Ayumi and I made a semi-unplanned trip back to the house for the week in order to take care of a couple of things and also enjoy a bit more green than is available around the apartment. The trip was mostly uneventful thanks to some gorgeous weather and incredibly reliable public transportation schedules. However, one challenge that seems to become more of an issue with every trip to this part of the country is Ayumi's willingness to take public transit.
She loves the green around the house and seems to bounce with every step when we walk in the nearby parks – something she does not do at any of the places we visit north of Tokyo – but, for reasons I can empathise with, she does not want to get into the carry case that we need to use for her to be on busses and trains. While she has certainly grown a good bit in the two months since the case was delivered, she still fits and can turn around inside just fine. The floor is cushioned so that it does not vibrate too much while she's on the floor of the Shinkansen, and I make sure she has some of her quieter toys as well as a ready supply of water. Despite all of this, though, she does not like being in a confined space for any length of time.
Who could blame her?
The trip from the house to the apartment is a little over four and a half hours door to door. One of the things I do when we're going to the house is I get her vest and leash ready while we're on the final train that takes us from Nagoya to Kasugai. From there, we have a short bus ride to the neighbourhood and, when we're on the pedestrian walk and away from vehicular traffic, I take her out of the case so that she can walk the final 600 metres on her own. This allows her to re-acclimate herself to the surroundings while also working off some of that nervous energy that she had while taking public transit.
This isn't possible on the way back, though, so the return trip is a bit worse for her as she needs to be patient longer. What we need is an alternative that will give her a bit more freedom while we make the occasional trek from our apartment north of Tokyo to our house in central Japan. The simplest option would be to simply move back to the house, as she loves the neighbourhood and the building is currently sitting empty. However, I still have responsibilities in Tokyo with the church, with the day job, and with some people. Moving back to the house now would mean taking the train up to Tokyo several times a month for a day trip, returning in the late evening; which would leave Ayumi alone in the house for roughly 16 hours.
An alternative is needed and, ideally, it will be one that will resolve issues that we both have while travelling from place to place. This means it's time to start seriously looking at cars.
There's just one little problem, though: I have not had a driver's license for quite some time. To get one, I'll need to attend a driver's education course, pass their tests, then head to a prefectural driving centre to pass another round of tests. The total cost of the licensing process will exceed my take-home pay by a good margin; it's essentially six weeks of earnings1. A quick look on used car sites like Goo-Net and CarSensor shows a good number of vehicles for under $2,000, but insurance will cost at least $1,500 for the first year in addition to gas and other sorts of maintenance. A cheap car only looks cheap if you focus on the now rather than the long-term. Will this be better than insisting that my dog ride in a carry case for four hours a couple of times every few months?
Summer will be here shortly and one of the things that I would really like to do is see some of the many sights around here with Ayumi. Heck, one of the reasons I wanted to have a dog in my life again was so that we could go places and see things together. Sure, Ayumi will be focussing more with what's on the ground or the people she might want to meet, but if travelling to parks or sightseeing locations will require a physical argument with my dog every time we are about to leave or return home2, then going places will no longer be as enjoyable. Getting a car, even a cheap one that has just a few years of life left in it, may make sense.
I'll need to investigate some driving schools that offer lessons in English to see how feasible this endeavour might be. While I can do some things in Japanese, there's no way I could complete an entire course like this and take the final tests in the language.
If the decision is make to take lessons and buy a car, perhaps the next time Ayumi and I see Mount Fuji it will be from a highway rather than the bullet train.
My take-home excludes things like taxes, insurance, deductions, and legally-agreed-upon payments.
She really puts up a fight to stay out of the carry case, which is a shame, because it's a nice carry case.