A Car, Finally

This is Phyl:

You may also refer to him as "the nicest man in the universe." He has made our car buying and registering process a lot less horrible than it usually is. We met Phyl on our 1st full day in Japan, when we trekked over to the lemon lot on base to see about buying a car. We ended up buying one from him that day and another one today. He buys junked cars at auctions, fixes them up, details them, takes care of title and inspection paperwork, and sells them for good prices to people like us.

Here are the steps you must go through to get a parking pass and register your car, once you have actually purchased it:

There are 4 different buildings (City Hall, Land Transportation Office, Police Station, and Vehicle Registration Office) that you have to visit multiple times and in a certain order so that you can complete the process, and these 4 buildings are all in different CITIES in this area.

One of the most annoying parts is that, during the whole process you have to have temporary plates on your car. These must be obtained at City Hall. However, they only give you plates for 5 days, so you have to keep going back and renewing them every 5 days. Because let me tell you, 5 days is NOT long enough to take care of all this nonsense. Phyl, bless his kind soul, took me there himself the first time and then went back THREE different times for us and renewed the plates. In addition, he sat with me in the insurance office to make sure we had the right paperwork to insure the car. And, probably most annoying of all, he fielded countless "what do i do next?" phone calls from yours truly.

Seriously, where would we be without Phyl?

And now, finally I have a car that is actually registered. It has plates, and it has base decals. I can drive legally, people. Technically, it's a minivan. By American standards, it's more like a hatchback on steroids. It does have a 3rd row of seats, but the seats are small, and when you put down the 3rd row it has about as much storage space as a VW Bug. You can't tell from this picture, but I am taller than this car.

And, now we also have a 2nd car! Adam will use it when he has to get to work. We have to start the whole paperwork process for that one now, God help me. I am hoping Saint Phyl isn't tired of us and might help us with this part as well. I also love this tiny car and will definitely be driving it myself when the boys aren't in tow:

And finally, just for another check in the "hooray" box: omorrow we get our furniture delivered to our new place! We are definitely making progress!!! Yahoo!