Me And My Box

No house yet! But if push comes to shove, I think we just bought a car that we can live in. Cramped, it would be, but isn't cozy supposed to be romantic... or some crap like that? Here is how it worked out...

A car is sent to come and pick us up on a corner and drive us to a dealership in a different part of the city. I am pretty sure the driver only knew hello and thank you in English so it was a very silent trip. We get there and see two cars that seem viable, one a black Mitsubishi RVR and the other a gold Honda Cava. Both have their pluses and minuses so they let me test drive both. Me! The girl who has had her license for exactly two days and has only driven one time and that was the test itself. They let Me! drive a car onto a major street and then loop around and come back. I love how they ask if you have a license and then take it on your word that you do. Anyway, Kimono Hubby sat in the passenger seat holding on to the Oh-Jesus bar but trying to make it look like he wasn't worried at all.

After test driving the first car, the RVR, I pull over so they can back it into the tight driveway they are calling a parking lot and the thing dies. And I mean... I never turned it off... because it turned itself off. It seems it felt inclined to take itself out of the running. Fine. I feared it anyway because it was as long as a regular-sized vehicle and it shuddered a lot while driving. I don't want to be pancaked my first time on the toll road to Tokyo. Later, KH noted that they had to jump start it to get it back into the parking lot. Definitely not our first choice.

The second test drive in the Cava actually went very well. It drives very smoothly. It has air bags - big news because most Japanese vehicles are not built with the safety standards that are used in the states. Makes you think twice about how long the front end is and how much an impact would affect you, the driver. It has a power button that makes the side mirrors turn in so you can get into those bitty little parking spots. Very low kilometer-age or whatever you want to call it. And the big winner... it makes beeping noises when you back up which is much nicer than me having to do it myself. It truly is a decent car. And you can't go wrong with a Honda.

Sooo...

I think we bought it. I'm not quite sure because the process is harder than trying to bring a tiger into the states and registering it as your family dog. We went to the bank and got cash. Then the dealer gave us yen for it. Then we went to another office and bought some insurance. Then we bought some more insurance from that same office. (They gave us a present for our business... a box of tissues and a pen. So very nice.) Next we go to something like City Hall and bought temporary plates. Once we have completed all of this, our dealer took the car back to the dealership for new tires and more cleaning.

At this point, you may think we just got ripped off of $500 dollars as we have just signed multiple Japanese papers, none of which we can read. But I don't think so unless the dealer and the insurance guy are in on it together and just split the dough. The plan, now, is that on Friday morning, someone will come pick us up again and drive us to the dealership to actually pay for our new box car and to hand over one good kidney (will have to be hubby's goods or they will send the police after us for giving them my damaged goods). We then get to give someone else some more money and they will drive to another city called Yokohama to get the official license plates.

Wait... there is more. After we have the plates, we take the car and get parking passes... and something else of which I can't seems to remember. Let's hope that Kimono Hubby was paying better attention than I was. Once this whole process is complete, I think the car is mine. Oh, except when we find a house, we have another process to go through with the local police.

I think I would rather have the tiger at this point.

I'm not complaining though. We need the car. It just had no idea that this is what you had to do to get it. There is one more fun thing we get to do... we get to do it all over again when we get a car for Kimono Hubby! I simply cannot wait.