I woke up at 6:30am, disturbed by the rain, brightening room, and
background noise. I felt terrible. The borrowed bedding and my new sheet were
full of allergens, so my eyes were swollen for more than half the day, even
though I tried to clean them out. My nose ran a lot too. I resolved to buy
tissues and definitely do laundry later.
It rained lightly all day, a gentle, annoying sprinkle that didn’t make
you properly wet, but made you blink against it. It finally stopped in the late
afternoon.
I left my apartment at about 9am. I walked to the City Government
Building, stopping at a tiny bakery to buy breakfast. I ate a curry bread, a
crunchy caramel raisin biscuit, and drank a bottle of tea.
On the way to the City Government Building, I passed another building
with a similar name, but since it wasn’t marked on the map, I kept going.
Finally, I made it. I saw why people recommended I either get a bank account
with the post office or 77: There were two little ATM buildings for each bank
next to the office building, and they both had long lines. I went into the City
Government Building, but couldn’t find any helpful signs or even an information
desk. I found a map listing what’s on each floor and the layout for floor 1,
but when I walked to the Documents and Records section, it seemed to be an
internal office. Baffled, I went back and forth between that section and the
map a couple times. None of the people wearing lanyards stopped to help me,
which I thought strange for government building that was supposed to service
people. Something wasn’t right. I wandered back to the Documents and Records
section, where I spotted a security booth. I went up to them to ask for
directions. I asked where I was supposed to register my foreigner card and my
new address. The first man didn’t know what I was talking about, but the second
man put his hand in front of him and took over. “You just moved here, right?”
he asked. When I nodded, he told me that I was in the wrong building. “You
don’t need the city office,” he said. “You need the ward office.” He pulled out
a map and pointed to a building on the opposite corner of the intersection.
There was quite a few buildings in the area labeled with similar things that
were variations on “City Government Building,” so it was very confusing. But
with the map and instructions, it was simple.
I entered the correct building and immediately saw the information
desk, where asked where to register my card. I was guided to the crowded
waiting area, where a staff member took me to a high table and brought me the
forms to fill and the corresponding examples. The room was swarming with
foreigners, mostly new students at Tohoku University, and more than half were
Chinese speakers. They were accompanied by Japanese volunteers, who kept track
of them and told them when their numbers were called. I waited a very long
time, at least 20 minutes after I finished filling out the forms to register my
address and apply for national health insurance, and took a number, until my
number was called. I was glad that a kind old lady came by passing out candies
(she gave me a sweet and salty clear, hard candy that I almost disliked).
At the counter, the staff member looked over my passport, took my
foreigner card, and made corrections to my address registration form. He
rewrote my name in katakana above my own katakana, saying that he couldn’t put
small size characters onto my health insurance card. He also rewrote the number
part of my address, since I had abbreviated it using dashes, copying it from
the apartment listing form I still carried. He also had questions about the
date I put on the form for when I came to Japan/Sendai/my apartment. I
explained that the date I had put down was the date I had moved into the
apartment (yesterday). I had arrived in Japan on the 15th, stayed in
a hotel in Tokyo until the 21st, then came to Sendai and stayed in a
hotel until the 24th, when I moved into my apartment. He took note
of all this in red pen on the form, then separated the carbon copies, stapled
one to half of my number sheet, and keep the rest of the forms and my card with
the other half. Then he sent me to the other side of the room to wait until my
number was called. He told me they would give me back my foreigner card with
the address printed on it, and my national insurance card, which I wouldn’t
need to pay for.
I went to the other side of the room as told. There were more Japanese
in the middle of the room; I guess the windows in between provided services for
them. The waiting area I was in was less crowded than the first one. I
eavesdropped while I waited, since most of the Japanese people and
Chinese-speaking people were communicating in English. It seemed that many of
the people from Taiwan (and maybe China?) were not given foreign resident cards
when they arrived in Japan (I received mine at Immigrations at the airport).
