Category: plans and preparations

About a month ago, I spent a whole day at Yodobashi Camera to buy electronic equipment for my office. It took almost six hours – plus 90 minutes on the bus – to buy: a new laptop, external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, a printer and a phone (actually two phones, one for the office, one for home, although I realize that at the moment this is the same). A number of assorted cables rounded off my purchases.

Except for the laptop I could take everything home immediately. However, as the printer was rather bulky and together with the other stuff would have overwhelmed me, I agreed to have it delivered the next day – for a very small fee of only 500 YEN. As I had an appointment until 1 pm the next day, I arranged for delivery between 2 and 4 pm.

When I returned home the next day at about 1:30 pm I found, stuck to the door frame, a notice about a failed delivery. Apparently, it had been attempted at 12:17 or thereabouts, and now I was left with an assortment of phone numbers to call and ask for a second try.

I was furious – that was exactly what I wanted to avoid, making phone calls in Japanese. With the proper vocabulary written down on a cheat sheet, and with lots of helpless looks and hand waving gestures, I can more often than not manage to get my point across if the person thus addressed stands opposite me and can watch me struggle and maybe help me along. On the phone however, I am helpless. That’s because I cannot see the other person and repeat what he may not understand (and vice versa), and because, especially if you are phoning a company, they will use very formal Japanese which I can barely understand. In fact, a friend of mine who has been in Japan for five years and speaks very good Japanese agrees that making phone calls is very difficult and even he avoids it if possible.

Anyway, after examining the notice, I found a number on the bottom that promised English service – exactly what I needed! Of course, without internet and phone line, making said call from home was impossible, so I packed my laptop and went to the closest café with free wi-fi. When I entered the number into skype I received, instead of a reassuring ringing sound, a notice that this service was not available via skype. Probably because skype does not send the dial tones that may be needed for automated menus.

That could only mean one thing: Call the driver of the delivery van directly. After my panic had subsided and I had looked up a number of choice words that may or may not be needed, I took to skype again and made that phone call. After I explained that I don’t speak Japanese well – doing that very slowly helps – I tried to tell him that I want my package from Yodobashi delivered again. He did not even care for my explanations though. All he wanted was my name and address and he promised to come by again later. It was surprisingly easy.

I was very proud of myself when he indeed arrived about two hours later and brought my printer. I was too happy to even scold him for being too early the first time. However, a few days later, when I checked all my bills, I realized that the driver had done nothing wrong. Apparently the girl who took my data in the shop got the times wrong: Instead of a delivery time between 2 and 4, she had entered 12 to 14, an understandable mistake. Not that this made it less annoying, but in the future, I will know to double-check.

Personal confession: I was a rather angry teenager. Always first in line to scream and shout, always talking back to teachers and other random adults… The fly on the wall would drive me crazy – and I’d be up it in a moment. I’m not sure what exactly has provoked the change in my life – I’m guessing it is age – but I have cooled down considerably. Especially the last two years in Japan – being where I want to be, doing what I want to do – have almost made me another person.

Almost. A bit more than a month ago, I met the first Japanese who brought my blood to boiling point. She made me so angry, within 5 minutes, I almost (!) started yelling at her. Here’s what happened:

I needed a bank account in Japan, a second one, for practical reasons. Japan has many banks, but the one with the densest branch network is Japan Post Bank. Even here, in a residential area, there are two branches within only a five minute’s walk from my new home. So, I thought, if I ever have to move again, this is the best bank to get a second account as they are everywhere. So, on an early Friday afternoon about six weeks ago, I went to the larger one of the Post Bank branches around my corner in order to open a new bank account.

This branch is large enough to have a designated person to supply you with forms and help on how to fill them in, and then hands you your waiting number. So, I went up to said person and said, slowly, but in Japanese: I want to open a bank account please. I received a rather complicated answer that I could not quite make sense of, but I understood that there is lots of paperwork involved in opening a bank account and that there is nobody who could speak English and that I should come back on Monday, when there would be some English speaker available.

