Today I spent all day attempting to renew my driver's license. As much as I'd love to blame the maddening Japanese bureaucracy, the reason it took all day was entirely my fault. First and foremost, I got a ticket and therefore lost my "gold" status and was relegated to the dregs of "regular driver", meaning that instead of hitting the local police station, eye check, cash payment, photo new license in 15, I had to go to one of the two designated license renewal centers and revel in the joy that is the one hour lesson. Secondly, I didn't read carefully enough and showed up at 11:04, four minutes past the cloes of morning registration, and was told to come back for the afternoon session. At 1:30. Doh!
So I got myself very familiar with the various backstreets of Kanda. First I tested the Starbucks Theory (which is a variation of the McDonald's theory): walk in any one direction for 10 minutes and you'll hit a Starbucks. I set off north-northwest and in a few minutes passed...a place that sells swords! This I had to check out. I went in and they mostly had blades for display, some heavy cutters, but nothing good for iai. Had a nice chat with the woman, gave her my card and told her what kind of sword I was looking for, and continued on my way. Sure enough, not 3 blocks down I spied the old green and black.
Lunch consisted of a banana and a tall rhumba frap, and then back to the license center went I. First in line, smiling photo, down to class, watch the video (oh, look out for that va-...) careful when turning right, speed limits are set for a reason, blah blah blah, and a good four and a half hours after I set off this morning, I had my new license in hand.
I am now determined to get no tickets for the next 5 years just so I don't ever have to do that again.