ダニエルの冒険

I started my travel last Wednesday, leaving from Limerick for Dublin. A week later and I’m putting through my first load of clothes since I’ve arrived. This usually marks that I have settled in. (I suppose it takes me exactly one washing machine drum’s worth of clothes to do everything I need to do to feel at home.)

On Monday I one-shotted a long list of procedures that I had expected to take 3 days. I went to the university’s Office of International Students (OIS), handed over my boarding passes to prove I used the flight that was paid for by the scholarship, and received a lot of documentation. Next I dashed to Toyocho and did my alien registration at the Kotoku kuyaskusho (Koto ward office, my local “county council” if you like). The queue for the national health insurance sign-up was long and I suspected the post-office would close about 3pm, two hours earlier than the ward office, so I went back to the university campus again and opened my savings account at the post office. I gave over the alien registration information, savings account details, and a lot of paperwork about my education/employment history, current address, and information necessary to make my student card. Another dash back to Kotoku’s ward office to join the national health insurance and I was done!

Ward Office

The ward office is an amazing place. Most of the work goes on in a single enormous room. This takes up most of the space of one floor of the building. Along the middle of the room, spanning the entire length, is an enormous desk. This is broken up into numbered sections, starting with alien registration and ending with national health insurance payments. In between you can register marriages, births, divorces, etc. Each section has a ticket machine which gives you a number and displays how many people are waiting. One one side of the sectioned desk, visitors wait for their number to be called. On the other side is a sea of desks with public employees zipping between them. It’s fun that the local residents visiting and waiting can see everyone behind working hard, so even if they’re made wait for a while, at least it seems like they’re doing their best to get to you. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my national health insurance sign-up, and about 20 minutes for my alien registration, but compared to the San Francisco social security wait (about 3 or 4 hours), it was a cinch.

National Health Insurance

Signing up for 6 months on the national health insurance cost me just under €100. This insurance covers 70% of medical fees, and the remaining 30% is capped. There were no questions when signing up: I gave them my alien registration certificate and they gave me a medical card and said I’d receive a bill in a few months but was on the system immediately. Apparently it’s ¥39900/yr (about €320/yr) for a single working person. I believe this is the most expensive. I get mine at almost half-price because I’m a student. If you are employed, the company can set it up for you and contribute toward it instead of you having to cover the entire ¥39900 yourself.

Driving Licence

When I finished the health insurance registration, I still had about 15 minutes before the local driving test centre closed, so I thought I’d try going along. It turns out they were closing up but there was one desk open. I explained that I wanted to convert my licence to a Japanese licence. They asked my nationality and I received a form explaining the requirements from Irish driving licence holders. Here’s what I need:

• My current Irish licence
• My passport
• My alien registration certificate/card
• A translation of my Irish licence (by the Irish embassy or the Japan Automobile Federation)
• 1 passport photo
• ¥4500 (€35)

The only outstanding item is the translation of the licence so yesterday I went by the Irish embassy and dropped in my licence to be translated. It cost ¥4000 (€32) and I will receive it in the post this week. With that done, I will receive a Japanese licence without having to take any tests.

What’s in a Name?

One thing that is frustrating is that I have been forced to use my middle name on all my paperwork. I like my middle name, but I have to write it all the time now. As far as the Japanese are concerned, it’s on my passport so it’s my name. Unfortunately it’s not on my driver’s licence, and that might cause trouble because all my other documents have the middle name on it.

Also, I have to be careful to keep the Japanese version of my name consistent across documents. I used to use ヘファナン as an approximation of my surname (Hefanan) but have changed it to へフェルナン recently (Heferunan). All documents created this time use the latter. If I mix it up though, things can get messy.

なが〜いっ！

Speaking of names, the Japanese have lots of cute shortened versions of big long serious procedures/systems. ゆうちょ銀行 (Yuucho Ginkou, Yuucho Bank) is what they call 郵便局貯金銀行 (Yuubinkyoku Chokin Ginkou: Post Office Savings Bank). They’ve removed a lot of the syllables and shortened it down to something really easy to say. In the same way, 国民健康保険 (Kokumin Kenkou Hoken, National Health Insurance) is shortened to 国保 (Kokuho), which is just half the word “national” and half the word “insurance” stuck together.

Guidance

I have guidance on Friday, which is what we would call “orientation” in Ireland. They have funny English names for things here, which always are just a little off. For example, “tutor student” (not “student tutor”), the “Office of International Students” (where no international students work, yet it’s not “Office for International Students”), and “guidance” of course. Actually on the OIS door, “Engineering” is mis-spelled. A little bit embarrassing for a university, I think. Spelling “Engineering” wrong in the engineering building is bad, but at least it’s not the English department!