Okay, thought I, slightly unhappy because I needed that account faster than that, but I relented, said thank you, and left. Fast forward to the following Monday morning, 10 am, when I entered the same branch again, placed myself in front of the same woman, and said the very same sentence as on Friday: I want to open a bank account please.

At which – wouldn’t you believe it – the woman gave me the very same sermon as on Friday afternoon: It involves a lot of paperwork in Japanese which you can’t fill out on your own, and we do not have anybody who speaks English here. I went: What? Mind you, this was the main post (bank) office for this whole city district, not one of the tiny ones staffed with three people; I would not have dreamt of going to one of those.

That was the point when I started to get upset: That woman had just wasted a whole weekend of mine! Thankfully there was another customer in the bank at that time who kindly tried to translate between the two of us. It turned out that the clerk had decided upfront that, because I am a foreigner, the only thing I could possibly want is a bank account from which I can send money abroad, and this would allegedly be very difficult to set up. I said no, that’s not what I need, I only want an account on which to receive my salary. No, she insisted, this is all very complicated, can you not bring a Japanese friend?

That was the point when my blood started to boil. She had not used the word “friend” on Friday, I would have understood that, it being one of the first Japanese words I learnt. She then gave me the impression that things could be sorted out on Monday. To the question whether there were other post bank branches where people would be able to speak English, she replied she did not know of any, and besides this is the main branch, so other branches’ staff would send me here anyway.

That was the point when I got angry – for the first time in the two years I spent living in Japan. I had not gotten angry at the immigration officer who personally grilled me at Kansai airport in February last year; I had not gotten angry at the immigration officer who sent me for the correct sized envelope. But this time, I did get really mad – and even a bit loud. I did rein in my anger comparatively quickly though, thanked the person who had translated, and left the Post Bank, without bank account. I have no intentions to go back there ever again.

In the end, I did get my second bank account that Monday morning after all. There is a Bank of Kyoto nearby, and although they were not my first choice because they have hardly any branches outside of Kyoto, I went there after all. Similar situation there: A woman handing out forms to whom I posed my request: I want to open a bank account please. From there, it took us five minutes to fill out a single piece of paper and put my hanko at various places; and after a waiting time of about 25 minutes, I had sucessfully opened a second bank account. And she did not speak any English either…

Since my move at the end of February, I have been living in a rather sparsely furnished apartment. Except for the bare necessities – futon, gas range, and fridge – I did not buy anything for a while. I wanted to get a better image of what I wanted my new home to look like. After all, this would be my first “permanent” home in a long time – ever since my PhD in 2006, I had to move every year or two and never invested much time or money into buying furniture or appliances. Most of it was second-hand so I would feel less guilty if I could not sell it when I packed up again and had to throw it away.

This time however, I want to buy decent stuff that will last for longer, that I will like for longer, so I took my time. By now, I think I have a clearer idea of what I want. As you can see in the image in this post, my apartment essentially consists of three parts: The office at the left, which I want to have as modern and fun-looking as possible; the middle part with the kitchen and a living room, which I will furnish in a modern western style; and the right part with the second living room/guest room and my bedroom, both of which have tatami. Those two rooms I want to decorate in a traditional Japanese style – or at least in a style that I think is traditional.

So far, I have only finished one room: the office. This was the easiest room to do, as everything I needed came straight from IKEA. In fact, I went to IKEA in Kobe twice, once about a month ago, and the second time last Monday, to buy everything I wanted. My things got delivered today in the morning, so I could spend all my day fiddling with the furniture…

The first thing I did after clearing the room completely was trying to get as many cables as possible out of sight – meaning: underneath the tatami. It was surprisingly easy to lift up the tatami by inserting a knife (experts take a flat screwdriver, which I didn’t have) and wiggling it gently. Those are real straw mats though, not the modern plastic ones you find in sports halls all over the world, and they are really heavy. I am glad I only had to lift them up and lean them against the wall, and not carry them anywhere. Here is an image of the underneaths – of both the floor and the tatami. You can see four cables running across the room: 2 LAN cables, the cable to the router and a printer cable. It took a while fiddling with the cables – the router cable is just 10 cm longer than it needs to  be and the printer cable is round and comparatively bulky – but in the end I managed to get the cables and the tatami in place.

