In the event of getting homesickness, the best medicine is to WORK HARDER!!

The Japanese people are meant to be unparalled in their efficiency, right?

Right?

Well why is it that after filling in so many, many forms about address confirmation and prior banking details and whether or not I like cats*, I still have to fill in I-don't-know-and-don't-want-to-know-how-many more before I can get a flipping bank account!! I was told this would be easy!

Okay, so banks close at 3 here. That's odd, but I can live with it. After all, we have so little to do these days that's not a massive problem. So I thought: hey! Now I have my Alien Registration Request form I can get a bank account! And I have a lot of time this morning so let's do it then! But oh-no, when I got there I realised that I needed my medical insurance information, a little green card I didn't bring with me because I didn't think the bank would care if I'd been ill and claimed on it since YESTERDAY! So I trundled all the way home, picked it up, and got the subway back (because I was tired), whereupon I went on a compulsory library tour with the rest of the class until about 1.45.

Then: a dilemma! I had an hour and a quarter before the bank shut, but I was very hungry, so maybe I should get lunch first... I'm glad I did.

Whilst at lunch with Matt, Matthieu (yeah, confusing), Michelle, Coco, someone I'd never met before but who apparently lives here in the 'gakukan: Yuuka, and a fifth year student Mari, we got to discussing stupid paperwork matters, including the banking details. Turns out, and this really cracked me up, the Alien Registration Request wasn't even an official document! I had to go back and ask for an Alien Registration Request Receipt and pay 350 yen! I then would get a one-shot gaijin form that I could use to make my account, I would have to buy a new one each time I needed it before the card comes through in October.

But here's the really funny part. As of 3 o'clock today, the country has started a PUBLIC HOLIDAY!! So the banks and Ward Office where I get my Receipt are all CLOSED until THUUUURSDAAAAY!!!

AAAAAAARGH!!

So now I have to wait until THEN to get a RECEIPT to get a BANK ACCOUNT to get a PHONE!! I really should have taken up Mark's offer and gone to Kobe with Zack, Mae and Na...Naomi? I don't know, I've never met her.

On the upside, my GPS is plugged in and looking for satelites, and I caught a Dratini today.

Thanks for reading.



*I do!