Category: experiences

Apparently, it has been a whole year already since I went through the last visa procedure. The other day I received a reminder from my lawyer that we’ll need to start with the application again…

Hence, I have started collecting paperwork of my own, taking another mug shot for the new ID, and my accountant will have to produce some company documents, including my profit/loss statement. I am pretty much in the reds this year, which is not good for visa renewal, but my lawyer says that my visa will probably be renewed – for another year – regardless. I am a bit anxious about this, obviously, but I trust her; so far she has been right about everything.

She also remarked that I will have to give her both my passport and foreign ID during the application procedure, and again, the same helpless feeling from last year is creeping up my spine: “But how do I prove that I am me??” It’s totally irrational, obviously, but I’ll have to live with it.

Renovations on the building are progressing.For some reason they do the noisy bits on Saturdays, during the week there’s only painting. This week was especially productive in this respect. For a day or two my south balcony was covered in a thick water-repellent layer – in bright blue. I’m glad it has been painted over in a more standard tone of grey. In any case, it now seems that the south side of the building is almost finished.

This means that the plastic coverings have been removed from my windows and were promptly reapplied onto the staircase; the stairwell is now being painted in several layers of particularly stinky paint. Especially Tuesday was bad when the smell entered my apartment from both sides. Nothing else to do than to seek exile again.

Some time next week the entrance doors will be painted, and I could even ask for the painting being done on the inside as well. Still, it seems that most of the things that are being done are strictly cosmetic and not really improving the substance of the building. But, since this is not my home…

There are elections again in Austria. This time it’s the presidential elections and they will take place on April 24th. There are six candidates for the post and I am eager to cast my vote. Hence, I have applied for an absentee ballot, which I have received today.

Of course, just like last time, the documents came too late to send them to the embassy which would take care of them, so I had to send them back to Austria myself per express mail service – and pay myself for the privilege. At least, if there is a second round of voting, I already received the documents for that one, so my vote will definitely be on time then.

Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. The documents I received were in a rather sorry state. Obviously, somewhere on the journey from Austria, the letter became wet and although dry by the time it ended up in my mailbox, it looked the part inside and out…

What I found very nice was the extra sticker the post office at Haneda airport put on the envelope, apologising for the state of the letter. Essentially it says:

This item was already received wet at East Kawasaki Post Office. We do not know how this happened. We did dry the item but we deeply (!) apologize that we have to send you your valuable letter in such a state.

At least I know now why the documents came that late. In any case, they are already back on their way to Austria. Let’s hope for the best for the elections…

Renovations on my apartment complex are progressing. Right now, the walls and balconies on the south side are being painted. This has two major drawbacks: One, that I cannot open any windows since the paint has a very unpleasant smell. And two, that my view has deteriorated even further: My windows and doors are covered with plastic, partially to prevent them from getting (too) dirty, and partially to prevent me from venturing out onto the balcony. The painting is scheduled for all week, so with a bit of luck everything should be over by Saturday.

Since I am working on the new page, I am very busy again, and since I have always been a night owl, I have gone back to my nerdy ways and do the best of my work in the middle of the night. So, I went to bed yesterday somewhere around 3 am.

And I was promptly awakened from my slumber at 9:15 sharp, by some person starting renovation work on the roof exactly above my head – with a jackhammer. What a joy! Yes, it could have been worse because they start officially at 8:30, but I am simply not functional after only 6 hours of sleep…

At first, I did not want to leave, but after only 30 minutes of jackhammering on the roof, my opinion had changed… I spent the day in exile in the KOKOKA, where I got quite a lot of things done, albeit somewhat unrelated to what I needed to do, because I did not want to send sensitive stuff over a connection that I know is unsafe…

Anyway, I guess I won’t be up much longer today since I am tired. And I hope they have at least finished whatever they needed the jackhammer for, even though they will be working on the roof throughout the whole month. I have an appointment with my accountant on Thursday, at least then I must be home, at any other time I can leave. At least it is hanami too, so there’s a lot of pretty trees to see outside. Hopefully the weather will hold out for a while.

As the last one of four, my building now also has a scaffold outside. The construction on this has finished yesterday, and this is the current view out of my living room:

It is not as bad as I thought though. When I saw the long black sheets being hung on the other buildings I almost despaired over the prospect of living in a cave for three months. However, as you can see, those sheets are surprisingly transparent even though the photo was taken when it was quite overcast. When I open the blinds and curtains, my apartment feels like in a light fog rather than in darkness. I am quite pleased by this unexpected turn of events.

So, I hope for the best for the following weeks with respect to noise. Just today I received the announcement that the walls will be repaired in the next two weeks and that roof repairs are scheduled for all of April. I already noticed that I can hear people walk on the roof, so I better make a list of cafes for emergency retreats.

Even though the renovation works have already been delayed by a week for some reason, the whole thing is extremely organised. At the entrance to our building there is a notice board where the main developments are documented. There is also a list of balconies where it is permitted to hang out laundry – updated daily in the morning. And for the really big things we receive a special announcement in our mailboxes, colour-coded depending on what will happen.

Two weeks ago we received a blue notice telling us that the scaffolding work will commence, and that we need to remove everything from our balconies. A special place downstairs was designated for each house so that any plants on the balconies can be put there as long as the scaffolding is up. Not that I could read any of this, but in Japan, nothing can be written without a little comic attached. This one essentially says “I can’t work like this!”

