Good News Everyone!!! (The joysplosion thread)

Learning to drive is simple.
Just make sure not to open up the rear flange when you majigger the sprocket on the whatsit and you'll be fine

The testing system over here is reasonably ridiculous. I pay to go to a driving school in the evenings (~$3000), where I attend 20-30 lectures and also have a go driving a car around those driving school obstacle courses.
There's then a written exam and a practical one; passing those gets my "karimenkyo" which lets me drive on the road with an instructor in the passenger seat. I then get my "sotsumenkyo" (graduate license) after another written exam and a practical exam on the roads. I dunno if it's a good thing or not that I live in a semi-rural area; it'll either make the exam easy or it'll mean I crash and burn on my first foray into "real" traffic.
Finally, with my sotsumenkyo acquired I can go to the License Centre in either of the main centres, take another written exam, and then I'm finally allowed to drive.

According to my supervisor, students can complete the whole process over the month of spring vacation, though they'll spend a whole day at driving school. Seeing as I can only make evenings and weekends, it'll take me longer; more so if I struggle with lessons being entirely in Japanese.

To be honest, I needed an excuse to actually study Japanese again properly, so learning road rules is as good a reason as any.