Afterwards, the usual IKEA furniture assembly routine. It was relatively easy – you get used to that after a few moves – and I did not encounter big problems when setting up this shelf and the boxes inside: The printer is not yet set up, but the phone does work. I am also thinking of a way to hide the router and the cables in the right bottom shelf, but it will take a bit longer. In case you are wondering where the other cables to the printer and the phone are – they are hidden behind the somewhat oddly placed boxes…

Finally, I brought the desks back in which I had bought already last month. Looking back, the high-gloss finish may not have been the best idea because you can see every single finger print; however, I like the way the whole thing comes together so nicely. As I have to attach a photo of my office space to my visa application, my goal was to make this the most eclectic office the immigration bureau has ever seen. What do you think? So, the office is finished except for a few small things: I still need a ceiling lamp (or rather: somebody to hang it up), the cable management underneath my desk is not optimal yet, and I want to hide the router and set up the printer. Also, there is a lot of empty wall space above the shelf and I think something should go there. I have an idea, but I’ll have to mull it over a bit longer… Anyway, all those are minor things, and they will have to wait…

Unfortunately, I have never managed to set up IKEA furniture without bodily harm. Last month, after a whole day of working with a screwdriver, I had several blisters on the palm of my right hand. This time, an attempt to undo a mistake I made when putting those little red plastic boxes together took off a large chunk of skin from my right thumb. It’s not painful anymore, but from the look of the band-aid it’s still bleeding… I’ll have a look at it in a moment.

I’m back!

After an incredible dry spell of 44 days  I have finally been connected to the internet again last Saturday. And thanks to a friend of mine who beat the router into submission on Sunday morning, I can now go online again. Oh wide wide world, how I missed you!

Of course, you’re now asking yourselves what on earth can possibly take 44 days before one can get internet. And that in a rather large city in a country that is rightfully called the high-tech haven of the planet. Well, enjoy the drama as you read on…

Prologue:
When I signed the rental contract for the apartment, the agent asked me whether I’d need help finding an internet provider and a moving company. I said yes to the internet provider, as apparently, not all providers serve all areas, and it may be difficult to find out which one is the correct one for your address.

Act the first: “Mr. Y. and the emails”
On the day of my move, I received an email with an offer from what I thought was an internet company. After clarifying that I wanted a flatrate for down- and upload and two separate phone numbers, I sent them the necessary documents for the application, stressing yet again that I do not have a mobile phone.

After not hearing anything for a week from my contact person Mr. Y. (I went to the library to go online), I inquired on a Saturday afternoon about the state of my application. Within 10 minutes or so I received an email back saying: “Well, you don’t have a mobile phone.” Oh really Mr. Brilliant, I told you so in my last email, and the rental agent told you even before that. Did you assume a mobile number would just magically manifest itself if you stared at my application for long enough?

We then had some tedious back-and-forth over several emails and several days and at the end even Mr. Y. saw the light and said that it would be stupid to call me anyway as I don’t speak Japanese. We then agreed that I could use the phone number of a friend of mine who would help me with the application. In fact, it would be best if my friend could directly call Mr. M. – who was fully up to date on my application and its issues – in their call centre

Act the second: “The call centre”
So, my friend calls Mr. M. at the call centre. Everything ran smoothly until my friend had to produce – as proof that he is indeed talking on my behalf – my birth date, of which he did not know the year. When he finally had mustered the courage to ask me for it (you can’t really ask a lady for her age…), he tried calling Mr. M. again to finalise the application.

Unfortunately, by the time I could respond, Mr. M. had left the building and somebody completely different took the call. Said person was completely unhappy about my inability to produce a mobile phone of my own and after getting angry and running to his boss and making him angry too, he completely refused any further service, told us he cannot complete the application, and hung up. By then my friend was angry too.

