I’m 50 years old, back in Japanese driving school after 32 years, and trying to upgrade my medium truck license.
And today was the BIG one.
Lesson 5.
The final skills assessment before I’m allowed to take the graduation driving test.
No pressure. 💀
Luckily, today’s instructor was the same guy from Episode 3 — the one who laughed his head off when he heard about my “special route” through driving school.
So when I saw him, I thought:
YES.
At least I might survive this lesson without dying from stress. 😂
But this was still the final check.
Everything I’d learned over the last four lessons had to come together.
Steering.
Air brakes.
Clutch control.
Tight-space maneuvers.
Reversing.
S-curves.
Crank turns.
Basically…
no more excuses.
First up:
Pulling over to the roadside.
The goal was to stop the truck parallel to the road and within 30 cm of the poles.
After four lessons of fighting those air brakes, I focused on making the smoothest stop possible.
And…
NAILED IT. 😎
No violent head-bob brake.
No panic.
Good start.
Next came the right-side tight-space maneuver.
Touch the guide line?
Fail.
Go off course?
Fail.
So I crept in at ultra-low speed using the clutch control I learned in Episode 4.
And somehow…
I got the truck into the box in ONE SHOT.
Let’s go. 😂
The left side wasn’t quite as clean.
I turned a little too early and ended up too close to the left, so I had to make a correction.
Not perfect…
but still under control.
Then came the S-curves and crank course.
No problem.
And finally…
REVERSING.
You know…
the same exercise that turned Lesson 2 into “Reversing Hell.” 💀
This time?
Smooth.
No mistakes.
Well…
almost.
For one terrifying second, my brain went:
“Wait… which side did I come in from again?”
NOT AGAIN. 💀
I managed to remember before doing anything stupid…
but apparently my instructor saw EVERYTHING.
He immediately said:
“You looked kinda suspicious just now.”
BUSTED. 😂
Veteran instructors really do see everything.
Just to be safe, he made me do the reversing exercise one more time.
This time:
Perfect.
After that, I kept completing whatever exercises he called out until the lesson finally ended.
And here’s the crazy part:
No horrible air-brake jerks.
No major steering corrections.
No disaster.
For the first time since this whole challenge started…
I actually felt like I could do this.
Then came the verdict.
My instructor smiled and said:
“You’re good. With this level of driving, I think you should be able to pass.”
YESSSSSS! 🎉
And then he added:
“…As long as you don’t make any big mistakes.”
………………💀
Why did you have to add that part!?
Still…
I PASSED THE FINAL ASSESSMENT.
Five lessons.
Done.
Now there’s only one thing left:
THE GRADUATION DRIVING TEST.
But there’s one problem.
The test is only held on Sundays, which means I have an entire week with no driving before the most important day of the whole challenge.
So now it’s back to mental practice.
No truck.
No plastic wash tub this time.
Probably. 😂
Next episode is the FINAL episode.
Can this 50-year-old former truck driver pass the graduation test on his first attempt and finally remove the restriction from his license?
Or will one big mistake ruin everything?
Subscribe and follow the finale!
#TruckDriving #DrivingSchool #Japan #TruckDriver #JapaneseDrivingSchool #TruckLicense #DrivingTest #DrivingChallenge #MidlifeChallenge