Hello Japanese Paperwork!

8.23.07
Chiba “The Flowery City”

Lauren, my apartment mate and the other teacher at Hands On English, finally arrived last night around 7:15pm from the Narita Airport. It was very windy but both Hiroko and I were glad to help her off the bus and into our apartment. Hiroko promised to pick us up today at 10am so that we could go to City Hall to fill out our Alien Registration Application. Lauren and I talked a while before heading off to bed.

As my 8am alarm snapped me back into reality (Reality. Perhaps you may wish to argue that dreams are just as real as some of the images that our brain assumes while we are awake, but for now let’s get back to Lauren’s breakfast.), I staggered out into the living room and was welcomed by Lauren sitting at her laptop. She had set the table and was all ready for breakfast. I had the Sheila classic: crunchy peanut butter on toast. Lauren had some rice and we shared a Japanese pear (na-shi), which is greenish-brown and shaped more like an apple. We cleaned up, did some laundry and got ready for Hiroko to pick us up at 10am (in her Mercedes compact car with the steering wheel on the right side).

The first stop on our list was Chiba City Hall so that Lauren and I could become official aliens. Yes, my favorite color is green and I think it would be awesome to have green skin, but do I really need a card to affirm this? The answer is yes! As a side note, I should also mention that Lauren is basically fluent in Japanese. We walked up to the Alien Registration Application window, filled out some paperwork, and I was given a bunch of papers and a welcome booklet explaining everything you would ever want to know about Chiba, “The Flowery City”. We also had to fill out paperwork for health insurance. Unlike America, everyone here in Japan has to have some sort of insurance. However, many people receive health insurance benefits from their employer. I think Hiroko told me that we would be paying 5000 yen per month ($50) and Lauren also explained that we would also have to pay 30% of the bill.

Chiba City Hall

Next, we went to the Citibank (bank = ging-ko) branch here in Chiba to see if we could open an account in order to send money back home. Our trip there didn’t last long when we found out how expensive this process would be for us. The lady in the bank recommended that we open a savings account at the post office (yu-bin-kyo-ku).

Off to the post office! Post offices here in Japan are a bit different in comparison to the US mainly because you can send mail and also save money. Our mission: to open a free savings account with the post office so we could send money home! So as I stood there listening to Hiroko chatter away in Japanese with the postal worker, I tried to make sense of what she was saying. It’s funny how I find myself listening inventively, imagining that I understand what is being said, when really, I have no clue. When the lady at the desk wasn’t sure of what we needed she asked her male coworker for assistance. After he handed us our paperwork, Hiroko pulled both me and Lauren to the side. Lauren had understood most of the conversation, but I had no idea what was going on and was very surprised to find out that I had to write in kanji. Hiroko and I had a good laugh considering I have no experience in kanji writing and she was not allowed to fill out the form for me. I was able to finish the form with a lot of confusing nods and pointing from Hiroko and the post office man. Because the form was in Japanese kanji, I felt strange filling the boxes with numbers, without any idea of the meaning behind them. Eventually, I got my little savings account booklet complete with a complimentary package of tissues. Yay!

After all that, the three of us were awfully hungry. Hiroko treated us to a sushi lunch. I tried all the weird types of fish first so that I could say I had at least tried octopus, squid, crab eggs, and sweet egg. We were also served a little salad, miso soup, and green tea. Delish!

Lauren enjoying her miso soup!

After our yummy (hoy-shi) lunch, we went to the phone store and asked if my phone could be switched from Japanese to English. Because my phone was unable to do this, Hiroko paid for a new one that would. I couldn’t thank her enough for making the switch. I can actually understand what my phone says now. One less thing to be anxious about and Hiroko agreed. While I waited for my phone to be ready I saw a cute little bendy ducky.

Bendy the duck

Hooray! I placed my first order at Starbucks where I ordered a Red Bean(Azuki) Slushie in Japanese. The waitress smiled and nodded at me. I must have been beaming. It was good, sweet, but good. After we finished our drinks Hiroko departed and Lauren and I went to explore. We went into a department store and looked around for some good deals. I thought it was funny when I heard the “Buy you a drink” song that is so overplayed on the radio back home. It made me think of home when I heard it.

Ordering at Starbucks

(Rhinoceros beetle fights are common in Japan.)

Qoo or Fruity Orange anyone?

We walked around for a while and finally came home, bought some food for dinner, make fried rice and salad, ate, and planned what we were going to do tomorrow as it is our last day off for a while. We start teaching this Saturday!

Lauren just screamed. Mr. Gross the cockroach has decided to grace us with his presence. Woot!