How to shaken

[canman]

Has any FG out there tried to do their own shaken(car safety inspection). I am on summer holidays and figured I would give it a shot. Are there any websites that tell you what you need to take or anything like that. One of the guys I teach with who lives on Misawa base told me about the sweet deal they have. They pay $40US for a licensed mechanic to sheppard them through the whole system. Of course that is not available to us poor Canadian English teachers. Anyway thanks for whatever help you can give.

[FG Lurker]

I've not done it myself, but I just had it done at Subaru. 82,680 of the total I paid was in taxes, insurrance, recycle fees, and other crap. Even if I had done it myself I would have been stuck paying for that.

So if it is worth it or not depends on how much in "repairs" or other "service" the company wants to charge...

[Mulboyne]

Metropolis ran a feature on this a while back but their search function is playing up. Big Daikon has this account.

[Big Booger]

http://www1.plala.or.jp/yworks/usermenu.html (Japanese)

One more in Japanese:

http://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/kensatoroku/inspect.htm

http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/hi-sense/secho-e.htm (Engrish)

http://www8.plala.or.jp/ita-sys/car_e.htm (Engrish)

In a related note here is a nice link to foreign countries' shaken services:

http://www.mlit.go.jp/jidosha/kensatoroku/shogaikoku/syo01.htm

[gkanai]

http://www.geocities.com/japanfaq/bikerfaq-shaken.html

[canman]

I think it is worth it. I was just talking to a friend of mine and he said if you do the shaken yourself you can save about 80 000 yen. If the car has no problems. That seems to be worth 3 hours of my time. Anyway I have a reservation for tomorrow so I:ll let you know how it goes. Hopefully everything will run like clock work. I just hope my Voyager doesn:t have any hidden problems.

[canman]

Well I'm back with a brand new little shaken sticker on my windshild, and I have to say that was pretty darn easy. I got to the office and quickly filed in the forms that were necessary. The staff member I gave the form to was chuckling at my bad kanji, but at least I did it. Then I gave the whole set of papers and my old shaken and everything to the girl. She then told me about the new recycle law and asked me if I wanted to pay it now. I agreed. Then she told me that my compulsory insurance didn't run out until October but while I was there did I want to renew it as well, to which I also agreed. They told me to sit as they processed my papers. A few minutes later the worker called me to the counter and told me all together the cost was 99000. Which I paid and headed off to the other office. Gave in my papers, had to fill in my name and address again, and hanko, which seemed to be a real point of interest, since the Misawa base people don't use Hankos. Then it was onto the line. Everything checked but my headlights were pointed to high. So they told me to fix it and come back. Luckily a guy from my hockey team(got to love those hockey players) he is a mechanic and was also bringing a car in for its safety check. He asked me what was the problem and I told him. He wipped out a screw driver and quickly adjusted the headlights, and told me to get back in the line. I did and he walked me through it, since I only had to re-check the headlights, there is a special button to push. I did that and waited. Then it was my turn. The inspector came over and new my friend and saked him what he was doing. He told him he was my friend, so he asked him to help me through and he left. My lights cleared, and my friend put my paper into the automatic hanko machine, and it cleared. Back into the office waited five minutes and then was given my new sticker. So a grand total of one hour and 45 minutes all told. I asked my friend if I took my car to a garage how much would it cost and he said anywhere from 150 000 to 180 000. Especially since its a foreign car.
I must say the staff at the inspection place were very nice and helpful, although my Japanese is not up to snuff. They seemed to appreciate my attempt at speaking and using Japanese. So I think in the end I saved myself anywhere from 50 000 to 80 000 for less than two hours work. Now what can I buy with the money I saved? Any suggestions?

[oyajikun]

Just make sure a large bottle of exspensive booze is on the front passenger seat when you turn it in for inspection.