Quick Notes:
Weather: Sunny but still cool in the low 60s
Setup bank account
Immigration office in Tokyo
First train ride in Japan
Started restaurant rating system
Went to an electronic store
For today our plan was to get a bank account and go to immigration office in Tokyo to change our status of residency from a 90 day trip to an extended culture activities trip. I needed to do this because when I flew into Japan I just got a 90 day VISA so I need to change it for the full year. If you stay in Japan for more than 90 days you have to register at the immigration office. I could have done this before coming here but there wasn’t enough time to get all the paper work done. Mainly because while in the US I would have to wait for the Japanese government to issue a certificate of eligibility then send that to me in the US. Once I received it then I would have to send it to the Japan embassy in Denver and wait for them to issue me a VISA. So with all this and only a couple weeks it wasn’t possible to do it before leaving.
Setting up the bank account was pretty simple, well just because Chihiro was with us. If she wasn’t there it would have taken much longer. The bank was amazing. Much more serious and formal than the banks in the US. We got there 5 minutes before they opened and had to wait. We were able to wait indoors but just outside of the large roll-up security door. At 9:00am exactly the door stared going up. There were two women greeters, 8 tellers, and 15 other employees at desks behind the tellers. As the rolling door reached the top all of the employees bowed to the customers waiting to come in and instantly start running around doing business. We had to fill out some forms to open the account and the interesting thing is that Japanese people do not sign their names to endorse things, they use a stamp. Every person has a unique little stamp the size of a nickel or so that they use to endorse documents. Other interesting thing is the registry book is called a passbook and is very important because that is all you need to withdraw money. At the ATM in the bank you just insert the passbook and you gain access to deposit or withdraw money from your account. Once you make your transaction the ATM prints on the passbook your transaction and your new balance. I guess it is pretty cool, I just wondered what would happen if you were to loose your passbook.
After the bank we took the Tsukuba Expressway to Tokyo. The train is only a few years old and is very clean and very smooth (pictured below).
This train ride was about 45 minutes then we got on another train to the Tokyo station. That train was another 20 minutes or so. We still needed to take a bus to the immigration office but we first stopped to get lunch at Yoshinoya. It is a fast-food place that only serves one dish and a couple of sides. The main dish is rice with thinly sliced seasoned beef. It was really good and only 500Y.
Quick note about the cost of food. So far eating out really isn’t that much more expensive than cooking at home. I’ll be keeping track of both to see which is better.
Now to the immigration office. We took our number and we were 524. The problem was that they were only serving number 230ish. So we have almost 300 people in front of us, needless to say it’s going to be a long wait. Watched some Japanese game shows, talked to Chihiro, played on ipod, walked around and 4.5 hours later our number got called. Now here is the good part. The whole time Seth and I didn’t want to hold on to the card with the number on it cause we didn’t want to loose it, so Chihiro kept it. As our number got close Chihiro left to make a call so she gave it to Seth, then Seth needed to go the bathroom so he gave it to me. This is my story for what happens next but Seth has a different one. When Seth came back I gave him the card back, but he said I didn’t. Either way when our number was called we couldn’t find the ticket, not in our pockets, not on the ground, nowhere. We were sweating it but thankfully we walked up there confidently and Chihiro kept the immigration officer busy so she didn’t really ask for it. So the 4.5 hours, actually the whole day, wasn’t wasted. We submitted our paperwork and now we just have to wait a few days for the change.
Now we started our way back to Tsukuba since it was 5:00pm we decided not to stay any longer in Tokyo. When we got to the first train station I talked Seth into going into this seven story electronic mega store. Each floor was about the size of a Best Buy with shelves that were about 6 feet tall full of stuff. One level was just cellphones and accessories, another was TV’s and stereos, then cameras, then music equipment, video games and bikes, DVDs and books, and the top floor was just restaurants. Keep in mind each level was about the size of a Best Buy. It was mind blowing and if you know me at all I could probably be described as a kid in a candy store but this kid also just tried candy for the first time. But I did restrain myself from buying a lot since it turned out that my wallet wasn’t as fat as I thought it was.
Two hours later we finally headed back to Tsukuba. The problem was that now it was during the rush time. Seth and I were the second people in line to board the train so we could get a seat. As the doors opened we walked in then hesitate for just a millisecond and then just got over taken and then all the seats were taken. O well maybe next time. After a few stops the train got really full and yes that is the top of my head on the right side of the picture. I was pretty much hugging Seth. The amazing thing is that with all these people you would still be able to hear a cricket, no one even whispers a word.
After our very long day we went home and just made some noodles for dinner. Blogged and surfed the web for a while then went to bed. Tomorrow is my first day of work and I am very excited. Hopefully our next trip to Tokyo we can actually go see some of it.
