Week 2: week of frustration

Hey all!

Apparently my city's mascot.

I'll be honest, it's been a hard week.  I started off Monday with four simple things to get done.

1) register at the city hall

2) get a bank account at the post office

3) get a phone

4) see my schools

I figured I could knock off the first 3 Monday, no problem, and get the 4th done Tuesday, leaving me the rest of the week to try and figure something out.

Yeah.

That didn't work.

I ended up getting 1 thing done each day, but of course, since I was TRYING to get everything else done, it all added up to large amounts of frustration.  The city hall was actually the easiest thing. What's that say when CITY HALL gives you the least trouble?
See, when you move anywhere here in Japan,you have to let the local government know, and they mark your ID card and yeah. Not much.   (even residents have to do this.) I thought to myself "that went well, I will now go get a phone."
For my phone, I wanted a pre-paid, because otherwise you're locked into a 2 year contract.  (yes, they still do that here)  Well, only one company does that, and neither of the two stores I checked had English speakers, a translation line, or pre-paid phones.  Well, Ok, Bank account!  I went to the post office, and again, had no English speakers. I finally took a picture of the "account" sign on the ATM and showed that to them saying "Give me".  (complete with hand signs)  AH! The light dawns! so I spent about an hour filling out papers.  Wrong.  They guy behind the counter dug up enough English (and a translation line) to print out the instructions in English, new forms to fill out, and sent me home.  I was frustrated (and tired, city hall is a little over a mile away, so lots of walking) so I just went back to the house and filled out the forms.

TUESDAY! I marched right into that post office and gave them the forms!  All of them! Plus the important papers I had forgotten last time! and they gave me an account! Sure, it took over an hour, but I just spent the time playing on my phone.  Well, I was feeling confident, so I march off briskly to try and get a phone.  I made it as far as the first stop light when I paused, looked around, and the lady who helped me get an account was running after me, yelling, waving a paper in the air!  She had chased me down two whole blocks to return my paper! (and she was obviously not a runner)  I felt so happy about that, I went off with a whole new positive attitude. I was going into Osaka to find the biggest phone store and get a prepaid phone.
I promptly got lost.

I do not think this is a phone store

Very lost.

tempting, but still not a phone.

OH BOY LOST.

No fruit sandwiches in a phone store!

When I finally found myself, (and the store) THEY had the same problem that the smaller stores had. No English, no English line, no pre-paid phones.  I stomped off muttering at them and treated myself to Ramen.
I wasn't sure exactly what to ask for, so I snapped a shot of the plastic model I wanted and just showed the waitress that.  You know, technology has certainly made adventuring easier!

plastic

real. Tastier than plastic.

WEDNESDAY I was finally sick of messing around, went to the phone company's competitor, got a 2 year plan (I didn't CARE anymore) and they're like, "Oh yes, everything's fine only since the post office hasn't given you a bank card yet, you need this PAPER FROM CITY HALL"... FINE! I DON'T CARE! I'LL DO IT!  Then I made them give me a paper with the name of what I needed on it so I could shove that at the city hall people.  Who again, were the most friendly and cheerful and helpful people I've dealt with all week!
I GOT the PAPER, I GOT the PHONE, I went back to my place and WATCHED A MOVIE because I WAS DONE.

THURSDAY was better.  I didn't really want to go out, because it was so bright, but I figured, you know, I really should see where my schools were. So, everything together, off I go, etc. The walk did me good! I visited all 3 schools, they're pretty easy to find.  I visited a shrine.

I love tori arches.

A soul lamp! (to guide the spirits of the dead I believe)

  Pleasant place to rest, as it was really sunny. (and I forgot my umbrella.)
While I was down there, I figured, eh, might as well go see something that caught my eye on the map as I was perusing.  I got there, and what I thought would be a few small shops was a MALL.

This was a small section of the bike parking lot for the mall. Biking is a major form of transportation around here.

hehehehe!  Air conditioning!  There was a big dollar store

we're watching you!

(can I take this back to the phone store?)

and a supermarket and a LUSH and an arcade

and even an import store!

I was cackling internally the whole time in that store.
I'll be honest, I was most excited about finding baking soda and baking powder, but that confuses people.  Hey, now I can make pancakes and cookies! :D
By the time I made it back to the house, my walking app said I had gone about 5.75 miles, and I paused it while I was on the trains!  Slept well.
FRIDAY and SATURDAY were spent much more relaxed.  My goal for Saturday was not to spend any money, as I had spent so MUCH every other day this week.  I accomplished this by staying in and only going on a walk in the evening.  The walk was awesome though! I found a river and walked along that, and at one point I got to watch a swarm of bats directly over my head!  There was also a baseball team of Elementary kids who were setting off fireworks. :)

 I'll admit to fighting loneliness this week.  If I had stuff to do, I could distract myself, but school doesn't start until Tuesday this next week.  I've lived on my own so often, I didn't think that the year + I spent with David and Rachel would throw me off so much.  Thank heavens for Skype.  Modern technology really is a blessing. Could you imagine if I had to rely on letter writing? No one would ever hear from me again!

Well, at least this week is over. I have another to-do list for next week, but as the grand majority of it is "teach school" I can only hope it will go better than this current one!  Have fun all!