First of all, my apologies for falling behind on the updates. I meant to write the account of the first week of my trip, but I was still adjusting to the time difference and had many things to get used to. Things kept happening but I didn't have enough time to write about them and I kept falling behind. So I'm just going to skip the first week and write about what happened recently. Even for this entry it took me three days before I finally found the time to start writing, and I also have yesterday's adventure which I felt was more interesting and want to write about before it fades away from my volatile memory so I'll keep this entry rather short.
Well, this is what I did on my birthday: I went to a cell phone shop and a gym to sign up for a cell phone plan a gym membership. That's it. However, what seems to be an utterly boring mundane routine of any normal day can be interesting in a foreign soil, especially if it's Japan.
So I first set out for a cell phone shop because I figured I needed a number that can be reached at, especially for the purpose of employment. As per my friend Andre's recommendation, I decided to go with AU, which is one of mobile service providers in Japan. And it just so happened that there was an AU shop on the way to the gym so I figured I could just make one trip to both places and come back to my friend's place for dinner.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the cell phone shop was that right at the entrance there was some sort of a machine with buttons labeled in Kanji. It seemed one of those 'take a number and wait until your number comes up on the screen' machines (I have no idea what these devices are called), only more complicated. I guess those kanji labels were there to specify your needs... if only I could read them, that is.
So I was teetering and tottering, not knowing what to do, when a staff approached me, slightly bewildered. He said something in Japanese but I didn't understand. So I just went ahead and said in my half-assed Japanese, "すみません、プリペードケイタイを作りたいんですが外国人だから理解させるまで時間がかかると思います。 それでも手伝ってくれませんか？" (I'd like to get a prepaid cell phone, but I'm a foreigner and it would take time before I have you understand what I say. Would you still help me?) Then he understood everything and offered me a seat.
I would not have had to be so wordy with my request had I been of non-Asian descent and looked distinctively foreign in Japan. The looks alone would have been enough to set the 'foreigner context' as my Japanese interlocutor would get ready for the highly likely possibility of my not speaking their language. However, I don't look distinctively different from Japanese and the locals wouldn't tell by my looks that I am a foreigner who doesn't speak Japanese, so I had to declare myself a foreigner and set the gaijin (foreigner) context myself.
After a few minutes of waiting, I was led to the counter, where a staff member had been debriefed about my situation and was ready to help me. I quickly looked at her name tag and saw two kanji letters: 'mountain' and 'mouth'. I guess "Yamaguchi" is the mostly likely way of reading them? she was very patient with me and my choppy Japanese. I won't bore you with the details of the conversation, but in the end I decided to go with a two-year plan, because even with the cancellation penalty of nearly 10,000 yen (about 120 Canadian dollars), the plan is so much cheaper that it ends up paying itself off in just three months when compared to pay-as-you-go.
I filled out a form in which I had to write my name, DOB and address. She looked at it and said "Oh, happi-ba-su-dei." Thanks, I had almost forgotten that today was my birthday.
In the end though I left the store without a cell phone number. It seems that, in order to enroll into a cell phone plan, it is absolutely essential that I have the alien registration card, which I have applied for but haven't received yet. I even had a paper from the Sagamihara city hall showing that I have applied for the card and that it will be available for pickup on the 27th, but it still didn't do. So I told the lady I'd come back in two weeks. For those going to Japan for a long-term stay should keep this in mind: it could take up to two weeks for the alien registration card, and without it you are pretty much an invalid because you won't be able to do anything that requires registration, such as committing to a cell phone plan and opening a bank account. So plan your trip accordingly.
Then I headed to the gym. Judging from what happened at the cell phone place, I thought it was highly likely that the same thing would happen at the gym, but then I also thought there's gotta be a way for 'unregistered' foreigners (don't you love how this sounds?) on a short-term stay to do weight training. I took out the directions I had printed out and started walking. I followed the map and got to the place where I thought this Gold's Gym should be, but it was nowhere to be found. Thinking I have turned into a corner a few blocks too early, I backtracked to the main street and decided to walk on. 20 minutes or so of walking into the main street I ran into unfamiliar street names that were not on the map. Great, my day just keeps getting better, I thought.
