What to do when you move

Today we were helping our friend take care of some official stuff that should have been taken care of months ago. What kind of stuff? Oh, the usual - city hall stuff, bank stuff and post office stuff. All the pesky places that need to be notified when you move.

I'm not sure what the grace period in Japan is to notify the authorities about your move, I think it's 14 days. Our friend moved back in April. And didn't notify anyone except her parents and her internet provider. Ouch.

In the meantime, her health insurance bill and city tax payments were sent out. In the meantime, the first installment for those payments came and went. She never got them and never paid them. In the meantime, her internet service got suspended, and the provider requested a document proving her new address - something which she didn't have and wasn't sure how to go about getting one.

Stories like that, contrary to popular belief, are actually pretty common. What seems obvious to people who have lived in Japan for a few years is news to new arrivals. Why? Most likely, because their employers are jerks and never told them about such unimportant little details. Or, as in this case, one of those jerks, when my friend asked if she needed to register her new address, actually told her "oh, don't worry about it, we'll do it for you". Ha, gotta love his particular dispatch company!

So, if you don't know that you need to show up at your old and new city halls with your passport and your gaijin card in hand, because nobody told you, or because your bosses told you otherwise, you never did what needed to be done within 14 days of your move.

Today we were facing an additional hurdle of unpaid health insurance and city tax. Lovely.

To expedite the whole process, we wanted to have a native with us. Because it's easy to brush off a stupid gaijin (or two), but it's a lot harder to tell one of your own to get lost. DrT agreed and came with us.

Fortunately, this was an intra-prefectural move (yay!) and within an easy driving distance.

Our first stop was the main post office in the town where our friend used to live. Submitting the change-of-address form was surprisingly easy. The form was in English.

Since when? I don't remember it being in English when we were moving...

Next on the list, or rather, on our way, was the bank. That was easy too, except no forms in English there. However, the bank lady was very kind and penciled in some of the more difficult characters for my friend to trace. That was very nice, because last year, when I was changing my address, nobody penciled in anything for me. Not fair.

Our next step was the mighty city hall. We were getting a bit nervous. Passed deadlines and unpaid bills are never fun.

The city hall ladies were kind and friendly. They laughed a bit when we explained our friend's story. Probably thought "duh, another dumb foreigner, what else is new?" They told us that the law changed in July and it would be a lot easier for all involved (mainly for them) if we just pretended the move happened today. Fine by us, but what about the unpaid bills, we ask. Oh, don't worry, they say. Yeah, we heard THAT before.

We filled out another form and then sat down to wait. DrT found the most amazing unchi book and we passed the time looking at cartoon shit. It was quite interesting.

After waiting for a new minutes, my friend was handed recalculated payment slips for health insurance and city tax. We were told that the two missed payments should be taken care of right there and then. There was a late penalty of all of 100 yen per payment. Wow.

She paid, handed back her old insurance card and collected a document stating that she no longer resided in that municipality. And with that document in hand, we drove to her current city.

There we filled out another form and submitted it together with the document she got from her old city hall. And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

After a couple of centuries a lady came up and gave my friend her gaijin card back. The new address was added on the back. Then we waited for a few more years and collected her new insurance card.

And done! She's all legal again.

PS> Anyone else she needs to notify about her move?

Yasukuni - revisited

Ok, so it's hot. As expected. And humid. Also as expected. And our living room aircon is still dead. Not as expected. We had two different guys coming and looking at it and scratching their heads, and finally this morning we got a phone call that a third guy will show up this afternoon. Hopefully, he can fix it. Because living like this is driving me crazy. We are all holed up in the bedroom again and the cats are getting restless. And frankly, I can't blame them. I'm getting restless myself. I think I might go to the laundromat later today.

But that's not what I was going to complain about. I mean, write about.

August 15th came and went and, even though we did plan on visiting Yasukuni that day, we didn't. Why? Because somebody (hint - not me) didn't feel like getting up at an ungodly hour of the morning. He opened one eye, mumbled something along the lines of "jdkasdjaskjd too early lshfkajf sleep flksdjldjf too hot", then rolled over and ignored me.

He did make it up to me later in the day by cleaning the entire house top to bottom and taking me out to dinner. To MY favorite place. One that he doesn't like. Hah! Serves him right. And what did I do on August 15th? Stayed in the bedroom, naturally. With the aircon on, of course. With two cats for company.

And we could have witnessed something like that instead:

or that:

Yes, those are photos from a few years back, but I doubt if much has changed since then.

Instead, I thought today we might revisit Yasukuni on a less crowded day. On April 21st during its annual spring festival - Reitaisai.

