PART 2!
I am going to load it up day by day... so it's a bit more readable.
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Friday we all woke up and headed down to the local kuyakusho branch so everyone (save Bryce and I) could finish up the application for the Gaijin card. After that (which took around an hour or so) everyone else headed off to campus to go with Tanaka to set up bank accounts and Bryce and I began our lengthy journey back to the Katsushika kuyakusho to pick up our cards (which took at least an hour by bus... at least) and then back to the Edogawa kuyakusho branch office in Kasai to get our addresses changed and to register for the National Health Insurance. Another hour and a half on the bus to Kasai, walk to the office, then another hour or so (at least) of sitting and waiting for things to process while intermittently signing forms and filling out information and finally we were done. Now we just need to go to the post office so we can set up some accounts there and also to pay for the insurance. But apart from that... the bureaucracy is done with us... or more appropriately we are done with the bureaucracy! Save cell phones... but that is more of the bureaucracy of the private sector. Either way, we met up with Will and came back to the dorms to hang out for a while before heading down to the Kasai station to meet Akiko and go to dinner. Yet again it was quite the process to figure out something that Will could eat (poor guy really), but eventually we all got our food. A little while after we were joined by two of Akiko's friends, Misako and Natsuko. We all sat around for a couple hours talking, Will went home at some point in the middle as he was feeling a bit off, and I got to sort of half follow along with the Japanese conversation. I have realized that I am not too bad at picking out what other people are saying half the time and understanding it, but when it comes to me talking it is a lot more difficult. A lot of it is just me trying to find my comfort zone in it all, as well as just growing a pair and going for it.
After we had finished up, we wandered outside to see that the typhoon rains had hit and it was a downpour. It was fantastic really! It is a good thing that I really love the rain, because this was one of the best downpours I have seen in a long time. We walked through the seemingly airborne river and waved goodbye to Misako and Natsuko at the station where they headed off home. I tried to grab a couple pictures of the rain... but it turns out that it harder than I had thought it might be. From there we wandered to a 7-11 while trying to get a hold of everyone that was going to come out for some karaoke. At the store we picked up some drinks and made our way over to the karaoke place. In the end only Luke, Joe, and another friend of Akiko's, Yuko, were able to make it. It was still a whole lot of fun as we sang (and drank the beer we had purchased) until the staff came in to tell us time was up (it was 5 am after all). We all wandered to McDonalds for some quick food and to let Yuko, who was sufficiently drunk, sit down and rest. From there we said goodbye to Akiko, Yuko, and Bryce (who had to turn around and go to work from 9:30 until 2:30) and then wandered back to the dorm to sleep.
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~ . ~
Friday we all woke up and headed down to the local kuyakusho branch so everyone (save Bryce and I) could finish up the application for the Gaijin card. After that (which took around an hour or so) everyone else headed off to campus to go with Tanaka to set up bank accounts and Bryce and I began our lengthy journey back to the Katsushika kuyakusho to pick up our cards (which took at least an hour by bus... at least) and then back to the Edogawa kuyakusho branch office in Kasai to get our addresses changed and to register for the National Health Insurance. Another hour and a half on the bus to Kasai, walk to the office, then another hour or so (at least) of sitting and waiting for things to process while intermittently signing forms and filling out information and finally we were done. Now we just need to go to the post office so we can set up some accounts there and also to pay for the insurance. But apart from that... the bureaucracy is done with us... or more appropriately we are done with the bureaucracy! Save cell phones... but that is more of the bureaucracy of the private sector. Either way, we met up with Will and came back to the dorms to hang out for a while before heading down to the Kasai station to meet Akiko and go to dinner. Yet again it was quite the process to figure out something that Will could eat (poor guy really), but eventually we all got our food. A little while after we were joined by two of Akiko's friends, Misako and Natsuko. We all sat around for a couple hours talking, Will went home at some point in the middle as he was feeling a bit off, and I got to sort of half follow along with the Japanese conversation. I have realized that I am not too bad at picking out what other people are saying half the time and understanding it, but when it comes to me talking it is a lot more difficult. A lot of it is just me trying to find my comfort zone in it all, as well as just growing a pair and going for it.
After we had finished up, we wandered outside to see that the typhoon rains had hit and it was a downpour. It was fantastic really! It is a good thing that I really love the rain, because this was one of the best downpours I have seen in a long time. We walked through the seemingly airborne river and waved goodbye to Misako and Natsuko at the station where they headed off home. I tried to grab a couple pictures of the rain... but it turns out that it harder than I had thought it might be. From there we wandered to a 7-11 while trying to get a hold of everyone that was going to come out for some karaoke. At the store we picked up some drinks and made our way over to the karaoke place. In the end only Luke, Joe, and another friend of Akiko's, Yuko, were able to make it. It was still a whole lot of fun as we sang (and drank the beer we had purchased) until the staff came in to tell us time was up (it was 5 am after all). We all wandered to McDonalds for some quick food and to let Yuko, who was sufficiently drunk, sit down and rest. From there we said goodbye to Akiko, Yuko, and Bryce (who had to turn around and go to work from 9:30 until 2:30) and then wandered back to the dorm to sleep.
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