First Car Adventures

Man, I’m tellin’ ya – re-learning how to drive and managing my new Suzuki Swift beast whose name is Alfie, is the most challenging and toughest thing I have done the past few years.

My adventures so far:

On the 21st of December I was able to pick up Alfie from the used car dealer and drove him with wobbling knees to the drug store where I always go, did a parking adventure (not very straight, but there was a lot of space and it wasn’t so bad.) Did my shopping there, then rode on to the supermarket where I always go to and even more space for parking and again not straight but nobody cared, did my shopping there and then brought Alfie up the hill to where I live and had to go around the block so that I could tackle parking in my tiny garage from the left side. Trouble is, the streets up there on my hill are very narrow and I made the mistake to boldly go into one of the side streets and was surprised by three cars coming at me, one of them being a bigger delivery truck. There was not enough space and I squeezed and squeezed to the side but was blocked by a concrete power pole and the thing flapped in my left mirror (well I did that by getting too close to it) and then it scratched over my left-hand passenger door. Ouch! (by the way, we have left-hand traffic in Japan and the steering wheel is on the right).

Near panic, I set back a little after the oncoming cars were gone and managed jittery to round the block and to somehow park Alfie in my garage (not really straight and so badly I could hardly get out on the right side.)

Totally unnerved, I did not even check the door but only the mirror who had a slight nudge.

I promptly emailed my driving school and asked for an additional lesson in parking indicating I’d be available on the 22nd (though I thought that would be too short notice and I wrote as such in my email to them), on the 28th and 29th.

They promptly emailed back an hour later that my driving teacher could come the next day (the 22nd) at 15:00. Yeah! That’s Japanese service for you.

Next day, I checked on the door and my first reaction was a helpless laugh. The pretty red door had fat scratches all over! What a mess… I managed to scratch my poor Alfie on the very first day.

In the afternoon, my driving teacher came as promised and we parked her car at the side and took Alfie and did some 20 rounds round the block and parking the beast in my garage again and again. She taught me to wait before that nasty corner and to nudge into it and to wait if another car comes up and only to go into the street when it looks like nothing is coming (which is hard to judge, since that street goes into a steep decline after a few meters.)

We then went on to my drug store and the supermarket to at least once practice parking there but when we arrived at the drug store, the power steering said sayonara and I had to move the one ton of Alfie without it. Teacher said the power steering says sayonara sometimes at these around 1.0l cars (Alfie is 1.2) and it happened because we practiced parking for 90 min.

At the supermarket the same thing happened and it was insanely difficult to move the wheel and to park and I could do it only with the teacher’s help.

Back home I was totally exhausted and anxious because of the not working power steering. Teacher said it would probably “repair itself” while the car rested or if I drive it for a while.

But that was the end of the weekend and the end of practicing possibility.

So Alfie slumbered the whole week in his garage and in the meantime I caught a cold and this morning, 28th, started the big fight with myself.

I must drive! I must learn! I’m not feeling so good, snotty nose, I’m scared! You must drive! How do you wanna learn if you don’t practice? But I’m scared! Don’t be a wimp, you bought a car, you must drive! But what if the power steering doesn’t work again? Just go, damn it!

I was very close to giving into the “I have a cold, I don’t feel well” and give up on it, but then I gave myself a kick in the butt and tackled Alfie. The plan was to drive a round around Ikuta park with more or less only (easy) left turns, then go shopping in the supermarket and go back home.

So, here I went again with wobbly knees. Sticking two fat magnet stickers of the Japanese “beginner” sign onto the front and back of Alfie, which I had bought during the week.

Once on the road things were not that bad, but then I missed one turn and got lost! At some traffic light I had enough time to throw on the navigation (at the moment I am still using Google maps on the iPhone) and let it guide me back home. The getting lost resulted in activating the wiper instead of the blinker twice and happenings like that… ahem…

But I finally found my way back to the supermarket and tackled the parking there. There was a friendly guard man who piloted me around but still I was darn close to the left hand car and the driver there had to squeeze in! lol. The good news was that the power steering was back up and working again, phew for that.

At home I managed to get into my garage at one go = those twenty times training had some effect and in total I drove around for some 90 min without hitting anything and making new scratches etc. Hallelujah!

I painted over the scratches with some car paint bought at the DIY shop along with the beginner sign and you have to stand up close and look hard now to see them. Yeah!

Anyway, totally exhausted again and very relieved that it went well all in all and that I also pushed myself into driving. I have a week off from work now and the plan is to drive a bit every day, next big thing is tomorrow to the year-end party of a friend… kyaaaa…

But I must, I must, I must! Holy crap… Cheers!