Iris – Page 98 – goinggaijin.com

Feast Day

Today is a special day in Japan. It is called doyou no ushi no hi, which literally means dog-day of the ox-day, or less literally Midsummer Day of the Ox. The name goes back to old times, when each month in the year was named differently, each day and hour (and even cardinal directions) were named after the Chinese zodiac… Anyway, dog-days is a good description, because this time of the year can be quite unbearable. And indeed, today was probably the hottest day so far in this summer, with 35 degrees, 60% humidity and bright sunshine. Of course, in the normal Japanese summer this is not a particularly special thing, but some reason which I could not find out, today is celebrated.

Today, Japanese people traditionally eat an unagi dish – unagi is the name of the Japanese eel – and it is said that eating unagi today is especially good for your body and increases its stamina and overall health. As unagi is my favourite Japanese food, I would not want to miss this occasion to have some. Unfortunately, there is some sort of disease befalling the Japanese eel, which makes it very expensive these days, and a lot of eel is even imported; however I thought that every now and then I was in for a treat…

At first I thought I’d simply get some unagi sushi from the supermarket, but I had to go to town anyway, and I timed it so that I could have lunch in a restaurant selling a number of different unagi dishes, mostly unagi donburi (hot eel on top of a bowl of rice flavoured with soy sauce. The restaurant was busy but not overly crowded, and most people had today’s special, which came in a red square box.

I cannot attest to the health benefit of my lunch – yet – but it was certainly very delicious!

Patience

With my new visa in place, I can finally start working for my own company. In order to do this properly, I need a bank account for the company, a place to deposit my capital and my earnings and from which to pay my bills and salary.

I have received a rather extensive list of documents needed to open a company account, and I collected and copied them all on Monday. Yesterday in the early afternoon – hoping that it would be less crowded – I went to my branch of Kyoto Bank around the corner and thought I could open a new account right away.

However, no such luck… After securing the assistance of the only English-speaking clerk, we sat down and filled in a form: Company name and address, company representative name and address, my name and address, purpose of the account, purpose of the company’s business… etc. I also handed over the prepared documents and my Japanese ID card. When everything was in place the clerk told me that

“Screening will take up to two weeks.” What screening? Well, apparently, in the case of business accounts, it’s not the business choosing the bank, but the bank choosing the business. How they do this I cannot say, after all the required documents are minimal: The teikan incorporation papers – a single page stating business name, address, and initial capital as well as business purpose and representative members – a certificate of the registration of the company inkan – not older than 6 months – and a copy of my zairyu card – probably only because I am a foreigner. Because the clerk also wanted to know the main purpose of the 10 business purposes listed on the teikan, which is a bit difficult to explain, I gave him the (English) business plan I prepared for the Immigration Office. But that’s all of the documents from my big stack that Kyoto Bank wanted to have, and I seriously wonder what they are trying to read out of them; it is a brand new start-up business after all…

As I have never before owned a business account, I can only guess as to why there is a screening at all. Probably because there is bound to be more fluctuation on a business account than on a private one? Because it is easier to slip into the reds? Because the bank will feel more obliged to give a line of credit to a business than to a private person? As I said, I can only guess, and be patient. Again.

Sometimes I think the only thing that’s really needed in Japan is an unlimited amount of patience…

Umi No Hi

Today, on the third Monday in July, is the Japanese national holiday called umi no hi, often translated as Marine Day. As I have written about it last year, and the year before, I thought I’d simply share another Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print with ocean theme. It is called “Waves” and was made by Konen Uehara (1877 – 1940) in 1910.

Visitor

It was dark when I came home the other day. I went straight to my office and turned on the lights. As I did so, something brown moved in the top corner opposite the door, and it terrified me for a split second (I might even have shrieked a little) and the thought flashed through my mind: My goodness, a spider – and a large one, like those in the old house… Half a second later my brain gave the all-clear: Relax, it’s just a gecko!

I like geckos, they have such intelligent faces, but I still prefer them outside. Thankfully, he panicked just as I had done and moved down to the floor. Once I got him to untangle from the cables underneath my desk, he swiftly moved on to the livingroom where he settled in a corner on the floor. Hoping he would stay there for a moment or two, I fetched a tissue, picked him up and with an “it was nice, but please don’t call again” I finally put him out on the balcony.

It is a bit unclear how he could have come into the apartment. Although I have my windows open now, it’s just those parts that have a screen, and he could not have come in there. However, I had done some laundry that day and put it out on the balcony to dry. When I brought in the laundry again, I left the screen open for a while – I guess the little gecko slipped in then. They are very fast indeed, and I wonder when I would have noticed him had he not chosen such an obvious spot in my office as his hunting ground…

Curious what animals can make it to the 5th floor. As long as it’s geckos I don’t mind, and I like the birds perched on my balcony in the morning. Spiders would me more of an issue, and I am terrified of cockroaches finding their way into my kitchen. Since that evening, whenever I turn on the lights in a room, I carefully check the walls and ceiling for intruders of the animal kingdom. Let’s hope there will be no further surprises…

Gotcha!