The shrine looked suitably springish:

Unfortunately, the season for cherry blossoms was pretty much over by then. Pity. :(


The priests, all nicely lined up, marched to a roped off area to the left of the main shrine building.
There, they did their priestly things:

It was all very brief and very compact. After that, they retreated to the shrine.

And what about the small crowd of people who came to watch the events? They milled around aimlessly and most of them moved to the other side of the shrine where an open-air concert was going on. Mellow acoustic music, peace-themed, of course.

Some paid their respects and then left:

There were quite a few foreigners there that day and they looked visibly disappointed. Not sure what they expected. Riots? Protesters? Demonstrations? Wrong time of the year, folks.

I didn't visit the garden, but I know it's there. And it's quite nice, actually:

The whole place was very quiet and, dare I say it, even boring.

On my way out, I saw this tour bus. How appropriate, I thought:

And then I went to look for a toilet and a Starbucks. I found both right nearby the metro station.

Obon is here

So... Obon is upon us. For those who don't know, obon is a Japanese buddhist ritual to honor the spirits of dead ancestors. But more commonly known here as "summer vacation". Most people are off work and head back to their hometowns to visit their relatives and cemeteries. Sometimes all at once, actually.

 Stores are fully stocked with obon items

I've been off for however many weeks, lost count by now, and still have two more weeks to go. All fully paid. Read and weep ALTs and eikaiwa teachers! Last year I had a six week summer vacation. This year, due to the economic downturn and such, it's only 5 weeks. Bummer... And I'm spending it all in Japan. At my lovely house in lovely Tochigi. Joy, oh joy. But I do plan to pop in to Tokyo this week (August 15th, Yasukuni, of course, and then for some whale meat in Asakusa maybe) and then again on the 23rd (no Yasukuni, no whale meat, only a doctor's appointment, bleh.)


Other than that, it's been a grim and miserable vacation. Now even more so, because just today our living room aircon unit gave up and died. DrT promptly called the service center and was told that, with it being obon now, someone may, or may not, get back to us sometime soon. Or not. Frankly, we didn't expect a call back before next week, but surprise surprise, someone did call just now. And said that a service person would be dispatched to us sometime tomorrow. Whether or not said service person will be able to fix our aircon, that unfortunately, they don't know until they can figure out what is wrong with it. Fair enough. I don't expect to get it fixed this week. Obon, you know...

Right now we're all sitting in the bedroom. Two humans and two cats. And enjoying the cool air, because luckily, this unit works. And I'm nursing my left hand, which got skinned and bruised when a piece of DrT's exercise equipment decided to fall down on me. While I was using it. Well, sort of. Not exercising, just stretching, to be honest. But it did fall. And, in the process I did make a hole in the wall with my knuckles and destroyed a big swath of wallpaper. But the hole looks oh-so-rugged, and none of my fingers are broken, so it's all good. I didn't like this wallpaper anyway. DrT picked it, LOL.

So, what else is new? Not much. We had a lovely lunch with friends today. Steak Gusto. Yay!

Add to that all-you-can-eat salad buffet, bread, soup, curry, fruit, yogurt and shaved ice for dessert. And a drink bar. What can I say? That's where cheap (or poor, like us) and very hungry people go to feed.

And I got a lovely present from the US.

Yay me! There's even a little something for my babies :-)
Now I'm going to finish reading "Snuff" by Terry Pratchett.


Have a lovely evening, everyone!

Day in Chuzenji

Tohaisai came and went and guess what? We pretty much ignored it. Well, kind of. We got as far as Futaara shrine in Chuzenji, and instead of doing the Mt Natai midnight climb (because that's what this Tohaisai thing is), we looked around, stayed for the fireworks and then drove back home.

DrT felt awfully guilty, and me? I was glad, actually. I didn't really feel like climbing Mt Nantai again. But my dear husband even made funny noised about maybe perhaps, if he felt like it, climbing it sometime before August 7th. And guess what? August 7th came and went and he didn't. Meh, you climbed it once, there's no need to do it again... the mountain is still exactly the same as it was two years ago, right? Right.

Posters for the event

So, since we went there and didn't climb the damn mountain, what on earth did we do there? I mostly napped in the car, because it was pleasantly cool. Chilly, in fact. And I was tired.

But before taking a nap, we saw this:

A line of pilgrims being treated to a drink by the shrine maidens.


And this:

Local kids paying their respects at the shrine.

And this:

A very short mikoshi procession.

Then we went for a walk along the lake. It was lovely.

While I was sleeping DrT enjoyed a traditional Japanese dance competition, and I woke up just in time to catch the end of it.

