As some of you know I will get a pilot license and buy a private aircraft in my middle age. You may laugh at me that I haven't gotten a driver's license yet.
But I'm sure it is a little late to get one for my age, twenty. So I recently check and evaluate driving schools near my house. Throughout their web pages, I recognized that those schools were generally having two courses: "staying and concentrating in a short term" and "schooling in a long term". To my surprised, the former was cheaper (about $2,000 to 2,500,) though it is including food and lodging fees, while the latter was about $2,500 to 3,000.
Anyway those fees are much more expensive than I expected. My teacher from Canada told me that I should have taken it in the United States when I had visited there last summer. Sir, why didn't you advise me earlier?
Getting a license in The United States is MUCH cheaper than Japan. Probably only $200 at worst.
You should not regret not getting a license in America, because that license actually does not help you here. I have an American drivers license, and it will only work in Japan for one year (and that's with an International Drivers license I purchased in addition to it) before I need to get a REAL Japanese drivers license.
So even if you did get a driver's license while in America, you would have to get a new license in Japan only a year later. Don't worry about it :)
Posted by: Brett | March 06, 2007 at 01:06 AM
Wow, I see. Then I will carry on checking driving schools.
Brett, thank you so much for your very valuable advice!
Posted by: Nate | March 07, 2007 at 09:30 AM
No problem! I have decided not to get a license in Japan while I'm here because it's so expensive...but if I end up staying longer than I plan to, I might get a license after all. Many people who get licenses more easily and cheaply in other countries think Japan's license system is very strange and much more expensive than it should be... but I am curious - what is YOUR opinion of the driver schools and the Japanese system for getting a license? Does it really make better drivers, or is it just to promote public transportation?
Posted by: Brett | March 16, 2007 at 08:15 AM
Actually I recently reconsidering whether I should get a license or not.
I can go anywhere by train as I live in Tokyo now. If I succeed in enrollment for the University of California Santa Cruz as an exchange student, I should get a license in the USA.
Thank you for your advice, Brett!
Posted by: Nate | March 17, 2007 at 02:53 AM