Becoming a Local

This isn`t my first time in Japan. I`ve backpacked nearly half way accross the country and also spent time living with a Japanese family. The logical thing to do next was...become a local. You never fully understand what a country is like until you go through the pain of becoming a local. Yes, I said "pain".

For a long time I`ve always thought Canada was a relatively simple place to live, both in the financial regard as well as social. Here in Japan, I`m beginning to find out just how true that is. Of course, wanting to study here requires more time than the alotted days on a Temporary Visitor Pass, a visa is necessary. And as expected, the fun stuff begins when you actually manage to get here.

First and foremost is to register as a foreigner. Not to anyone`s surprise, the forms all say "Foreigner Registration" in Japanese but the English translation is slightly different..."Alien Registration". "Alien?", I ask my friend. He says "Yeah, doesn`t that mean foreigner?" I gave him a small explanation on what exactly an "alien" is and boy was he unable to stop laughing. In Japan, either you are Japanese, or you`re from another planet. I am obviously from another planet.

Next came the mandatory National Health Insurance. Why can`t everything be this easy? I filled in only 3 forms and had to wait a good 10 minutes before I was enrolled in medical care. Yay, now I can safely get into accidents.

I also needed a bank account here for, well, banking needs. This happened to be the few hours of my life where I wanted to scream continuously despite me being a relatively calm person. When filling out a form, you have to write everything yourself. Not even the friend standing next to you whom you give full athority to can do it for you. Yet if you make a mistake, you can`t cross it out and pretend life is all dandy. No sir, you have to fill out a fresh form. Given that everything had to be written in Japanese, especially the address, I guess I couldn`t do it perfectly the first time. I won`t mention how many tries...

Everyone of course knows that Japanese cellphones are years ahead in technolgy of their western counterparts. Well, does everyone know that they cost an arm and a leg to buy? If you don`t sign any sort of contract, you are going to be paying out of the arse. I`m talking 50,000￥ or more for an average phone with Softbank. This particular company happens to have cheaper plans for students and gives good discounts if you sign up for a two year contract however. Docomo has the coolest phones around with the coolest and most useless features. I like cool and useless features, so I opted for this company. The plan was slightly more expensive then with the other companies as they don`t have a student discount but the phone itself ended up being realtively cheap and spectacular. What can I say, I`m a geek for technology in Japan. I`ll upload a picture soon.

"Alien Registration", medical, bank, and cellphone were a bit difficult but somehow managable with the help of my dear friend Shinchi who has saved me more headaches than I could count. That`s all right? Nothing left? What about school? Good question.

I never thought much about registering for classes. I mean, they take my test and decide my level and then throw me in a class, right? Not quite. There were several manuals explaning how to register for classes, including deadlines, procedures and whatnot. I thought this was supposed to be the easy part. To my dismay it took me a few days to figure out but in the end I signed up for absolutely everything I could. They said you could drop classes but not add any later, and tuition doesn`t change so why not! Let`s see how it goes.

Next step is to move into the apartment my friend helped me find. Then maybe I can inch closer to becoming a local.