Woohoo, I am mobile! Went to Akashi and sat my japanese moped licence. It cost about $100 and was an experience to remember. The test room itself was filled with a couple of hundred people. The instructions in japanese. I got the test questions in japanese english (a strange english dialect noteable for its ambiguity) nevertheless my faculty of inscrutation triumphed over perpetual obscurity and clarified the proceedures nicely. When the test was over, the papers with efficiently collected and fed into a machine that read and graded them. 10 minutes later, the results were posted on a video board in the main foyer, sorted into pass and fail groups. I passed woohoo. Then the practical lessons. That was fun. Kind of like go cart except with instructors. After busying from one counter to the next. This form and that form. I was finally given the little card with my photo on it. Yay. I have to say, I couldn't have done it without my friend/supervisor Mr kuroda. He's great. We bought a helmet. Took a while to locate a shop with XXL helmets. The BOE is going to provide me with a moped. Yay! Now I can explore in earnest and get to school without cycling for an hour. Anyway. Japan is great. better than I expected and every day is new.