You Have No Idea

Macie girl came up with the title for this blog. Mona asked me how it went getting the paperwork done for the car that was due by March 21 and I kept telling her that 'you have no idea'. I told her I would wait to tell the story of my day when I put it on the blog. And Macie said "let me guess, your title is going to be You Have No Idea". Pretty funny, Macie girl.
In Texas, the paperwork for cars include things like inspection stickers, registration and insurance. In Japan, it is a little more complicated. After getting the van inspected and going to the VRO (vehicle registration office) on the base yesterday, today I had to make the trip to Yokohama to get the Japanese paperwork done.

Here is the complex in Yokohama. The picture does not do the place justice. There are several buildings and a huge parking lot. I ended up going to 4 different buildings - not because I went to the wrong place but there are several steps in getting the paperwork done. I started off in this small office with two workers. She sent me next door to pay a registration fee. Then I came back and paid her a toll tax fee. She showed me my next three places to go and the window number that I needed to go to at each place.

All the buildings looked like something from the 1970s - you could tell that it was probably built in the 70s and not much had been updated since then. As a matter of fact, at my last stop, I had to put my paperwork in a cardboard box held together by duct tape. It felt like I was on the set of Barney Miller.

Here is the stack of papers that I had to take to 4 different buildings. At the small office that I started at, the lady showed me a map of the complex and told me the places I needed to go:
                       1) Go next door and pay the weight tax
                       2) Come back here to pay the toll tax
                       3) Go to building 3, window 7
                       4) Then to building 0, window 6
                       5) Finally, go to building 4, window 14

Here is a look at all the
different papers.

At some windows, they
would just put stamps on
one of the papers.

At building 0, this was window 6. There must have been over
a hundred cars, vans and even semi-trucks.

After reading this, I was a little nervous
about the next step. 

The next step -
an almost fully automated inspection station.
 You drive your car onto the platform and robotic
machines spin the wheels and perform a variety
of tests while you sit in the car.

The reward at the end of the line. Stickers to take back to the base so I can go back to the VRO to get the base decal and road tax sticker - if you get caught with these out of date, you have your license suspended for a year.


By the way, I had heard that most people on base hire Japanese to take their car to get all the paperwork done. After today, it doesn't sound as ridiculous to me as it once did.