Busy, busy day today. I started my “Alien Registration Card” process today with help from an Office Assistant at work. Things went quite smoothly for which I am grateful. I registered at the Ward (Naka-ku) administration building and then we went to Immigration to get a re-entry permit. When I was living in Mito I neglected to do that which caused some problems and made me get multiple gaijin cards (or Alien Registration Card). The staff was courteous and efficient at both locations. There’s no sneaking through the system now.

Unfortunately, sandwiched between the Naka-ku office and Immigration was a frustrating attempt to open a bank account. We went to three banks, and each had a reason for turning me down – some faster than others. UFJ barely let us in the door. I had to have a 判こ (hanko), which is a personal seal or a stamp. And then I needed to be living in Japan for 6 months. The post bank said a signature was fine, but after we got the paper work filled out they were unsatisfied with my passport and declared a need for my alien registration card. Sigh. SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) were much friendlier and explained that I need both a Hanko and my alien registration card. But they were helpful and friendly. So once I fulfill all my requirements they will get my business and probably the rest of the company’s business since the Office Assistant went through all of this with me.

As always, an adventure is life. I shouldn’t let these difficulties frustrate me so much. But that’s easier said than done.

On a good note, I got a ton done in my apartment. I have destroyed the cardboard boxes now. I have drapes up everywhere as well. Tomorrow I might take a break, but Thursday I should do dishes and get the office set up with my new monitor yeah! More pictures to come!

Well, I wanted to take you on a tour of my place.

Here’s what you see when you first walk in …

Looking good. When you turn around, you get the typical beautiful Japanese front door …

But … look at all the closets there! Lots of places for shoes. I guess I need to buy some shoes. Just to the right side is the toilet.

The seat is heated. To the left when you walk in is the master bedroom that I am using for storage. Then comes the powder room and the shower / tube.

They don’t look that big but they are good sized for a Japanese place. Out of the picture is the space for my washer and dryer.

Next comes the fuller view of the living room / dining room, with my office off to the early left and my bedroom at the far end.

The wide angle lens make it look bigger than it is.

Here’s the office:

And here’s the bedroom:

Then as you step onto the balcony …

Not bad, huh? Finally, here is the space completely violated by boxes:

Honest to blog, it has been a lot of work today. (“Honest to blog” is a phrase Tomo has started using from “Juno”). I have my apartment, as y’all know. It is been 9 years since I really tried to make a house. Sheesh, it is a lot of work.

I went to the office on Saturday morning, but Saturday afternoon I had scheduled delivery of all my purchased things. My colleague offered to help ferry some things from the hotel to the apartment. What a great help. I really appreciated that. There are definitely some nice folks at work. Thanks MJ.

I would LOVE to show you pictures of my new place. As a matter of fact, they are in my camera. But I can’t seem to find my cable to connect it to the computer. Darn! I’ll look again tomorrow at the apartment. Anyway, I have some pictures of my pristine apartment and the craziness that it is now.

Once of the nice things about delivery in Japan is that usually the stores have the delivery folks assemble the item you purchased and then they remove the trash. I didn’t really realize how much packing material is used. Wow. So Furniture Dome was the first to arrive. Bed, mattress, duvet$$, pillows, nightstand, TV board, dining room table. I caught them assembling my bed with the headboard backwards. But … we got that turned around. Literally. The mattress was a little taller than the demo mattress so with the mattress and the pillows it is kind of hard to see the design of the bed. But I like it.

Next came the Tokyu Hands office furniture. That, unfortunately, was delivered as boxes. Honest to blog, there is a LOT of cardboard. I’ve been working over the last two days trying to build up that stuff. I am generating so much cardboard waste. Nagoya is crazy about trash, so I can’t recycle that with the regular recycling. I have to do something special with it. So it is gonna pile up in the guest room until I figure out how to get rid of it. I’m the least excited about the office furniture. I’m not sure how I want to arrange it. I have tables, chairs, a file cabinet, and book shelves. I could have done without the file cabinet. I’ll figure something out.

Next Eiden came with the refrigerator, washer, dryer, TV, and microwave. See, I really did get all this stuff planned for the same day. Pretty darn efficient. For those that miss my laundry stories, well, I did do a load of laundry. Eiden set up all the appliances as well and removed the boxes. I had them leave the TV box though so I can easily ship it. My TV has about a zillion channels but I can’t tell if there is a special weekend of free cable because I had everything. I kept getting an info box that looked like they were running some campaign so we’ll see later what the story is.

Finally, BoConcept delivered my dining room chairs. To quote Borat, “Verry Niiiccce.” Until I started tearing into everything it looked really good. I bought a duvet cover (thanks Mugi) washed it (ha!), and made the bed. It looked really nice for about 5 minutes. Then I started building up stuff. I only had the light from the living room at the time, so I was working in the dark. Anyway, got started.