First interlude: “between companies”
It turned out that we were not talking to the internet provider after all. My friend and I were talking to some sort of upstream marketing company who tries to attract new customers for the internet providers in return for a financial kickback. So, my friend decided to directly call NTT, the largest internet provider in Kyoto.

Act the third: “No, we don’t.”
When my friend called them to ask for internet connection at my apartment, NTT said they would not provide any service at that address. It’s a bit complicated to explain, so please stay with me. There are essentially two types of internet wiring: The family type if you have a house of your own, which more or less means that you get your very own cable, and the mansion type for apartment buildings. Obviously I would need the latter, but NTT said they do not provide mansion type access at my building.

Second interlude: “And you?”
So, we decided to use whatever provider has their mansion type cables in place. It is possible to install family type cables in an apartment building as well, but it’s a bit ridiculous to get your own cable up to the fifth floor… So, I knocked on my neighbor’s door with some tough questions, and it turned out that his provider is: NTT! Apparently there is a family type cable installed already, and it is easy to simply extend it to my own apartment.

Act the fourth: “We do, really?”
Back on the phone with NTT, they were really surprised that they indeed did provide a cable in my building. Finally, a Ms. N. agreed to process my application with my friend’s phone number.

Once all the paperwork was submitted and deemed all right – it is really hard to send faxes of color photographs… – it took another 10 days for NTT to review the application and check whether it was indeed deemed possible to add yet another cable. After those 10 days we finally had the date on which a technician would come and install internet, another two weeks after that.

Epilogue:
The technician came last Saturday at the appointed time, and it took him about two hours to lay a brand new shiny optical cable into my apartment and get the router in place. However, even though I had received plenty of paper with plenty of different passwords, I could not get access on Saturday immediately. Even though the status said “connected”, all I could see were error messages… Thanks to my friend, who is patience incorporated and knew just how to talk to the router, we finally set it up yesterday morning.

So far my personal internet odyssey. Since its completion and my return to a safe online-harbour I have been busy catching up on all those emails I have received in the last month and other things I usually do when online. Funny how you never notice how much time you really spend on the internet…

It was a very busy day today, and still I only got parts of the things done that I had planned. Yesterday, late at night I received an email from my agent telling me that although the paperwork is not yet completed, the owner was fine with me receiving the keys.

So, the first thing this morning, I went to my local post office to get a mail forward. It was very easy – but, to be honest, the people there know me and my shenanigans by now – and, what is the best: it was free, a “service” of Japan Post. Did you hear that, Austria?

Next, I went to the agent to pick up the keys – more paperwork – but he said that this would be the last things I will have to sign. I will get the contract as soon as the landlord has signed it too – which is easy, as he lives next door.

Afterwards, I went to my apartment. What a wonderful feeling to open the door to my own place with my own keys… I spent some time going through all the rooms and letting it sink in: This is mine! Then I took some measurements to make sure I’ll get appliances that would fit into the allotted spaces. When I had all the numbers written down, I went to the management office of the apartment block for – you guess it – more paperwork. Things are rather strict there, for example I need to buy a sort of licence plate for my bicycle to be allowed to park it there. Things get really complicated if I have friends coming over in a car – there are guest parking lots, but even they cost 500 YEN per night… At least the clerk in the office was very friendly and spoke English very well, which will make further interaction much easier.

