable with Europe and North America, meaning that I can't always play a game or mod whenever I want. Servers in the US has an average ping of 150ms and servers in Europe has around 300ms. I had as a comparison pings of 30-80 while living in Europe being able to play more or less any game and mod at any time.

Downloading things from the internet is also often slower here since once again................the servers or users are mostly in Europe or in the States. For instance downloading through torrents usually don't exceed speeds of 200 KB/s. In Europe it wasn't uncommon for my to have speeds around 800-900 KB/s using a 8/1 Mbs connection. This was a couple of years ago.

Ergo, I would still prefer to live in Europe if internet was the only factor.

ps.
make sure you know the difference between bytes (B) and bits (b).

* the word internet here means all aspect of the internet; surfing, mail, downloading, games ect