Suma with the tsuma
September 11, 2006
It has been a year already and what a fast year it has been. In this one year span, I proposed, planned it, got hitched, moved, got promoted, and did more studying in Japanese than my last two years combined. I am tenacious at remembering milestones and dates in our relationship but the most important one is our ‘we began dating’ anniversary - it’s our Thanksgiving Holiday in our relationship calendar.
This year we had a short getaway in Suma, a very minor place in Hyogo next to a beach. The wife found a cheap ryokan in front of the beach and off we went. Unfortunately on Sunday, it began raining on the way there so we fast forwarded our plans and went to the Suma Aquarium.
In a nutshell, don’t bother going. Visit the more expensive, but infinitely better Osaka Aquarium instead. At 1,300 yen, the main attraction at Suma Aquarium was probably the dolphin show. It’s always nice to see a dolphin show but this one was rather plain. The fish exhibits were plain. It was just something to do.
We stayed at the Sea Pal Suma hotel. This place must have been so five-star at one point. Now, it just reeks of the 70s in a bad, musty way. The carpets, lighting, and ceiling designs were straight out of Scarface. The staff were super friendly though and the dinner was great. It’s your standard Japanese food dinner (small portions of a few different dishes). Our traditional Japanese room was massive with a very nice view of the beach. That night we bought some drinks and snacks and snuggled. What better way to celebrate six years of knowing and loving each other than by “utilizing the rotating heart-shaped bed to fullest extent“?
This morning we woke up and had a crappy breakfast consisting of a confusing mix of traditional Japanese breakfast food and instant continental style breakfast. I wasn’t sure whether to mix the powder scrambled eggs with my steamed rice or my boiled sausages with the tsukemono. The weather finally cooperated and we spent the morning just sitting on sand and relaxing. Even the morning sun was enough to slightly singe my skin but it was worth it.
There must be a way
September 05, 2006
Today I did not go to work. Officially my throat was dry and cracked and not in shape for a day of preaching. Having a mental holiday also helped too. I was considering spending the day sleeping in and playing Neverwinter Nights all day but as tempting as that was, today became a day of getting shit fixed.
I discovered this morning that my external hard drive was not being recognized by my computer. That’s 120g of crap I’ve collected over four years, and not all of it is porn. Amongst the entire library of movies, tv shows, and music, the thing I fear losing the most is my entire collection of pictures. Yup. I put all my eggs in one basket - literally thousands upon thousands of pictures. Right now I’m using some random software to try to restore the drive but I fear bringing the thing into a shop and have the pro tell me it can’t be recovered. I will cry.
Next I finally got around to cashing in a money order from a medical claim several months back (I’m that backlogged in chores). At least I thought I was going to be cashing it in. I bring it to Resona, where the woman has an account that has become the household expense account. My name is not on there but I had the bank book, the bank card, and the PIN. Plus I’m putting money INTO the account. Who cares right? Well, first, the money order was addressed from HSBC New Zealand to HSBC Tokyo. So this branch needed to forward it to their Tokyo branch who would do their magic bank thing and ask HSBC for money. In turn they’ll forward the money back to this branch. Only, to put it into our account, the woman would need to be there. Bah. The guy said I could open an account and they’ll just put the money in there but I don’t need another bank account and I didn’t have my stupid stamp. So I gave up.
Side note: major business transactions are conducted via a dollar stamp with your name on it in Japan. It’s ridiculous as anyone who has this stamp has fiduciary power. Signatures are not always used even though it’s much harder to forge a signature. I completely feel this practice is old fashioned and troublesome as most people do not carry the stamp on a day to day basis.
I ran across the street to UFJ, or rather, MUFG now, where I have an account. Same shit. Only, more shit. We moved a few months ago so I needed to update their stupid database. I needed to fill out this change of address form which, yup, I needed my stupid stamp to validate it. So, I go home (a mere 5 min walk) to retrieve the stupid stamp. Coming back, I fill in more forms. Here’s yet another long bureaucratic process. From this branch, they would forward it to my home branch in Shinsaibashi (the branch where this account was opened), in turn, they’ll forward it to Tokyo. Time I need to wait: about 2 weeks. Eep. That’s $700 just sitting in bank limbo for two weeks.
The whole process took two hours. I hate Japanese banks. I’m thinking of getting a post office account instead - they’ll the biggest financial institution in Japan and offer slightly faster service.
So goes my day of rest and relaxation.