It was not even noon when I left on the long journey to Yodobashi Camera near Kyoto Station. I wanted to buy the bare necessities: A fridge, a gas range, a small space heater, and maybe a lamp for my nightstand. I asked for a staff member who could help me with all of these things and I got my personal shopping assistant who spoke excellent English. The fridge was quickly bought (although I wanted a larger one, but they would not have fit the space), but the gas range proved interestingly difficult. Apparently there are two types of gas ranges and you have to know which one will be the right one for your apartment. Then there was the question of how the gas was connected – with a thick valve or a thin one – and if I wanted my little fish grill to work on both sides or only on one… The space heater then was a simple decision: I bought a blue Dyson hot & cool. Well, if you do need such a thing, you can just as well make it stylish…

When I left Yodobashi Camera, it was shortly before 3 pm (yes, seriously) and the question was whether to go for lunch or to buy a futon. I decided upon lunch, I figured that buying a futon is more difficult than buying a fridge and would take even longer. Afterwards, with a brief stop at home to pick up the first load of stuff (mostly books), I went to my new apartment again to await delivery of my goods, which arrived at 8 pm, just when it was starting to get really cold…

I’m now in my room again underneath lots of blankets. I have packed more of my stuff and will start early tomorrow again. I hope that by tomorrow evening I will have everything ready in my apartment to move in. The plan is to clean the place here on Friday morning and then leave it for good. We’ll see if it works out as planned for once.

After more than a month of search and rejection (both on my and on the owner’s side) it finally worked: I found a wonderful apartment fulfilling all requirements – and the owner likes me too! Yesterday, I signed the contract, and now… I have to wait again: for the owner to sign and for my guarantor to sign. If everything runs smoothly, I can get the keys next Wednesday and then start to move in, getting gas, electricity, water, and internet. And buying furniture and a futon and a rice cooker and…

This is my new apartment: In Japan this is called a 3LDK – one combined living/dining room/kitchen and three independent rooms with sliding doors that can be fully opened. The green rooms have tatami straw mats, the LDK in the middle has a hard floor. The red thing is the genkan entrance area where you must take off your shoes. The blue part is the bathroom area and white are the two balconies, the hallway, and the built-in closets, one for each room. The room sizes are given in tatami – which are much smaller than in my house now – and altogether the place has 60 m^2 or so.

The building is from the mid-seventies and lacks an elevator, and as I said in last week’s post, both kitchen and bathroom would benefit from renovation… But the whole thing appears clean and well maintained, and the place has everything I was looking for.

I can’t wait to move in. I have already started cleaning my room here, tossing things (mostly paper, again) and thinking of how to arrange the move in the smoothest possible way. I’ll keep you posted!

Yesterday I had another appointment with my rental agent, who showed me a nice and rather spacious apartment with lots of natural sunlight. It’s an old apartment and the kitchen and bathroom would benefit from renovation, but it is still very nice and, most importantly, ready to be moved into. So, I said we can start the rental procedure.

Already yesterday I had to fill in a “rental application form”, which is essentially collecting all my data: name, address, workplace, income, and all the information of my guarantor as well. As I don’t know details of my guarantor (like his workplace address and income), I sent him the paperwork and will wait for his answer. This form will help the owner of the apartment (whom I met yesterday, nice young man, living next door) decide whether to take me as a tenant. Once he decides (positively I hope), we can make the real contract.

Today I went to the agency again, where I received a form with information about the apartment including things like address of the apartment, contact information of the owner and management company of the building it is in. Also things like monthly rent, deposit, contract duration and renewal fee are stated on this form. And useful stuff like who’s providing gas and electricity and what things are in the apartment (think air conditioner). And what I am allowed to do and not in my new place. For example, I will not be allowed to have the two P’s: Pets and Pianos. They didn’t say anything about drum kits though. But maybe pianos are more annoying…

The most annoying thing about this form, however, was the waiting time incurred. I had stated that I would come around noon to pay the application fee (one month’s rent, refundable if the owner does not want me after all. And I was so happy that the agent’s fee is only half a month’s rent. I wonder what other fees they come up with to line their pockets…). But when I came, the form I was supposed to get was not ready, not even close. It took them about 30 minutes on the phone to collect all the information before they were finally ready to explain the details to me.

Interestingly, I did not even get angry. I watched the situation almost as from the outside, as if this was happening to somebody else. It was more amusing than infuriating, really. I have been here only for 2 years and I am slowly turning into a Japanese… Next step: mastering the language.