Notifying the City

 One very important lesson about Japan and living in this country is the government really does not want you to move.  They don't want you to move into a new city.  They don't want you to leave your current city.  They also don't really want you to change jobs, if at all possible.

Thao took me on the bus to City Hall to fill out my residency change forms, settle my national health insurance status, and close the bank account.  It took some time to make sure we were in the right lines at the start.  The floor plan features (among other things) a long counter divided into several (I think 10 or 12) stations.  Roughly each pair of stations is for a few different things.  You have to fill out some paperwork here, carry new paperwork there, and at each step take another number while you wait.  We had to visit 4 of the stations.  Oh, yes.  Each "take a number" kiosk is a little different from the one before.

Near station 1 is an area for filling out forms.  It was like 16 standing desks arranged in four rows.  But each row of desks has different forms.  Thao filled in most of the paperwork.  I had to add my US address, and I forgot the zip code for a moment.  The first form included my name in English and katakana, the address of the Guest House, and my birth date according to the Japanese calendar.  My birth year (1976) was Showa 51.  The current year is Reiwa 3.  The name is the Emperor at the time, and the year is the year of his reign. When we get to the first stop we were given another form to fill out.  This one had my name on it in three or four different boxes.  And there was a place where I had to be the one who wrote my name.  

Each station had this same flow.  We brought a form from the previous place, and Thao had to fill out a nearly identical form at the current place.  I think, just counting today, Thao wrote my name more times than I have since I got on the plane at MBS.  It took about 75 minutes to get through everything.  And this is the "leaving Tokushima" paperwork.  If I were moving to a new city in Japan, I'd have paperwork there to fill out - another hour or so of work.  Spending time at the DMV to get a new license isn't nearly as painful or time consuming as what is done here.

Closing the bank account took some time as well.  We were lucky, though.  Shortly after we were helped with the first part (filling out the paperwork, confirming identity, and all that) about 6 or 7 people came in all at once.  Had we been even 2 minutes later, it would have taken us much longer.  So we sat and waited for the bank to get the cash.  While we were waiting I watched a little of the television bank advertising.  On the side of the screen they were promoting their deposit interest rates.  0.002%.  Or was it 0.0002%?  I think the first.  In any case, there is next to no interest earned on money in the bank.  The flip side of this is interest rates on bank loans are very low as well.

I'm basically ready for my classes this week.  Even though it is only 2:00, I'm going to head home and do some of the prep work for Saturday.  I should grab a late lunch, though.  I just realized I didn't eat breakfast.  Two cups of coffee aren't really enough to keep a person going.  I will avoid that mistake the rest of this week.