Jesse's first week in Japan they walked him through filling out a million billion forms, apartment info, furniture rentals, car rentals, bill payment systems, etc. One thing they didn't help him fill out? Paperwork for an ETC card.
In Japan they call their version of the Toll Road Discount Card an ETC card. They said getting an ETC card would be easy, simply fill out the application! Back in September, along with my Japanese Sensei we sat down to fill out the application when we encountered our first snag- they wanted a local driver's license number. Do we have a local driver's license yet? Nope. Is the test in order to get a local driver's license ridiculously hard, like so ridiculously hard they've created a step by step power point presentation (that's 40 pages long) so you can prestudy before you take the test. So ridiculously hard that everyone fails the first time. Then, if you get it on your second time you're considered amazing! If you fail it for the 3rd time you now have to pay to go to driving school.
So we don't have a driver's license number yet. No worries, we rarely take toll roads we'll just ignore if for now. Japan's highway system works a bit different than the ones back home. The highways are all toll roads, and there's only a few of them. No worries, we're train folks. Super easy to just hop on a train and get to where we want to go. And if the train isn't convenient? We can always take side (narrow) roads and get along just fine.
Fast forward to Snow Season and we're on toll roads every weekend. Toll Roads usually take cash except last weekend when the entrance we tried to get onto definitely didn't take cash. Back to attempting to get an ETC card.
New strategy: you can simply hook it up to a Japanese Credit Card! Now let's work on getting one of those. 90 minutes with my Sensei and a successfully filled out application. Only to be rejected a week later. Maybe because we don't have any credit history in Japan? Maybe because we entered our bank account information a bit weirdly (japanese forms are hard to decipher with google translate) Maybe because Jesse works for a really big company and I'm sure he's not on the Japanese HR agenda therefore who knows what they said when trying to verify his employment.
So 6 months, one rejected ETC application due to no Driver's License. one rejected application for a credit card to hook up the ETC card too. New strategy. Trying again for the application, armed with new information that supposedly you can submit proof of residency instead of a driver's license to qualify.
This time the form only took 30 minutes to fill out, but then the mystery began of exactly what we need to show proof of residency and the ensuing hunt to find that document. Is it as simply as my residence card? Ha, doubt it's that simple! But we will try and submit paperwork again and hope the bureaucratic gods are smiling down on us.
Thank goodness for an amazing Sensei who probably took pity on us for how ridiculously long this bureaucratic process is and lent us her ETC card. Saving us 30% on tolls and providing access when the cash toll booths are closed! She will be getting special presents and a good apology on Monday after the paperwork heartache we put her through.
Sidenote: you can purchase a debit card like pass for the train system. Add cash to it then it auto withdrawals when you go through train gates. You'd think a similar system would be available for the cars and toll roads!
Fingers crossed we'll be the proud owners of our very own ETC card before the end of Snow Season.
Cute unrelated pictures because reading about paperwork must be just as boring as filling it out! Beautiful places you can't take a train to get to.