Bureaucracy Day

A couple of very important things on the menu today, the first day back from the holidays.

First and foremost was the acquisition of the Alien Registration Receipt, an elusive A5 piece of paper with which I could do the rest of the day's activities. Pretty simple, actually, especially as the form was one I had taken away last time and completed, so all I had to do was show the completed form to the receptionist and she pointed me in the right direction. 700 yen for 2 receipts, just in case. Easy peasy.

The bank account was next, and was anything but. Again, getting the ball rolling was pretty easy, as I had all 4 bits of paper needed, and just needed to hand them over and ask for an account. The form here was pretty easy too, with the exception of the phone number column. Still don't have a phone, you see, and the dorm's phone number elluded me. Never again, not after the hassle it caused... Luckily there was another form handed in earlier with the dorm number on it, so I was able to copy that. Added to my missing of one kanji off 'Higashikishimoto-cho' and my saying my birthday was in Nothing 88 rather than Showa 81 as it should have been (... I think) I got the impression that the teller thought I was pretty useless. Especially as my request followed a veritable mob of Chinese exchange students who all at least put up the impression that they knew what was being asked of them with perfect clarity. But you want to know the best bit?

I now have to wait ANOTHER

WHOLE

WEEK

before I'm allowed to buy a phone!!

Ridiculous!!

This is because Cash Cards take a week to process, you see, and one is needed (or so I hear) to buy a phone. This also means that I'm going to have to keep these stupid Traveller's Cheques hidden around for a bit longer, or their cash alternatives. Either way, a bit risky for my liking, bit I guess it will have to do, because a week from now puts me past my rent payment deadline, so cash is the only way to go.

...

Speaking of Traveller's Cheques, my next port of call was the post office to ask about trading them in. I'd had a pleasant experience with them before when I was retrieving the GPS, and had high hopes. After a shambolic start where I got all my vocab mixed up asking the reception which desk to speak to, I had another, mercifully short form to fill in, before I handed in my cheques to be cashed.

While the cash was being counted, I was approached by a clerk from a couple of desks over, who asked me for help. It turns out a young Arabian man with no Japanese but fluent English needed help arranging matters concerning a late payment of rent, and the clerk wanted me to translate. I tell you, I felt very proud of myself, though looking back I was a bit useless. I was able to let the man know that the post office didn't know whether you could pay a late rent along with a current one or not, and that he'd have to ask his landlord if that was okay, but when it came to the matter of how to fill in the automatic transfer system form to amend this I was a bit lost. There were diagrams with arrows, that's how bad it was.

Anyway, after much apologising from both myself and the post office, I strolled back here to read up on bill payments in Japan and phone plan services from Softbank, and now I'm really tired.

Oh, I cooked fish today. Like, a proper slab of fish, not a whole fish. That might be forever beyond me. But it tasted good, if you're wondering. Good enough to balance out the burning of my hand on the rice cooker moments before, anyway. Tomorrow I might be getting a phone. But that's a long, painful might littered with conditions like a bureaucratic No Man's Land.

Anyway, thanks for reading.