So I walked back to the last intersection where I had turned left and thought I got into the wrong direction. I then walked even further back so that I could match the surrounding landmarks with the ones on the map. It was no use because certain buildings were not where the map said they were - it was as if they had switched places. At that point I cursed Google and stopped a random pedestrian to ask where I was. Again, I used the formulated sentence to set the gaijin context: "Sorry, I'm a foreigner who's lost." Only then I continued on: "Can you tell me where I am and possibly how to get to this place on the map?"
Long story short, it turned out that the first corner I had turned into was the right way, but that Gold's Gym was taken over by another gym and changed its name to NSP. No f@(king wonder I couldn't find it. What should have only been a 15-minute distance ended up taking me a hour. Well, anyways, I made it.
I walked up to the front desk and, after again setting the gaijin context, told the lady at the front desk that I would like a gym membership. She called in a staff member to show me around the gym and the pool. Truth to be told, the gym wasn't too impressive. There were enough equipments to do a decent workout, but there was no hanging bar so now I can't do some of my favorite back and ab exercises such as hanging abdominal leg raises and wide grip pull ups. Plus, dumbbells maxed out at 10kgs. That's only 25lbs. It's almost like people are not expected to lift anything heavier than that. Well, I am, after all, out in the boonies and I don't think this represents all gyms in Japan, but still, I wasn't impressed. They had a four-lane 25m swimming pool though, which is at least better than the YMCA in Cambridge.
After the tour, I was told that I needed a bank account since they automatically withdraw the membership fee from my account. Well, what a let-down. Sorely disappointed, I told them I'd come back another time and walked out. However, when I was out of the building and walking with my headphones on, the staff member who had showed me around chased me down the street to tell me that I could pay cash.
I signed up for a month and a half for about 10000 yen (130 dollars?) and used the gym right afterwards. Yeah, I've missed the workout. It was 8:30 in the evening when I was done, so I called up my friend to meet me down the road. We met up and had dinner. It was a long day but at least I got something done. Phew. What a day.
Well, this is what I did on my birthday: I went to a cell phone shop and a gym to sign up for a cell phone plan a gym membership. That's it. However, what seems to be an utterly boring mundane routine of any normal day can be interesting in a foreign soil, especially if it's Japan.
So I first set out for a cell phone shop because I figured I needed a number that can be reached at, especially for the purpose of employment. As per my friend Andre's recommendation, I decided to go with AU, which is one of mobile service providers in Japan. And it just so happened that there was an AU shop on the way to the gym so I figured I could just make one trip to both places and come back to my friend's place for dinner.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the cell phone shop was that right at the entrance there was some sort of a machine with buttons labeled in Kanji. It seemed one of those 'take a number and wait until your number comes up on the screen' machines (I have no idea what these devices are called), only more complicated. I guess those kanji labels were there to specify your needs... if only I could read them, that is.
So I was teetering and tottering, not knowing what to do, when a staff approached me, slightly bewildered. He said something in Japanese but I didn't understand. So I just went ahead and said in my half-assed Japanese, "すみません、プリペードケイタイを作りたいんですが外国人だから理解させるまで時間がかかると思います。 それでも手伝ってくれませんか？" (I'd like to get a prepaid cell phone, but I'm a foreigner and it would take time before I have you understand what I say. Would you still help me?) Then he understood everything and offered me a seat.
I would not have had to be so wordy with my request had I been of non-Asian descent and looked distinctively foreign in Japan. The looks alone would have been enough to set the 'foreigner context' as my Japanese interlocutor would get ready for the highly likely possibility of my not speaking their language. However, I don't look distinctively different from Japanese and the locals wouldn't tell by my looks that I am a foreigner who doesn't speak Japanese, so I had to declare myself a foreigner and set the gaijin (foreigner) context myself.