Yesterday, I have finally received my new zairyu residence card! It is valid for one year and allows me to work as “Business Manager”. I have to say, I feel extremely grown up! Now it’s time to start doing what I promised to do in exchange for the visa. 😉

Interestingly, it comes with additional paperwork. Technically, the visa I have is “multiple entry”, meaning that during its term of validity, I can go abroad as often as I like and still retain the visa. Usually, you get a stamp into your passport stating exactly that, but not in Japan. The Japanese, ever fond of yet another piece of paperwork, require you to fill in a form at every departure. The form is called “Embarkation card for Reentrant” and you need to tick a box that says “departure with special reentry permission” if you are a resident in Japan (tourists don’t need this). Apparently, this will be stapled to your passport – effectively in exchange for the “Disembarkation card” everybody gets when entering Japan. I really hope I will not forget this next time I am going abroad…

However, for now I’m not going abroad, but I will visit this year’s yoiyama tonight. It seems there’s a typhoon approaching, and tomorrow may be raining…

Soroban Museum

Last Saturday, the adult members (i.e., 3 people) of the soroban school I am visiting took a trip down to Osaka to visit a soroban museum. It is run by an old soroban teacher who is even more enthousiastic about soroban than mine, which I found hardly possible. Although the museum is very small – it is just two rooms on the second floor above his school room – the owner says that he has more than 1000 soroban, and he collects anything that is in any way soroban related, be it ever so slightly.

The first room houses the collection of soroban. There are old ones from China and Russia (which look more than the abacuses we have in Europe), and all sorts of soroban that are either made from an interesting material or have some story to them. We saw soroban made from pearls, glass, ivory, and a very expensive one from tiger’s eye.

There was a rather beaten up soroban that survived a tsunami somewhere, was found in a rice paddy afterwards, and had its history carved into the back of it. There were beautiful soroban from China with ivory inlay in the back or in metal boxes, a brand new binary soroban. Also, two soroban with integrated pocket calculators (or is it the other way around?) made by Sharp, and three different types of soroban for blind people.On top of that, the first room houses everything that depicts a soroban in one way or the other; from paintings and noren curtains to clocks and lamps, netsuke and jewelry, and of course, toys. It was a wonderland of soroban related things, and I still think I may have missed something. The second room was more of a study with a small, traditionally Japanese work place, and a library containing exclusively books about soroban. Not just textbooks (some of which dated back to the Edo period), but even art books where at least one of the images somewhere showed a soroban. Altogether we spent about two hours in the museum, and at the risk of sounding extremely nerdy, we really enjoyed ourselves there. Afterwards the owner invited us to dinner and coffee, and of course we kept on talking about soroban all through the evening. Isn’t it nice if you have a hobby like this?

Notification

I have just received the following email from my lawyer.

Iris-san,

Hope this mail finds you well.
I’d like to announce you a great news… Your application has been approved finally! Congratulations!

We have received notification this morning, however, Mr. I. who can receive your new residence card as Immigration Lawyer on your behalf is out of office today for a business trip. So we will go to the Immigration Office to get your new card on Monday morning next week. We don’t know the duration for your new Business Manager visa until we receive the residence card.

I will let you know after posting LetterPack, registered mail enclosing your new card and passport. Please wait for that.

Cheers for your future business in Japan and please enjoy wine or something this weekend!;)

Have a fabulous weekend!

More details next week when I know them myself. And now, off for a good cry…

Noise

As I have mentioned in my post from last week’s Monday, the apartment building opposite my own has been prepared for renovation. Nothing much happened last week after the scaffolding was put up in the pouring rain, but this week, finally, work has begun.

On Monday and Tuesday two workers were busy doing something to the roof and the facade of the building that seemed to be sandblasting. It was very noisy, took the best of two days, and now the colour of the roof has turned from a shiny black into a dull grey. I cannot see the facade, as it is behind the scaffolding which is now covered in grey protective sheets, but I would assume that something similar happened there.

As I said, this work was extremely noisy, and the noise was almost constant. And although it is rather cool at the moment for this time of the year (only around 30 degrees), the humidity is high enough that open windows are very pleasant, no, almost a necessity. By early afternoon on Monday I’ve had enough, packed my stuff and went to a cafe that is close by but far enough as to not be affected by the noise. It was a good decision – I got quite a lot done that afternoon!

When they started again yesterday morning, I was all but packed to go out to a library for the day – when it started pouring down and I decided to stay home after all and move to the bedroom at the back of the apartment instead. I thought I could endure the noise for one more day, and indeed they seemed to finish yesterday in the early afternoon.