And no, that's not DrT. He didn't dance. He just watched.

I met some parents who obviously knew me very well, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out from where, how and when. They were very friendly though and happy to see me, which I suppose, was a good thing. Especially considering how many people I piss off on a daily basis.

Then we watched the fireworks on the lake:

And then, while everybody and their mother started to get ready for the midnight climb, we climbed into our car. And let me tell you, driving the Irohazaka at night is not something I want to do again anytime soon. Especially not with DrT sitting behind the wheel. In MY car!!!

Here's a short video of the day's activities:




And that was it.
All of it took place on July 31st.

Water Discharge Tunnel Tour

Last Thursday we drove to Kasukabe City to tour the Greater Metropolitan Area water discharge tunnel, or rather - a huge surge tank, which is part of the Tokyo Metro Area flood prevention system. Complicated? Only a little. I'll explain it all later.

Dr T already posted his trip summary on his blog. Now it's my turn.

Before we could take the tour, we had to somehow get to Saitama (that's where Kasukabe City is). And we got there by driving. Even that part of the trip was very exciting for me. My first time in Saitama! Yay! Up until now, the farthest south we had ever driven was to Sano, to the outlet mall. And now, a drive all the way to Saitama! How cool, I thought.

I changed my mind as soon as we left the highway - we got stuck in a massive jam. Dr T, who once upon a time, a century ago, lived in that area for a couple of years, claimed it had always been like that. Endless jams. Endless traffic. Endless hell. I was missing Tochigi already.

We stupidly believed our car navigation system and let ourselves be led right through the center of Kasukabe City. That was when I was not just merely missing Tochigi, but hating Saitama.

The only redeeming feature of that prefecture? Its drivers. They actually stop, flash their lights and let you make a right turn. Happened to us three times in as many minutes. Amazing. And unheard of in Tochigi. Here instead of stopping, flashing the lights and letting you go, it's common to speed up, lean on the steering wheel, honk and scare the living crap out of you. All of that happening while the light is changing from yellow to red, leaving you stuck right in the middle of the intersection like a stupid idiot. That's Tochigi driving for you. No wonder we lead the nation in fatal road accidents. But hey, we gotta be good at something, even if it's vehicular homicide, right? Right.

Finding the drainage pump station is easy. It's clearly marked and judging by the line of taxis delivering other tour participants, it's must be quite well known in the city.

We simply followed the signs.

The tour has to be booked online and you need to be there 30 minutes before the starting time to register yourself, collect your badge and watch a mind bogglingly dumb anime about the whole flood prevention system. Because the whole tour is conducted in Japanese and you need to be able to follow safety/ emergency instructions in Japanese, you either need to understand the language, or be with someone who does. Or simply nod and say "hai" and "eeeeeehhhh!" or "ah soooooo!" to everything the guide says. It works just fine.

You also need to wear sturdy shoes and be able to climb up and down a whole lot of steps, which can be wet and/ or muddy and very slippery.

But before you can do that, you are going to listen to a very informative lecture on how the greater metro area flood prevention system works. If you come early, you can even watch a proper movie. In English. I quite enjoyed that part, actually.

This is the control room:

The whole system consists of 5 intake banks, a huge underground tunnel, a humongous surge tank and a pump station that pumps all this excess water to the Edo river. So, basically, they build a river and a dam underground. When it rains and local rivers overflow, this overflow is collected 50 meters underground, it fills the surge tank and then is spat back to a larger river 6.3 kilometers away.

And this is the pump:

Don't ask me what happens during a major earthquake. I don't want to know.

The fun part is, of course, when you get to visit the surge tank. It does look like an underground temple. Or, as the English language brochure described it - as an underground Parthenon-like structure.

The steps were not as bad as I thought. Yes, they were wet and slippery, but nothing like what I thought it was going to be. It was an easy climb up and down. Or rather - down and up again.

When we were there, the space was occupied by a film crew filming some dreadful live action anime hybrid. They didn't want us to take any photos of them, but their orders were universally ignored by everybody in our group.

And that was it.
The whole tour, from beginning to end, lasts only 90 minutes, of which just 15 are spent underground in the surge tank. And there's no tour on days when it rains and the tank is filled.

When you leave you get a free postcard and you can roam the grounds more or less freely and take photos. I didn't see one guard or a single security person.

All in all, an interesting way to spend a free afternoon. However, I don't recommend this tour for kids - they'll be bored out of their minds, misbehave and only frustrate the guide. And embarrass their parents. And piss off other tour participants. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. There was a bunch of elementary school kids in our group.

More info here (in Japanese).