With open suitcases covering our bedroom floors and piles of clothes, shoes and papers. We have officially hit "transition" phase...the crazy time in our life where we feel discombobulated. In the midst of sorting through tylenol and cold syrup...what to take with us because it will be expired when we return and then I don't have to buy it at Walmart, what to leave with Tim for the 7 weeks while he is here and what do toss because it has already expired....I came across another expiration....yikes, my US drivers license. First panic and then sighs. This has happened before...somehow I don't do too well keeping us legal and updated in 2 different countries. Since I have to literally drive out of the airport parking lot when we get off the plane next week in America, something had to be done.
An international drivers license, based on my current Japanese driver's license, was the best solution.
So, last week found me headed to our prefectural Driver License office. After 3 packed trains, I enjoyed the quiet, cool walk in the rain to the DMV. (Which saved me a $2 bus ride...which of course was spent on a donut and a bottle of water).
A few hours later, including a few snap shots (of me and the damp beckoning countryside), a few minutes standing in lines, a form filled and stamped and $25 paid, I was legal to drive in 50 different countries; including the Good Ole' US of A. So wide open roads of California, here I come. I just hope I remember to stay on the right side of the road. Yikes.