However, it never rains but it pours… Yesterday around noon, another company has started to tear down a wall on the other end of the parking lot that lies just underneath my balcony… And as this is a very old (and beautiful too, let me state that) brick wall, more than three metres high and maybe eight or more metres long, this will take quite a while for people yelling at each other, jack-hammering, throwing bricks onto lorries… (*)

It seems there will be noise going on for quite a while, and there is not much I can do about it other than fleeing to some cafe or library, if I want to get some work done. I hope they are finished soon…

(*) Fun fact: The parking lot underneath my balcony is a private one, only people who live in our houses (and their guests) are allowed to park here, which means there is a chain at the entrance. It is mostly empty, many people don’t seem to drive their cars on a daily basis. Also, the parking lot exits onto a very quiet, straight, one-way road that is mostly used by cyclists. However, one of the about 10 people tearing down the wall is standing there with a signalling stick to make sure all cars get in and out safely. Talk about job-creating measures…

Morning Sports

Next to my apartment complex there is one of Kyoto City’s departments concerned with garbage collection. Sometimes there are garbage trucks coming and going, but the main part is a mid-sized office building. The people there start working quite early, sometimes I can hear the machines gear up as early as 7:30 in the morning, which can be a bit annoying now that I sleep with open windows…

On top of that, everyday in the morning – except for weekends – at 8:15 am, there is music playing at that company. It took me quite a while to figure out what is going on, and wouldn’t you believe it… they are doing gymnastics! The whole rank and file meet outside – rain or shine – to do something for their health.

I guess, that’s what it is meant to be at least. The exercises are very basic, a bit of stretching, a bit of bending and touching the ground with your fingers,… However, the men exhibit an enthusiasm during the workout that verges on outright refusal. The music does nothing to inspire greatness either: instead of something upbeat to increase the pulse rate, the never-changing piece is reminiscent of a lullaby. Probably the men there (I have yet to see a women exercising) are grateful that it does not take too much of their time: Today I clocked the whole thing, it took less than 3:30 min… What this is supposed to achieve, I cannot fathom. Obviously not an improved health, then group bonding, maybe?

men next door exercising

Coincidentally, I have also started an exercise regime. Given that I live here on the fifth floor without elevator, I would like to be able to get home with my shopping bags without collapsing at my doorstep every time. I have found an easy and at the same time very good exercise program online as part of The Hacker’s Diet. The book – available online for free in various formats; it is copyrighted though! – was written by a computer programmer (John Walker, inventor of AutoCAD) and focuses on permanent weight loss. However, he has one chapter on exercising as well, and while he says this alone is not enough to lose weight, it is always good to improve your stamina.

If you check out the link, you will find that there are only five types of exercises to be done, and the better shape you’re in, the more of them you will have to do. I have started with the introductory ladder about a month ago, and I have just moved on to rung 8. The whole exercising will take you less than 15 minutes no matter how high you are on the ladder (because you’ll get better with time), and it does indeed improve your wellbeing – by now I have all but stopped wheezing when I get home… I have done this exercise regime already before I moved to Japan, but for various reasons… okay, out of sheer laziness, I stopped doing it. However, I am ready again to get in better shape, and to get back up rung 30 where I was once, and this time maybe beyond…

Take this from somebody who never liked sports much: give it a try – it’s worth it!

Presents

Japanese people love food. They spend a lot of money on it and they celebrate it whether eating at home or at a fast food joint – even that stuff is really tasty. There are food stalls everywhere, from specialised market streets for delicacies from abroad and Japan, to people who drive around in their vans and sell organic produce from their farms out of the boot. Even the supermarkets at highway rest areas mostly sell local food, often pickles and other things that are non-perishable.

Because Japanese people love to give foodstuffs as presents. I like this idea because whatever you receive, you don’t waste space for eternal display; and if you fear that you won’t like the gift, you can either open it immediately and offer it back to your guests or you just pass it on (which seems to be another Japanese pastime, by the way).

Last Wednesday, when I was on the way to the cinema to watch Macondo, I had to pass through the Teramachi shopping arcade in inner city. It is always busy there, and I try to avoid it in the weekends, but every now and then it’s nice to walk through. Last Wednesday there was a group of students at Teramachi, all of them dressed in bright red Japanese Happi vests. All of them were shouting something I could not understand, some of them carried banners, and some of them proffered plastic bags (of course) to people passing by.

Just when I was wondering what this was about, a stout youth stood in my way and said something in Japanese while he handed me one of the plastic bags. It turned out that those were kids from some junior high in some prefecture in Kyushu (that’s all the way south), and they were giving away bags containing a guidebook about their hometown and – a small package of rice, also grown there.

package of rice from Ebino in Kyushu Looking at the guidebook, the place seems to be more rural than I tend to like it after spending years successfully escaped one of those places… On the other hand, they do seem to have some extremely stunning lakes there; their almost precisely round shape makes me wonder whether those are all old volcanoes… Well, maybe it’s worth going there after all. Some time in autumn, probably. What a little bag of rice can do!