Prove it!

Even Japanese police stations have cute mascots! This large poster
was on the front of the station we visited yesterday.

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, we're doing a van shuffle this month. It's been nearly eight years since we acquired a vehicle and I'd forgotten how tricky that is in Tokyo.

The main complication is parking permission. If you visit this city, it's pretty obvious that there isn't much spare space. You can't just park an extra vehicle on the footpath in front of your house, or on a driveway, or even on the road in front of your house. To regulate this space problem, the police and landlords have gotten involved. In order to get a new car we've had to: 

1. Get proof we have sufficient parking space, this from the owner of the parking space, i.e. our landlord who works through a downtown real estate agent. By the time David got the forms for this, filled them out, and mailed them to the real estate office, this took well over a week to get done.

Part of the parking application where David drew a nice map of our
carport and the road.

2. Fill out a police parking application, which included the stamped Proof of Parking certificate from the "owner".  It also included having to draw a map of the space, with measurements included.

3. Take to a specific police station, all the above we took to the station yesterday, it was a nice 20 minute ride (faster than train, bus, or car). They will come and check that we've been accurate in our measurements and we can collect the permission from them next Tuesday.

Front of the police station. Typically, there was more bike-parking
than car parking. Just two cars and about a dozen bikes.

4. Inspection Registration Office: All the above, plus some other papers from the former owner needs to be taken to the (a good hour drive from here). David's going to meet our colleague (current-soon-to-be-former owner of the car) at the Registration Office. As he's in Yokohama, it is quite a long journey for him, the office is south of us in the western half of Tokyo.

All paper, nothing online. This nation is such a paradox of technological and "ancient" ways.

What I'm not sure about is that I don't think we've had to prove that we are getting rid of the car that's currently parked in this space! I don't know how that works, maybe it was part of the parking application that David filled in?

We're also part of the process with our current car, though on the other side: David will have to make a second journey to the Inspection Registration Office to make the exchange of ownership legal there too.

All this kind of makes the exchange of money that will happen in both situations seem like a minor affair!

I'm very thankful for a husband who is pretty good at these bureaucratic things in Japanese.