I am posting a special update just to fill everyone in on the unbelievable bureaucracy of Japan.
Today we tried to get Japanese driving licenses. First of all we needed to get colour photocopies of our documents so that we could get JAF (like the Japanese AA) to translate our licenses. This was the easy bit. We left the house well before 9am on our holiday to go and do this. Next we had to get to the JAF offices. This required 2 train trips, but we didn't realize that it was 2 differently owned lines, so wasted a few hundred yen paying for the whole journey and then having to pay again when we changed trains. Grr.
At the other end, we found a map of the local are and tried to compare it to the online map I had copied. Fortunately Will spotted a few minutes into our route preparation that North on this map was actually downwards. We very nearly walked out of the station in the wrong direction. When you get lost here it is very difficult to spot and/or correct, because there are so few visible landmarks or signs that mean anything to us. We left the station, and then followed my little drawn map. Unfortunately it had a small mistake (online map mistake, not copying mistake) so we still managed to walk around in a big circle for 40 minutes. Eventually we asked a man for directions (and managed to understand them! Yay!) and found the place. They were very helpful and fairly quick and we soon had nicely translated licenses.
Next we had to make our way back to another station (much easier train ride) to meet a friend who had already got his translation but needed to get the licence. It is a problem to get the licenses because the office hours are 9-3 so you have to go on a day when we are off work but it is not a national holiday. Today was the only available day before Christmas, so we were keen to get it done. It was also important because we are going away for the weekend with the aforementioned friend and his wife and hiring a car. For which we need a valid licence. So we were all keen to get it right.
We found our way to Shinagawa station, a huge and confusing place. We needed to change here to yet another privately owned line. What we didn't realize was that where there are usually 2 ticket machines that you walk through to validate the ticket, here there was only one, but you still had to validate the ticket from your old journey as well as for the one you were about to take. I will come back to this problem later, so remember it.
We managed to buy tickets, get through and ask someone which train we needed. The train came and we got on it. By this time it was 12.50. The highways office closes for lunch from 11.30-1pm (in such a short day - I know) so we wanted to get there for when it opened. Unfortunately, whoever we asked about the train clearly wasn't concentrating, because it was a Rapid train - like an express, that didn't stop at our station. So we got off at the next stop and got the local train back to the right station. Phew. Then we walked to the highways office.
We got there and found the right place, queued up for the very small window and handed over our documents. The first thing they said was did we have our old passport to prove we had lived in the UK after the licenses were issued. Who carries an expired passport to a new country!? Well, Ben apparently but normal people just don't. Luckily, I had taken our marriage certificate along (just as something official and just in case - inspired) and they seemed to accept that as proof we had been there at least and resident. They took all our papers from us and we had to sit and wait for ages to find out if we were on to the next step. It was like waiting for a mortgage application or an exam result. While we waited, some other people were being called through a secret door holding money and getting sorted quickly. I don't want to know.
Meanwhile, our other friend Mark (Australian) was having problems. He had forgotten his passport first off, but even with that he was stuffed. He had 2 categories on his licence, and the Japanese officials said he needed a piece of paper from the Queensland DVLA equivalent stating when he had passed each category. This would allow him to have a licence for a car and a 125cc scooter, even though he had taken an exam for a 250cc. Japan have no middle category, so he will have to take the 400cc exam to be able to ride the new 200cc vespa he has just bought. If he can organise the bits of paper from Australia. He also has problems because his passport was renewed while he was living in the UAE, and he has no idea where his old one is. He was not happy. Eventually he went home with his fingers crossed that at least one of us would get ours so we could hire the car tomorrow.
We were approved for ours, but that wasn't the end. We had to get new photos taken because the passport sized ones were too big. Then we had to have an eyetest (truly pointless - Will couldn't see half of it and still passed) and go back to the original window to get a lot of stamps and pay a lot of money. Then we had to go to have our official photo taken, and then wait an hour and 10 minutes for the card to be ready. So we went to a Japanese fast food place over the road and had rice and boiled meat, which was actually more appetizing than it sounds and very cheap. Eventually we got our licenses. Yay!
Now we just had to get home. We got the train back to Shinagawa and tried to go back though the single ticket machine. For some reason, everyone else was fine but I was blocked repeatedly. A man tried to help and got confused. In the end it turned out I hadn't validated my last journey as I came through, so I was stuck. I had to wait while the attendant took my card and left me standing like a lemon til he came back. I never want to go to the highway office again! We got home at 5.20pm. Japanese bureaucracy is really something to see.