This caused them to have to wait a very long time (the same as me, so I guess
having it or not doesn’t make a difference) and made things more complicated.
Maybe they got some priority since they were part of a group.
One of the Japanese volunteers kept mistaking me for one of her group
members, since I was very obviously listening when she spoke. She checked all
her students papers to make sure they had everything. After I finally got my
cards, she asked if I was missing a paper. But then she realized I wasn’t in
her group and apologized. I told her that I was also an exchange student at
Tohoku University. She asked me what department I was in, and I told her I was
in the Economics department. She commented that every department handles its
students differently, and that she would be happy if we were to meet again.
By the time I left the ward office, it was noon. I decided to go to the
internet company for my apartment, NTT. But when I got to the building, there
was a sign on it that said it had been closed for more than a year for
renovation, and that applications could only be done online or via phone. So I
decided to go to the Starbucks next to Grand Terrace Hotel to use the free wifi,
since I didn’t have any internet. I ate lunch there and looked up the website
provided on the sign. I started the application, but I got confused when it
told me to choose a provider. Wouldn’t NTT be the provider? Why would I need to
make a contract with another company? I called F-sensei to ask about it. He
told me that he used Plala, and that someone else he knew used OCN, but he
didn’t know what was different. He said that the provider was the company that
provides your email address, but I knew that wasn’t really true, since it
doesn’t work that way at all in America. F-sensei decided to call NTT on my
behalf, since he didn’t believe me about the company’s building being closed,
and he thought it ridiculous to force people without internet to apply using
internet. So he called them and then called me back, asking me to fax a copy of
my foreign residence card to the company. He gave me two numbers, which left me
rather confused, and then he said that the company would call me directly, with
an English translator. So they called me, and told me to fax them the copy to
one of the numbers F-sensei had given me. They asked when I would be able to do
it, and I told them that day. After I sent the fax, they would call me back to
complete the registration process.
The English had very good English, and her speaking was smooth and
fast, in both Japanese and English (I could hear her talking to the Japanese
employee). However, her intonation was very strange. Her voice sloped down at
the end of every sentence. I almost thought she was Chinese or some other type
of Asian person, but I couldn’t figure out where she had gotten an accent like
that. Her Japanese was perfect, though, so she must have been Japanese or lived
in Japan for a long time.
I went to the Family Mart next door to make a copy of my card to fax to
NTT. Someone had left their money in the machine without taking their change,
so I added 10 yen to the 40 yen they had left to make a copy of the card. The
copy/fax machine was incredible. Not only was it fully functional in a variety
of languages, including English (the only one I experienced besides Japanese),
but it had options such as delivery service, copies of licenses, photos, and
other types of documents; the option to print to different sizes of paper, and
choose whether to keep original size or fit to the paper; and many more than I
didn’t look at. Plus faxing. After I made a color copy using the “license”
option, I wrote the addressee on the copy and put the copy into the machine to
fax. I typed in the number, inserted more money and pressed send. It didn’t
work the first three times, coming up with the error message, “Error/busy.”
Fortunately, you’re not charged if the fax isn’t sent, so it didn’t cost me
anything. Then F-sensei called me. He asked what I was doing and I told him I
was trying to send the fax, but it wasn’t working. He had me call over an
employee and give her the phone, and he gave her the number I hadn’t used. But
when we switched the phone back to me, I explained that the English speaker at
NTT had given me the other number, so I ended up having the employee put the
same number I had put into the machine, again, but using the Japanese language
setting. This time it worked.
I didn’t want to go back to Starbucks to receive the call from NTT,
since it was pretty noisy, both inside (the occasional grinding of the coffee
machine, voices, and music) and outside (car traffic and music from the karaoke
place at the next building), I went to a park I saw on my map.
