ellienihon | Productive

I had a good day today. It started out slow. I have finally adjusted to the timezone. I could tell because I didn`t want to get out of bed this morning. Oh well *g*　　I sat around the house for a bit, then got out to Komaki around noon, with the intention of getting my bank account and my internet squared away.

Theoretically, the phone was turned on this morning. I say theoretically because I couldn`t make a phone call. I don`t know if it`s because it was local long distance and I don`t have a provider (area codes are RIDICULOUSLY small), or user difficulties. I ended up calling Sakura on a public phone, who I haven`t managed to talk to since the basic graduation, and left another message with my new phone number. I also stopped by the bike store to look at bikes. It was weird because my day started off with this bike store guy and the woman at the yakitori stand having real attitudes, but that was the low point of my day. I didn`t buy a bike yet, and I will go elsewhere if I can find it. I`ll ask someone when I go into Komaki tomorrow. On the way to the station to go into Komaki, I stopped in and bought a chicken and green onion stick, which was yummy, but the aforementioned attitude made it rather unenjoyable.

I headed into Komaki and went by the Mizuho bank (what my old bank turned into) only to find out that they had closed this branch. I then decided to go to a different bank and set up an account there. Before I did that, I went to see if there was a place I could set up internet in the Ito Yokado department store. Nope. but I did get socks from the 100 yen shop. I`m telling you, this is a great store. *smile* Back to the bank hunt. I decided to try UFJ, since it was across the street, and is all over the place here, including an ATM in front of my supermarket.

I went up to the counter, and told the woman I wanted an account (tsuujou, my word of the day). She wanted my foreign registration, and my inkan. Inkan is what everyone uses instead of a signature here. Anytime you would sign something at home, you use your inkan here. When I created my account before, I was able to sign because I am a foreigner. Times have changed, and I was informed that it would be impossible to create an account. So, off to the inkan store! Oh yeah, inkan is a stamp of your name on it.

I only had to ask for directions once. So, I found the place, walk in, and this young woman comes out half a minute later. In this time, I have had a chance to look at the inkan which are presented in a jewelry case and around the room. The cheapest one I saw in front of me was over 10,000 yen-- about $100. I was a little worried. I talk to the woman, and she`s like this is the price you have to pay. She then asked my name. Almost all Japanese names are 2 characters for the last name, occasionally three. Western names transposed into Japanese can be 7 or 8 characters long (e.g. Richardson-- richaadoson would be 6 1/2) I told her mauto, 3 characters, and she said that one we could do on this smaller inkan, which costs 2100 yen ($20). Whew!

So I got that one. The carver wasn`t in today, so I`ll be going tomorrow to pick it up and get my account. Hopefully it will go smoothly, but if not, I have time to get it straightened out, thank god.