On the upside, yesterday I found a Next and bought clothes in english sizes, then went for a fantastic chinese meal, and tomorrow we are going away for the weekend with friends to relax. We can even drive there!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Excursions
I have been reprimanded for not updating for a while. Sorry. We have been busy as usual here although it has been an unusual few weeks. It was excursion time at school from the 4th October. This is a compulsory trip that all students go on for three days each year. Each year group goes to a different place and it is really nice for everyone to get to know each other and be out of the city for a few days. Every full-time teacher has to go on an excursion with one of their classes.
I went on the Grade 6 excursion (the same as Year 7 in the UK, age 10-12) to Yamanaka-ko, a lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji. There were 38 kids and 5 staff. It was a lovely green place, surrounded by mountains, and we stayed in the YMCA on the shores of the lake. Unfortunately, about 2 hours after we arrived it started to rain and it didn't stop for the entire time we were there. I am assured Mt. Fuji was right outside my window but I didn't see it at all over the 3 days. Even so, the rain didn't stop us doing all the activities we had planned, including a half day hike up the next highest mountain in the range (about 4000 ft). About 1/3 of the way up we went into the cloud and from that point on saw nothing, not even the other end of our group. Again, I am promised that the view was
worth the climb but I didn't actually see it. I am beginning to think Fuji is just a big con that they draw on postcards but doesn't exist. The 3 days were tiring but good fun really, I only hope we have better weather if I go anywhere else.
We have finally had our new bed and sofa, which took some doing with the Japanese delivery men, especially with some things missing. I had to ring a Japanese friend (actually Korean but she speaks Japanese) to translate the message that they were going to go back for the things. I was quite impressed that we managed to agree the items and sort out the delivery times without help though. The new stuff has made the apartment look so much better, I feel more at home here now. It was very bare before and I felt like I was living in a hotel room. There are still a few things we want but we have no money left after the Ikea day. They will have to wait.
One of the teachers at school is running a short course of Japanese lessons for the new teachers. We have been to 2 so far, and covered quite a few basic things. We learned a lot of it before we came but she is able to explain why things are done certain ways, and she has been teaching us how to bow and personal things like our names and addresses which is great. I am trying to practice my writing - I am far far behind Will. He keeps reading odd things like manhole covers and getting all excited, but it really is useful for him to be able to work some things out. I am looking forward to being able to read menus the most, it is scary not knowing what is coming to eat!
At the weekend we went to a fair at another international school just up the road - Nishimachi. Each international school has a fair in the autumn where parents and other interested people run stalls of food and drink from their
home countries. I managed to get a proper bacon sandwich!! I was soooo pleased. It was from the Irish stall (there was no British stall there) so I asked the man where he managed to get the bacon from, but he said they had it flown in specially from Dublin a few days before. I couldn't believe it. The bacon here is useless. That is probably the thing I miss the most at the moment, although robinsons orange squash and bisto gravy are close runners up. Our school is holding the fair (or Family Festival) on November 11th, so maybe I'll be able to get another one then. The photo is Will and Ben at the Canadian Stall.
We had a bank holiday last monday so we decided to go to Odaiba for the afternoon. This is a part of the city that
someone decided should be like old fashioned blackpool. so it has a fake beach (which faces the city skyline just to complete the illusion), wooden promenade and little stalls selling ice-cream etc. Except that it is Tokyo, so you also have designer shops, no cash points and people screaming at the top of their lungs in the hope that you will come to buy something from them (this is a feature of most shops and department stores here - never mind that by coming any closer to them you may well be deafened). Still, it was a lovely day and the monorail ride around the bay to get there was worth the trip. This is some of the views and me at the station in Shinbashi (on the way home). 
The workers on the plot next door have finally finished, yay! They have been demolishing a building for over a month (due to end on 30th september but didn't) and it has been such a pain. There was a massive digger and it kept making our whole house shake as though we were having an earthquake, only on and off all day. And they started at 7.30 on saturdays. When I say finished, I mean the plot is now flat and there is no digger anymore, but this is Tokyo so I expect someone will come along and start building on it soon. We are just hoping we have a few saturdays worth of lie-ins first. Building projects here are notoriously long and all a bit dodgy. We saw a man perched on the arm of the digger being waved around to weld some bits outside our kitchen window. No helmet, no goggles, gloves etc. They are crazy people.
