A Day for Errands

I had a lot of errands today. That's a little unusual I think.

Let's see, first I had to send a whole bunch of money home. I swear, it's way easier in America! First of all, you have to send money via the post office, not banks. I don't think you can send money from banks easily. Also, they only accept cash. You can't get a bank note or something, you have to give them cash. So…sending a bunch of money home, results in yo wandering around with a fat stack of cash in your purse. We sent 500,000 yen home, which meant I had to carry 50 10,000 bills around with me. Yikes! I know Japan is really safe and stuff…but if you lose that…it's gone! Bleh.

Actually sending the money took me over an hour to do. You see…everything has to be PERFECT. It took about 20 minutes for my number to be called, so when I finally got to the window I was already a bit cranky. After that, we jabbered a little bit in Japanese/English combination and I was handed a form to fill out. In Pen. So I filled it out, but I mistakenly didn't do a letter in capital letters so I went back and wrote a capital letter over it. OH NO. That was a mistake. Apparently, they don't accept forms like that. ONE LETTER. Bah. So, after waiting another 10 minutes to get back to the window, the guy just gave me the stink eye and had me fill out the form again. This time stressing that no mistakes can be made. Bah!

So it takes another 10 minutes and I fill out the form slowly and carefully so as to not make a mistake. I get to the "Reason for sending money" box and I think 'ah-hah! Sneaky post office…Chris always has trouble with this one, but I know the secret code that worked last time!' So I write "Savings" in the box and get prepared to define "savings" as "life money" when asked about it. Because that's what Chris had to do last time and everything was fine.

I hand him the form for the second time and he checks it over. He makes a disturbing and confused sound. He sighs and tells me that my reason for sending money is strange. I proudly state "raifu mane" and smile at him. Because it's the magic words. Right? Brzzzt! Not right.

He just blinks at me for a few seconds and tells me that I can't send the money as "Life Money" this time. I frown, furrow my brow a little, and try to look questioningly. He says something that I didn't understand. Then he asks what 'savings' even means. First of all, as Chris reminded me, they have a big sign hanging from the ceiling that says, in huge letters, "SAVINGS" over his little window. I didn't think about it at the time...but come on! So I grab my new electonic dictionary (it's a really good program for the DS with an awesome Japanese/English dictionary that I love to use) and tap out savings and show him. He almost gets a look of comprehension in his eyes and says the word in Japanese. I gleefully agree that's what I want. Then he shakes his head and says we can only do it IF I say it's Savings for Susan, since I was sending it to this Susan person. I was practically hopping up and down in frustration when I half-yelled that I am Susan and it's my savings so it should be fine. He just blinks at me and frowns. I guess whatever I said got through because he let me give him my ID and wait another 15 minutes to give him to 50 10,000 bills I have so he can send it, only to wait another 10 minutes to get that processed and pay for the actual transaction.

Woosh...so stupidly complicated to do anything in Japan. Really. The sad part is that we are going to have to do this at least once more before we leave. And they will be just as confused as they were today because something will change and it will be complicated!

So that was my first errand. This afternoon, I took some old clothes to the Off-House. The Off-House is a used goods store. I wasn't sure they would take my stuff, but they did! I sold 13 pieces of clothing, all nice and in good shape because I refuse to give the crappy stuff (seems rude). I made a whopping 600 yen from it! I guess it's way better than having to pay to throw the stuff out. I found a NICE used Mah Jong set for about $150...so pretty! However, I am not dumb or irresponsible so I found a second used Mah Jong set for $30. I didn't buy it, but I am lusting for it a bit. Probably won't get it since I don't know how to play...but still....pretty!

That errand did take a bit of time since the lady had to go through each piece of clothing and try to figure out whether it was man's clothing or woman's clothing. I think she marked my pants as man clothing (probably because of leg length) which amuses me a little. I mean...some hip young Japanese dude could buy my pants and wear them around thinking he's all cool. Heh. Funny.

After that I really didn't do a whole lot since I had to leave for Kisuki at 4:00. Kisuki was alright today. My first group is my best group and they are progressing nicely. They read the word "phone" today which is pretty significant since I JUST introduce the "ph" reading today and the magic 'e' form last week. Cool. My next class is a little bit of a pain. There are 3 siblings and another girl. We played this really stupid game of Bingo that the littlest one wanted to do and it sucked. There was 8 spaces to the board...two rows of 4. But there were like 40 words! It took 30 minutes. And to make things worse, when someone finally got Bingo, it was 3 people at once. The girl who didn't get Bingo BURST INTO TEARS AND SOBBED. Ugh. That's never pleasant. I just cheated and found the card that gave her bingo. Then I gave everyone a couple of stickers. She was still unhappy, but not crying anymore. I shooed them on their way.

I hate when kids cry. And really, this is probably the first time I have been the sole person in charge when I kid cried which made it my responsibility to get her to stop. Annoying!

Speaking of annoying things. I found out today why I haven't received my tax return yet. *sigh* You see, one of the biggest problems Chris and I have had is names. Problems because Japanese people can't tell what order our names are supposed to go in. Problems because they won't accept that Susie is a form of Susan. Problems because we are married but our last names are different. Problems because no one has a middle name in Japan. Problems because filling out forms require us to fill out our names a certain way but then it doesn't match up with our IDs and we have to redo everything. Problems because every ID seems to have a different format for our names. Problems problems problems!

So, of course, it all comes down to the name thing. Nishi has my name as Susan Willis. My bank account is under Susan Diane Willis. Nishi filled out my tax for their way, so my tax slip says Susan Willis. When the tax people tried to deposit my money into my bank account they found that it said Susan Diane Willis. The Diane threw them. Because they don't have middles names in Japan so they can't really figure it out. Sometimes they want our names and sometimes they don't. But it's random! So it's difficult. And that tax people were upset.

So they called Mihara-san and asked her. She had to verify that I was both Susan Willis and Susan Diane Willis. And thus, they will send my money. Only it's taking forever and I hope it gets here soon! I want to use it to send some heavy heavy boxes home. Boo for the tax people.

Oh well...what can you do? I think Japanese people have troubles when they come to America and have to go through the name thing. Stupid names...why so complicated?

Anyways, so look! I had a busy monday! And in better news, we got all four tires replaced on our car. AND, it didn't cost us a dime because of the way our lease works in Japan. Sweet!

I think tomorrow will be less adventurous, so I think that means laundry and cleaning. Yay! Wish me luck!

mata ne!