At the park I was glad of the light rain, because it kept the bugs
away. I waited 10 minutes, but no call came. I saw a salaryman use the public
bathroom on the other side of the park. The pigeons were grouped on the far
side, sleeping. Eventually, I got up to leave. I was almost to the other side
of the park when my phone rang. I rushed back over the muddy ground to the
bench I had just vacated. I arranged a 2-year contract (because it’s 100 yen
cheaper per month) for 2400 yen per month (with the first month free and an 800
yen setup charge), with another contract with the provider Asahi for an
additional 550 yen per month. The bill would come in the mail and I could pay
at the convenience store, until January, when I would be charged an extra 100
yen or so to pay using that method. I could choose to pay using automatic
billing via bank account or credit card before then in order to incur no extra
charge.
With that finished, I went to see if the bank was open, but it was
closed except for the ATMs, which were busy. I tried to find out the hours it
was open, but they were posted anywhere. Only the ATM hours were visible. I had
some doubts about whether or not this was the right branch of the bank, but I
wouldn’t know for sure unless I came during business hours (which are short for
banks).
Next, I stopped at Daiei to buy more sheets, a bath towel, and a
pillowcase cover. I also managed to get discount curtains for about 1500yen.
Other curtains that were similar cost 3600 yen or more.
Then I went back to Starbucks to use the internet again. I had
forgotten to send a test email to the Fulbright staff to see if my email was
working with their system. So I did that, and I arranged a trip to Tokyo in
October to see an old friend. I found a hotel to stay in, then I gathered up my
bags and went to a discount ticket store I had spotted earlier. I asked about
tickets to Yokohama, and he told me that since he doesn’t have direct tickets
there, it would be cheaper to buy them at the station.
I paused at the bike shop to look at the bike I wanted, and then I
bought some onigiri (rice balls) and juice at the next-door Family Mart. The
juice was entirely too sweet; drinking it made me thirstier and thirstier.
Then I walked home.
Once I was home, I went to the nearby police box to ask about coin
laundry. He described a place that was next to a shrine with a Shinto gate in
front of it. I walked there to see how far it was (5 minutes) and the prices
(200-300 for washing, 100 per 10 minutes for drying). Then I went shopping at
the dollar store and the COOP grocery store to get change and needed items.
After that, I collected my laundry, my detergent, and entertainment, and
carried it all to the coin laundry. I spent 500 yen on washing, and 300 yen on
drying. I gradually noticed there were lots of spiders and webs, and the doors
were open (bugs could fly in), which made me jumpy. The room was dirty, and
water was leaking from one of the washers, making a track across the floor. For
the last 10 minutes of drying, I had to buy a drink at the vending machine
outside to get the needed 100-yen coin. While I was waiting, several people
came it to collect their washing or drying. One man brought his wet clothes in
a trash bag so that he could use the dryer. I might do that, although it’s
expensive.
I called a girl that F-sensei had recommended to me earlier that day.
We arranged to meet on Sunday. During the call, one of the washers started
shaking and pounding. An old lady (60s?) emerged through a door from the back
and peered at the washers, but they were calm. My phone call ended, and I
pointed out the rowdy washer to the lady. She apologized for disturbing me and
went back into the back. I saw her again later, when she closed one of the
doors but told me not to mind since the laundry is open 24 hours.
On the way back to my apartment at a little before 10pm, a bunch of
boys came out of cram school and got on their bikes. They noticed me and kept
nudging each other and sneaking looks back at me. I followed them as they
slowly made their way down the sidewalk. There was about 10 of them, so I
couldn’t get past. I thought about trying to talk to them, but I chickened out.
They wanted to talk to me, but they were also too afraid. Maybe next time. I
still need to wash the curtains.
Between all the talking with F-sensei and NTT, I used up almost all
3000 yen of my prepaid minutes within 2 weeks of arriving in Japan. Without the
phone calls, it’s a good deal, so hopefully more of my correspondence will be
via text from now on.
Some motorcycles in Sendai have a need for speed! I definitely saw some
going at least 60mph on a street with traffic lights.
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