Gimme The Car

So, for the past week or so, I've been the proud owner of a 1998 Subaru Impreza. While the long and strange journey that I undertook to purchase this piece of machinery is worthy of its own non-fiction volume, I think I'll have to settle for an abridged blog entry instead. It all began some months ago, when I realized that all of the vehicles being sold cheaply by other JETs were long gone and that I would have to venture forth myself in search of an appropriate motorized carriage. One day while being driven to a school by Okubo-San, I was casually asked what type of car I wanted to buy. I mentioned the Impreza, also known as the Aomori JET standard issue. For various reasons (heavy snowfall/numerous mountains/Melanie knowing a Subaru dealer), what seems like 90% of JETs in the prefecture drive an Impreza of some sort. Well, Okubo-San was surprised at this suggestion and remarked to me that it was a "very expensive car". Oh, okay, scratch that, then.

Well, Okubo-San must have mentioned my rather lavish automotive tastes to the others in the office because before long, Baba-San (our office's most senior office-lady) approached me. "Mehan-San, you want to buy an Impreza?" she asked. "You know, I have an old Impreza and I'm going to be getting a new car soon." Indeed, she does drive a 93 Impreza and has been in the process of buying a new Legacy for some time now. Well, I waited for a few days for her to offer her car to me for sale. She never did.

Instead, she said that since she was buying a new car that she would introduce me to her Subaru dealer. Okay. After a few days, I was told that the dealer had found me an older used Legacy. "The Impreza is a very expensive car, you should get a Legacy instead," Baba-San advised. I expressed interest in seeing the car but for some reason, it never materialized. Instead, a few days later I was told that the dealer had found me a 95 Impreza. "The Impreza is a very good car, you should get an Impreza," Baba-San said. Um, Okay. However, this car was apparently going to cost me about $4500 USD, which was quite a bit more than I was looking to spend. Luckily, the dealer also failed to produce this car.

Fast-forward to last month. I walk into the office after a long day of teaching and Baba-San tells me that the dealer has found yet another car for me. Okay, whatever. Then she tells me that it's an Impreza for only 28 man ($2400) and that I can see it today. Now, that's more like it. After I expressed interest in seeing the car, I was told that "the previous owner of the car was not skilled at driving". Well, why should I care about that? "It's full of [word I didn't understand]". Well, I looked up the word, which was translated as "wounds or bruises". Not caring much about the car's appearance, I agreed to see it anyway.

Unlike in the States, the dealer drove the car to the office so that I could have a look at it. It turns out that the car (which had previously belonged to an old man) had a barely noticeable, small dent below the passenger-side back door. That was what they meant by "full of dents". Still, in a society where appearance and conspicuous consumption rule supreme, this was enough to discount the value of the car by almost 50%. Otherwise, everything seemed to check out (the only downside being the relatively small 4-cylinder 1.5 L engine) and since Japan's system of mandatory maintenance (shakken) essentially guarantees that any car with valid shakken is mechanically sound, I agreed to buy it on the spot.

Well, in America, all that would be left to do would be to go down to the dealership, fill out some basic paperwork, pay some money and drive the thing home. Oh, if only it were that simple. I agreed to buy the car on the 17th of October and finally received it on the 2nd of November. The two and a half weeks in-between were filled with paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. In addition to the run of the mill stuff, I had to register my personal stamp with town hall, get my landlord to sign a statement certifying that I had a parking spot in which to park the car (he also had to draw a map of the parking spot and sign that) and provide proof of insurance before even owning the car. That's right, I paid insurance for the entire month of October, during which I was still a pedestrian.

Furthermore, while the price of the car, including shakken inspection, was a measly ¥200,000, I ended up paying an additional ¥70,000 in taxes, fees and taxes on taxes and fees (yes, some of the various taxes were actually taxed themselves). I guess that's not a lot of money compared to what you would pay for a vehicle like this in the states but it does seem a little excessive to pay a tax on a parking tax when I'm already paying money for a parking spot.

Well, it was quite a fiasco but well worth it in the end, as I no longer have to ride my bike home from the mall in complete darkness. The whole driving on the other side of the road thing is a bit scary at first but I think I'm getting used to it. The first night I took the car out, I was apparently veering a little too close to the left, as Leo remarked that his knuckles were white from grabbing onto the "oh shit bar" for the duration of the ride. Silly Leo, your knuckles are always white! However, barring that episode and a minor incident in Hachinohe where I attempted to drive on the wrong side of the road before being corrected by an angry, oncoming driver, things have been going swimmingly.