Weather: Sunny but still cool in the low 60s
Setup bank account
Immigration office in Tokyo
First train ride in Japan
Started restaurant rating system
Went to an electronic store
For today our plan was to get a bank account and go to immigration office in Tokyo to change our status of residency from a 90 day trip to an extended culture activities trip. I needed to do this because when I flew into Japan I just got a 90 day VISA so I need to change it for the full year. If you stay in Japan for more than 90 days you have to register at the immigration office. I could have done this before coming here but there wasn’t enough time to get all the paper work done. Mainly because while in the US I would have to wait for the Japanese government to issue a certificate of eligibility then send that to me in the US. Once I received it then I would have to send it to the Japan embassy in Denver and wait for them to issue me a VISA. So with all this and only a couple weeks it wasn’t possible to do it before leaving.
Setting up the bank account was pretty simple, well just because Chihiro was with us. If she wasn’t there it would have taken much longer. The bank was amazing. Much more serious and formal than the banks in the US. We got there 5 minutes before they opened and had to wait. We were able to wait indoors but just outside of the large roll-up security door. At 9:00am exactly the door stared going up. There were two women greeters, 8 tellers, and 15 other employees at desks behind the tellers. As the rolling door reached the top all of the employees bowed to the customers waiting to come in and instantly start running around doing business. We had to fill out some forms to open the account and the interesting thing is that Japanese people do not sign their names to endorse things, they use a stamp. Every person has a unique little stamp the size of a nickel or so that they use to endorse documents. Other interesting thing is the registry book is called a passbook and is very important because that is all you need to withdraw money. At the ATM in the bank you just insert the passbook and you gain access to deposit or withdraw money from your account. Once you make your transaction the ATM prints on the passbook your transaction and your new balance. I guess it is pretty cool, I just wondered what would happen if you were to loose your passbook.
After the bank we took the Tsukuba Expressway to Tokyo. The train is only a few years old and is very clean and very smooth (pictured below).
This train ride was about 45 minutes then we got on another train to the Tokyo station. That train was another 20 minutes or so. We still needed to take a bus to the immigration office but we first stopped to get lunch at Yoshinoya. It is a fast-food place that only serves one dish and a couple of sides. The main dish is rice with thinly sliced seasoned beef. It was really good and only 500Y.
Quick note about the cost of food. So far eating out really isn’t that much more expensive than cooking at home. I’ll be keeping track of both to see which is better.
Now to the immigration office. We took our number and we were 524. The problem was that they were only serving number 230ish. So we have almost 300 people in front of us, needless to say it’s going to be a long wait. Watched some Japanese game shows, talked to Chihiro, played on ipod, walked around and 4.5 hours later our number got called. Now here is the good part. The whole time Seth and I didn’t want to hold on to the card with the number on it cause we didn’t want to loose it, so Chihiro kept it. As our number got close Chihiro left to make a call so she gave it to Seth, then Seth needed to go the bathroom so he gave it to me. This is my story for what happens next but Seth has a different one. When Seth came back I gave him the card back, but he said I didn’t. Either way when our number was called we couldn’t find the ticket, not in our pockets, not on the ground, nowhere. We were sweating it but thankfully we walked up there confidently and Chihiro kept the immigration officer busy so she didn’t really ask for it. So the 4.5 hours, actually the whole day, wasn’t wasted. We submitted our paperwork and now we just have to wait a few days for the change.
Now we started our way back to Tsukuba since it was 5:00pm we decided not to stay any longer in Tokyo. When we got to the first train station I talked Seth into going into this seven story electronic mega store. Each floor was about the size of a Best Buy with shelves that were about 6 feet tall full of stuff. One level was just cellphones and accessories, another was TV’s and stereos, then cameras, then music equipment, video games and bikes, DVDs and books, and the top floor was just restaurants. Keep in mind each level was about the size of a Best Buy. It was mind blowing and if you know me at all I could probably be described as a kid in a candy store but this kid also just tried candy for the first time. But I did restrain myself from buying a lot since it turned out that my wallet wasn’t as fat as I thought it was.
Two hours later we finally headed back to Tsukuba. The problem was that now it was during the rush time. Seth and I were the second people in line to board the train so we could get a seat. As the doors opened we walked in then hesitate for just a millisecond and then just got over taken and then all the seats were taken. O well maybe next time. After a few stops the train got really full and yes that is the top of my head on the right side of the picture. I was pretty much hugging Seth. The amazing thing is that with all these people you would still be able to hear a cricket, no one even whispers a word.
After our very long day we went home and just made some noodles for dinner. Blogged and surfed the web for a while then went to bed. Tomorrow is my first day of work and I am very excited. Hopefully our next trip to Tokyo we can actually go see some of it.
7:03 AM |
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