Alien Registration

Hello everyone! I'm afraid I bring boring stuff today, nothing really flashy or exciting. Today was the day to meet with my study abroad coordinator, and we went to the kuyakusho (City Ward Office) here in Setagaya to register me as a temp. citizen. Again, I insist that you bring passport size photos with you, but I found out today that in fact, if you do forget them, there is a machine directly outside the building to oblige you. We went there by bus, but came back by foot, since I wanted to know the way for later, though to both of our surprises, what seemed like a seven minute busride turned out to be a forty-five minute walk, in the heat and sun. Even so, I got to see a lot more shops and things along the way. Btw, advice to the wise, while you're here, buy a water bottle from one of the millions of vending machines and keep it with you at all times. They drink surprisingly little here, so you could get dehydrated in the heat. The tap water is safe, though for some reason unbeknowst to me, most Japanese people drink bottled mineral water. I guess it's just what the cool kids are doing.

For the alien resgistration card, you find the building and the desk, where they give you a form to fill out asking your name, home address, occupation, birthdate, dates allowed in Japan (a sticker in your passport), and the address where you're staying, then have you sign some stuff, etc. The form is in English, so no worries there, though the lady behind the counter may try to ask you stuff in Japanese. I had my lady there to help, but I'm sure with enough hand gestures and miming, you can come to an understanding. They take your passport and make a copy, take your pictures, and also a certificate of eligibility form that you get at the airport (the man you turn the immigration form into puts it in your passport). After that, it takes three weeks for you to get your official card, which you have to go back to the office to get (thus the walk). They can issue you a temporary reg. card, which will work when you want to buy a cell phone, however, it does not work for opening bank accounts, so you'll have to wait the three weeks for that. Also, if you change where you live (as I'm moving into an apartment elsewhere in six months), you have to reregister at the city ward in your new living area. To my surprise, when I turned everything in, they gave me a booklet about libraries, rec areas and general knowledge stuff for the area, in English, as well as a map charting emergency evacuation routes (and a very interesting 1-10 earthquake scale), as well as a chart for how the trash is to be put out and when. Japan is quite strict about how the trash is done, but this pamphlet put all my questions to rest. The trash question will take an entire blog, which I'll do later.

Other than that, nothing much new to report. I went out to lunch with my brother's girlfriend (he was at work), to a Thai place. Naturally, their Thai food is different than ours (only one curry on the menu, and they don't have yellow curry). And after that, she came to a special, short ceremony to cleanse her soul, since her grandad just died, and it's been a week. It was at the shrine next door and she let me watch, which was cool. Cousin Nobu did the proceedings, all dressed up in that old-timey garb, waving a papery stick at her and saying a bunch of stuff in the same voice that Catholic priests use at mass. Then we got to go inside the shrine and she said a few things and it was over. Well anyways, so that was my day. I may be going to Tokyo Tower tomorrow, but I'm not sure, and then on Wed. I'm going to the school finally. Well, that's all the news to report for now. Talk to you soon!

Word of the Day: Sado and Ogoru

Hello everyone! So the journey continues. Today I got to participate in my host mother's tea ceremony classes that she teaches, which was really cool, and thus the reason for one of today's words of the day. Sado (sah-do), refers to the Japanese tea ceremony, which I will talk about more in a minute. Also, today I went out to lunch with my big brother and his lovely girlfriend and he taught me how to say, 'My treat' as in, I'll pay. To say that, you say "Ogorimasu." So if you say this, be prepared to pay the bill. I also found out that in the Shinto religion, if a member of your family dies, or if you have really bad luck, you are not allowed in the shrine (the jinja) for one week, because the Shinto god likes to stay away from death and bad luck. I had a kind of ramen, btw, called I think it was Tatamen, which was noodles in a gravyish broth with ground beef and white sesame, as well as a few veggies. It is said to be a bit spicy, but I didn't really think so. It was good though.

In other news, I wento the tea ceremony, where my host mother was all dressed up in her kimono looking lovely. There were two different ceremonies I participated in, one with cold green tea, where I sat in a chair like contraption, and one with hot green tea where I had to kneel for forty five minutes until I thought my bones were going to break. I won't go into all the details because it would take too long for one blog, but suffice it to say that the meticulous nature of every aspect of the tea ceremony is amazing. Everything has to be precise, from the angles and places you set things, to the number of times you do something, or how much water you put in, or which foot you lead with when you leave, or how to hold this or that and when. It was an amazing experience, I have to say and I was overwhelmed by the timeless, deep nature of the Japanese tradition. Btw, when Americans think of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, they usually think of powdered green tea that you put in the bowl thing and mix with a whisk until it is a deep green color, but that is ot the only type of tea ceremony. That is used with Macha, which is green tea powder, whereas what I witnessed today was all using Kyusu, which are the actual leaves, and it can be a ceremony for hot green tea or cold green tea. So, suffice it to say, I learned a lot about tea today.

I ventured out on my own for a little bit today, going to the local 7/11 for toilet paper and what not, found a 100 Yen vending machine (which is cheaper than most) where I bought the drinks in the picture, and then went to pick up some photos I'd gotten at a store by the station. Speaking of which, the dang passport photo saga continues. When you come to Japan, if you're staying, not just visiting, and are going to get an Alien Registration Card, bring two passport size photos with you, because as I learned the hard way, getting them here will set you back $15.00 (the first money I spent in Japan : / ) and might take a while to find a shop to do it, if you don't have a host family to ask.

Well, tonight we're having some guests from the neighborhood over for Okonomiyaki, which is a sort of omelette/pancake thing with meat and veggies in it. Oh, be forewarned that some places in Japan don't have napkins (like my family doesn't use them), so you might want to brink a packet of napkins with you, or take some that are being passed out with ads on the streets in busy places like Shibuya. But that's a story for another day. I'll talk to you all soon!