After a few minutes of waiting, I was led to the counter, where a staff member had been debriefed about my situation and was ready to help me. I quickly looked at her name tag and saw two kanji letters: 'mountain' and 'mouth'. I guess "Yamaguchi" is the mostly likely way of reading them? she was very patient with me and my choppy Japanese. I won't bore you with the details of the conversation, but in the end I decided to go with a two-year plan, because even with the cancellation penalty of nearly 10,000 yen (about 120 Canadian dollars), the plan is so much cheaper that it ends up paying itself off in just three months when compared to pay-as-you-go.
I filled out a form in which I had to write my name, DOB and address. She looked at it and said "Oh, happi-ba-su-dei." Thanks, I had almost forgotten that today was my birthday.
In the end though I left the store without a cell phone number. It seems that, in order to enroll into a cell phone plan, it is absolutely essential that I have the alien registration card, which I have applied for but haven't received yet. I even had a paper from the Sagamihara city hall showing that I have applied for the card and that it will be available for pickup on the 27th, but it still didn't do. So I told the lady I'd come back in two weeks. For those going to Japan for a long-term stay should keep this in mind: it could take up to two weeks for the alien registration card, and without it you are pretty much an invalid because you won't be able to do anything that requires registration, such as committing to a cell phone plan and opening a bank account. So plan your trip accordingly.
Then I headed to the gym. Judging from what happened at the cell phone place, I thought it was highly likely that the same thing would happen at the gym, but then I also thought there's gotta be a way for 'unregistered' foreigners (don't you love how this sounds?) on a short-term stay to do weight training. I took out the directions I had printed out and started walking. I followed the map and got to the place where I thought this Gold's Gym should be, but it was nowhere to be found. Thinking I have turned into a corner a few blocks too early, I backtracked to the main street and decided to walk on. 20 minutes or so of walking into the main street I ran into unfamiliar street names that were not on the map. Great, my day just keeps getting better, I thought.
So I walked back to the last intersection where I had turned left and thought I got into the wrong direction. I then walked even further back so that I could match the surrounding landmarks with the ones on the map. It was no use because certain buildings were not where the map said they were - it was as if they had switched places. At that point I cursed Google and stopped a random pedestrian to ask where I was. Again, I used the formulated sentence to set the gaijin context: "Sorry, I'm a foreigner who's lost." Only then I continued on: "Can you tell me where I am and possibly how to get to this place on the map?"
Long story short, it turned out that the first corner I had turned into was the right way, but that Gold's Gym was taken over by another gym and changed its name to NSP. No f@(king wonder I couldn't find it. What should have only been a 15-minute distance ended up taking me a hour. Well, anyways, I made it.
I walked up to the front desk and, after again setting the gaijin context, told the lady at the front desk that I would like a gym membership. She called in a staff member to show me around the gym and the pool. Truth to be told, the gym wasn't too impressive. There were enough equipments to do a decent workout, but there was no hanging bar so now I can't do some of my favorite back and ab exercises such as hanging abdominal leg raises and wide grip pull ups. Plus, dumbbells maxed out at 10kgs. That's only 25lbs. It's almost like people are not expected to lift anything heavier than that. Well, I am, after all, out in the boonies and I don't think this represents all gyms in Japan, but still, I wasn't impressed. They had a four-lane 25m swimming pool though, which is at least better than the YMCA in Cambridge.
After the tour, I was told that I needed a bank account since they automatically withdraw the membership fee from my account. Well, what a let-down. Sorely disappointed, I told them I'd come back another time and walked out. However, when I was out of the building and walking with my headphones on, the staff member who had showed me around chased me down the street to tell me that I could pay cash.
I signed up for a month and a half for about 10000 yen (130 dollars?) and used the gym right afterwards. Yeah, I've missed the workout. It was 8:30 in the evening when I was done, so I called up my friend to meet me down the road. We met up and had dinner. It was a long day but at least I got something done. Phew. What a day.
