Certification of my Certification

The day after my driving lessons, I returned to the licensing center to take my driving test.

The first thing I had to do, however, was take care of more paperwork. The most ridiculous part of that process involved the one additional piece of paper that I needed to bring to Ms. Kai since having gone through the paperwork check on the previous Friday: A Certification of Completion of Alien Registration from my town hall.

Is that a joke or what?

I mean, how the heck did I get my alien registration card in the first place if I never completed the registration process?

Furthermore, my alien registration card, which I applied for and picked up at my town hall, for crying out loud, includes my digital signature as well as various holograms, so it would be pretty difficult to forge. In contrast, the certification form I needed was just a piece of paper with a bit of information and a red-ink seal on it. You can't tell me that that piece of paper is more valuable than my alien registration card. But it is! (I kept waiting for someone to tell me that I then needed a certification form for the certification form.)

When I gave the form to Ms. Kai, I was shocked by her reaction. You see, Ms. Kai forgot to tell me that the certification letter I needed had to be dated within the past six months. Since my form was dated in October, she said she couldn't accept it.

Huh? Say what? Pardon me? One more please?

(See how nerve-racking such a harmless endeavor as getting a driver's license can become?)

You can imagine how upset I was at that point.

Inside of me, a little voice was yelling:

"You bleeping bleep bleep! Why the bleep didn't you tell me about the bleeping date on the bleeping form? And who gives a bleep about the stupid bleeping form, anyway? What the bleep is the matter with you people?"

Good thing I didn't actually let that voice have an audience.

Instead, I used an approach that was similar to the one I had when I was taking my driving lessons: I basically begged, ever so slightly, for forgiveness. Unsure how to proceed, Ms. Kai left me momentarily to consult with her colleagues and/or supervisor(s).

When she returned a few minutes later, a police officer was with her. I figured that meant he was going to explain to me that a rule was a rule. Because of my limited understanding of Japanese, that's what I really thought was going on at first.

But the more the two of them talked, the more I realized they were telling me that it would be okay for me to take the driving test, after all, as long as I agreed to send in an updated form upon returning home, assuming I'd pass my test. Hooray!

I was creeping closer and closer to obtaining my license.