We had our biggest earthquake so far on saturday morning in the early hours. It actually woke me up, which was a bit disorienting. I opened my eyes and had to concentrate to figure out why the bed was going side to side. It was a 5.3 which officially is "moderate" but it was long and big for us. Will slept through the whole thing.
Thats all til we get paid. We can't do a lot til then!
I went on the Grade 6 excursion (the same as Year 7 in the UK, age 10-12) to Yamanaka-ko, a lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji. There were 38 kids and 5 staff. It was a lovely green place, surrounded by mountains, and we stayed in the YMCA on the shores of the lake. Unfortunately, about 2 hours after we arrived it started to rain and it didn't stop for the entire time we were there. I am assured Mt. Fuji was right outside my window but I didn't see it at all over the 3 days. Even so, the rain didn't stop us doing all the activities we had planned, including a half day hike up the next highest mountain in the range (about 4000 ft). About 1/3 of the way up we went into the cloud and from that point on saw nothing, not even the other end of our group. Again, I am promised that the view was
worth the climb but I didn't actually see it. I am beginning to think Fuji is just a big con that they draw on postcards but doesn't exist. The 3 days were tiring but good fun really, I only hope we have better weather if I go anywhere else.We have finally had our new bed and sofa, which took some doing with the Japanese delivery men, especially with some things missing. I had to ring a Japanese friend (actually Korean but she speaks Japanese) to translate the message that they were going to go back for the things. I was quite impressed that we managed to agree the items and sort out the delivery times without help though. The new stuff has made the apartment look so much better, I feel more at home here now. It was very bare before and I felt like I was living in a hotel room. There are still a few things we want but we have no money left after the Ikea day. They will have to wait.
One of the teachers at school is running a short course of Japanese lessons for the new teachers. We have been to 2 so far, and covered quite a few basic things. We learned a lot of it before we came but she is able to explain why things are done certain ways, and she has been teaching us how to bow and personal things like our names and addresses which is great. I am trying to practice my writing - I am far far behind Will. He keeps reading odd things like manhole covers and getting all excited, but it really is useful for him to be able to work some things out. I am looking forward to being able to read menus the most, it is scary not knowing what is coming to eat!
At the weekend we went to a fair at another international school just up the road - Nishimachi. Each international school has a fair in the autumn where parents and other interested people run stalls of food and drink from their
home countries. I managed to get a proper bacon sandwich!! I was soooo pleased. It was from the Irish stall (there was no British stall there) so I asked the man where he managed to get the bacon from, but he said they had it flown in specially from Dublin a few days before. I couldn't believe it. The bacon here is useless. That is probably the thing I miss the most at the moment, although robinsons orange squash and bisto gravy are close runners up. Our school is holding the fair (or Family Festival) on November 11th, so maybe I'll be able to get another one then. The photo is Will and Ben at the Canadian Stall.We had a bank holiday last monday so we decided to go to Odaiba for the afternoon. This is a part of the city that
someone decided should be like old fashioned blackpool. so it has a fake beach (which faces the city skyline just to complete the illusion), wooden promenade and little stalls selling ice-cream etc. Except that it is Tokyo, so you also have designer shops, no cash points and people screaming at the top of their lungs in the hope that you will come to buy something from them (this is a feature of most shops and department stores here - never mind that by coming any closer to them you may well be deafened). Still, it was a lovely day and the monorail ride around the bay to get there was worth the trip. This is some of the views and me at the station in Shinbashi (on the way home). 
The workers on the plot next door have finally finished, yay! They have been demolishing a building for over a month (due to end on 30th september but didn't) and it has been such a pain. There was a massive digger and it kept making our whole house shake as though we were having an earthquake, only on and off all day. And they started at 7.30 on saturdays. When I say finished, I mean the plot is now flat and there is no digger anymore, but this is Tokyo so I expect someone will come along and start building on it soon. We are just hoping we have a few saturdays worth of lie-ins first. Building projects here are notoriously long and all a bit dodgy. We saw a man perched on the arm of the digger being waved around to weld some bits outside our kitchen window. No helmet, no goggles, gloves etc. They are crazy people.
We had our biggest earthquake so far on saturday morning in the early hours. It actually woke me up, which was a bit disorienting. I opened my eyes and had to concentrate to figure out why the bed was going side to side. It was a 5.3 which officially is "moderate" but it was long and big for us. Will slept through the whole thing.
Thats all til we get paid. We can't do a lot til then!
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