Japan > Paperwork, forms, and stamps

My roommates are already awake early. Around six o’clock, there’s already plenty of activity. I turn over for one more sleep. I wake again when the intercom announces that breakfast is served. A Korean mother with her son asks if I want coffee. She shows me from a small packet. When I nod, the boy rushes off to get water. Even though it’s cold coffee, it tastes good. I gather my luggage and say goodbye to everyone. In the bar, we gather for a briefing about our vehicles. The explanation is limited to assembling all tourists with their own vehicles so we can be the first to be guided off the ship. This allows us to reach customs and baggage control quickly. All checks are done manually, so it’s fortunate that no line is ahead of us. Past customs, we meet Tatjana, who helps us with the formalities on the Japanese side. She prepares us for a long, procedural day. Once we get the signal from customs, we can drive the ferry onto the dock to retrieve our vehicles. We drive the car and motorcycles to a separate area. After a while, customs arrive to inspect the vehicles. The chassis number is carefully checked against the Carnet de Passage. The luggage inspection afterward is minor. The customs officer remarks that our vehicle is very orderly; he’s never seen such an arrangement. Laughing, he asks if we were in the Boy Scouts as kids. The next step is trickier. We must show the original Carnet de Passage at the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), Japan’s equivalent of the ANWB.

Japan - Reflection in a tanker truck on the Japanese highway

Without their approval, we’re not allowed on the road. However, the JAF isn’t in Sakaiminato. We need a taxi to Matsue, 25 kilometers away. The taxi meter climbs quickly during the ride. By the time we reach the JAF office, the meter already reads over 70 euros. Fortunately, the meter stops running while we wait. At the JAF office, the Carnets are checked and registered. With a new form, we take a taxi back. By now, it’s one o’clock. Tatjana is having lunch. Her boss helps us further, driving us to customs, which fortunately is in Sakaiminato. Here, they stamp our Carnets and also stamp the JAF letter. Only now is it valid. Back in the port building, we discover that one Carnet isn’t fully filled out. Tatjana calls customs. The officer rushes to the port building to correct the mistake. Unfortunately, we still can’t leave. We have to wait for confirmation from customs that everything is registered in the system. At exactly three o’clock, the signal sounds: we may drive in Japan. We set off quickly. Careful attention is required because in Japan, they drive on the left. The road winds through numerous villages, with a speed limit almost everywhere of fifty kilometers per hour. Tatjana had warned us this morning that exceeding the speed limit carries heavy fines. We adapt to the flow of traffic. Overtaking is almost nowhere allowed. Driving on the left doesn’t pose much difficulty. The road is good, and the lane markings are clear. The many traffic lights are less intuitive. If there are multiple lanes and one lane has red, the central light is red, with the directions below indicating which lanes are green. In Japan, turning lanes have their own signals. It takes a moment to get used to, but it becomes natural quickly. With the steering wheel on the other side, chatting at a traffic light is easy—though in Japanese, of course. What they ask, we don’t know, but the answer “Orlanda” (Netherlands) is understood by everyone. A long “oooh” of admiration follows. We spend the night about twenty-five kilometers from Hiroshima. Tomorrow morning, we hope to attend the commemoration of the atomic bomb, which fell there 71 years ago. All hotels in Hiroshima are either full or unaffordable. The hotel we found is an adult-only hotel. When we enter Hotel Quel, we immediately understand why. DVDs for rent at the reception and a room set up entirely for a romantic evening. We order food from the menu and eat it in the room. It’s been a long day, and tomorrow morning we’ll be driving very early.