When I was a child, we had friends in another part of Austria. They had a small farm in the mountains with cows and sheep and this was pretty much the only place we ever went on vacation. Since they had six kids more or less around my age, it was always much fun for me. Unfortunately, we lost touch, and the last time we saw each other was more than 20 years ago.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from the eldest daughter just the other day! After all these years it clicked immediately again, and we have been busy exchanging photos and our life stories ever since. It’s fantastic! I still have no idea how she found me on another continent, but I guess nothing is impossible these days…

Last Tuesday, the builders have started to erect the scaffolding around my house, the last one in the apartment block. I guess they will be finished with the south side by tomorrow afternoon and do the north side next week.

In view of such developments, I have pushed myself and finally bought curtains for the livingroom and kitchen. Since I live in the fifth floor, I did not feel any urgency as there are no other buildings that high nearby from where you can see inside my home – except that other building in my apartment block, but you’d have to stand on the opposite balcony to do that, which is not really inconspicuous, not even during the night. However, the scaffolding will permit lots of people to come over and have a look so to speak, so I decided to invest in some curtains for the last two windows that didn’t have any yet.

And with this, ladies and gents, I declare my kitchen to be fully functional! Not that it needed much beyond the appliances that I bought when I moved in… The furniture consists of the cheapest IKEA table and some folding chairs, everything else was built-in. The kitchen is relatively narrow, so I thought it would be best if I can put at least the chairs away when they are not in use, which is effectively most of the time since I hardly ever entertain. Here it is:

To my shame I have to admit that the counters are not always that clean and empty. I honestly hate doing dishes, so most of the time the sink is full with pots and pans and plates that are waiting for me to do some impulse cleaning – which happens as soon as I run out of something, mostly teaspoons.

My friend who visited after Christmas did comment on the relative emptiness of it all, she could not understand how I can live in a sterile environment like this, especially since she is one of those people who needs to have everything out in the open lest she forget about it. Well, I prefer to have things neatly put away. I have no use for dust catchers, especially not in the kitchen.

Although the soroban test was only on Sunday and I did not receive any official result yet, I already know that I failed it. Again. There’s not much point in hoping if you only did 9 exercises and you need at least 10 to pass… At least this time I am only partially to blame.

This time the test took place in a large meeting hall at a community center. The hall could seat 200 people; the 1st kyu candidates were seated in front, and in the back there were the candidates for 3rd kyu. Usually, the procedure is as follows: Once everybody is seated and has their soroban paraphanalia laid out in front of them, the rules of the test are read aloud: What is permitted and not, how to write certain solutions, and what to do when a rubber is needed. Then the test sheets are handed out, the candidates fill in their names and candidate number, and the sheet is placed upside down in front of them. Finally, the person administering the test says loudly: Hai, yo-i (turn your sheets around) and hai, hajime (start!) and starts the timer for 7 minutes. At the end of the time there is a loud yell of yame (stop!).

This time things were slightly different. The reading of the rules was shorter than I had remembered. After everybody had their sheets there came a general question whether everything was okay with everybody. And into the ensuing silence the woman in charge yelled yo-i and nothing else – on top of her voice and into a microphone. I am obviously too old for these kind of shenenigans because I almost got a heart attack! My hands were still shaking at the end of the first 7 minutes (multiplications, my forte) and I only calmed down after the second 7 minutes, when I realised that I had botched the divisions, again.

It’s interesting how much those little insignificant things can throw you off. And I am a bit angry too, because had this happened during my first try of this exam it would not have meant anything then, I might have been prepared for something like this and I might have done better this time. Oh well, there’s always a next time, isn’t it?

Today was a wonderful warm and sunny day – and I was quite busy all day long. A few days ago I mentioned that a friend of mine was in hospital. Today I heard that he had left the ICU and was now in a normal room, and since I was in the neighborhood anyway, I decided on a whim to visit him in hospital.

My visit was unplanned, and I arrived around 6 pm when the hospital was ready to shut down for the day. The information counter had been closed since 5:15, and there were hardly any people around. I was finally directed to the emergency entrance, where I could ask for the whereabouts of my friend. Thank goodness I don’t have much experience when it comes to hospitals, neither as patient nor as visitor. But I did notice that here in Japan – or at least: in Kyoto University hospital – access to patients is much more difficult than in Austria.

When you visit somebody in a hospital in Austria, all you need is the name of the person and you will readily receive the room number from the information counter at the entrance. Not so here: I had to give my friend’s full name, age, and his address before I was told the ward and floor he was on, but not his room number. I am not sure whether this is standard procedure, but I think my friend’s name is not very common, so it is unlikely that there were more than one with this name in the hospital today. Once in the ward, I had to go to the nursing station where I had to fill out a short form asking for date, visitor’s name, and patient’s name before a nurse finally took me to my friend’s room.

Now I know what standard rooms in Kyoto University hospital look like: I guess this particular building is about 40 years old or more. The rooms are very small, only 4 beds with ugly green curtains between them to assure some sort of very limited privacy – all doors to patient’s rooms stand wide open. Toilets and bathrooms are outside, which was normal at that time in our hospitals as well. On the other hand, at the door of each room there is an electronic touchscreen with the patient’s names; I found the contrast striking.

I was glad I was admitted to see my friend. I disturbed him during dinner, which did not look very enticing to me, but I know that only last week or so he was still on a diet of jelly… He is doing very well, in fact, he will go home on Sunday already. He claims to be a bit sad about this since he is enjoying his “vacation” and next week he will have to go back to work. I believe it’s also the young nurses he’ll be missing…