Today I learned how difficult it is to run errands and buy big things without a car. This morning before I went to the apartment I bought dishes. Those were heavy! So I took a taxi with three heavy bags and dumped them in my kitchen untouched. But I wanted to get as much as I could since it is so hard to actually get to shops after work. I bought some tools as well. I wanted to get some chair mats, but apparently they were sold out. After much bad Japanese, I was able to get them to call another store and but two on hold there.

Once I got to the apartment, I started working on breaking down the cardboard. Then I kept building. Around 3:00 pm I went to lunch and got the chair mats and curtains for every room as well as shears for my room. I won’t buy custom curtains here, so the size doesn’t really work. So be it – it is what it is. I dumped that at the apartment and then went BACK to Nagoya station and bought an overhead light (and some power strips) for the office. I went BACK to the apartment, dumped that, and then went to the Apple Store and bought my new monitor ( ), some speakers, and an Airport Express. Once again, on Saturday I had Visa issues, so it was all cash except for things reimbursed by work. I caught a taxi back home (it is walkable to the Apple Store but not burdened with a monitor … do you hear that Ben, WALKABLE to the Apple Store!).

Once I got back home I hung the light, and kept working. I hung the shears and decided I liked it in combo with the curtains. Then I ran out of time.

Now I’m going to concentrate on getting the curtains up, getting everything built, and getting the kitchen clean. Then at least the place is livable. Only when I have internet will it really seem livable!

It is going to be nice. As long as I don’t look at my bank account.

Yeah! I got the keys to my apartment today. Everything went without a hitch. I was starting to freak out and wonder if I had made a mistake. After all, 800 sq ft with three bedrooms was seeming smaller and smaller and smaller. I started wondering if it was going to be a rotten place, and uncomfortable to live. After all, I had not seen it since April 8 or whatever day I first went apartment hunting (and the only day I went apartment hunting).

I am happy to report that I think I made the right decision. The apartment is really nice. Indeed it is small, but not at all small by Japanese standards. As a matter of fact, I’m sure calling it small would be offensive to many people. It is certainly more than enough for me. It has all mod cons as well. Heated floor, nice bathroom with real tile, a travertine entry way. AC in two rooms, a modern kitchen, some recessed lighting, and even a dishwasher (that I didn’t know … really not important to me but I have it). There is even a special box for residents when they receive large packages, so you don’t have to be home for that.

I am going to be very comfortable there. The noise from the street below is detectable, but remember I live near an airport and a fire station in LA, so what’s some street noise?

I’m really excited to be getting my furniture on Saturday. Yippee!!!! I’ll try to get some pictures and post them ASAP. Then Sunday will be filled with further purchases to minimally complete the place (lamps, drapes, duvet cover, etc). What a nice feeling.

I had a successful but whirlwindish trip to Germany. I spent Friday morning and early afternoon just hanging out in Heidelberg, walking around the city, taking a boatride, and having lunch. Then, of course, I had to begin my travel excursion. My plane was very late leaving Frankfurt for Paris due to weather at CDG. When we arrived it was about 20 deg colder than Heidelberg and I had 25 minutes for my connection. An Air Chance (France) agent met me at the stairwell. Yes, it was a walk off the plane on to the tarmac and into a bus kind of situation. So we’re standing out with the sideways rain, the roar of jet engines around us, and she’s yelling, “Tokyo? Hong Kong? Buenos Aires?” It was like a scene from a movie. She shuttled us to the confusing terminals (made complicated by the collapse of a wall a few years ago and the resulting repair work http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/europe/cdg.php ) and informed us that our flight was delayed by 30 minutes. Still, me and another guy ran to our gate, through immigration and security. We made it to confirm that the flight was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Once we finally got going we were running about 2 hours late. Instead of arriving at 6:00 pm I would be arriving at 8:00 pm on Saturday. Narita is one hour from Tokyo by train. That meant that the train schedule had to be perfect for me to catch the last 新幹線 (shinkansen) to Nagoya at 10:00 pm. We landed at 7:51 pm and I was through immigration, baggage claim, and customs by 8:15 pm. HOW DO THEY DO IT?!? Amazing! There was one train to Tokyo that I could take at 8:45 pm to catch my train to Nagoya. I got home no problem and was quite glad to see my hotel room.

Sunday was a non-work work day since we had a community function that we sponsored. As a result, we were somewhat obligated to go. It was fine.

[15 May] Who knew Germany would be so hot in mid-May? I had to go to H&M to buy a short sleeve shirt. I have a nice turtleneck in my bag, but that won’t be making an appearance any time soon. Yes, summer has busted out all over. Japan, Germany, all the former axis nations.

I gave my presentation at the conference this morning. It was the first presentation of the morning session at 8:30 am following an alcohol filled gala dinner the night before. Guess who had a small audience?!? Me! In the end though I think it was a fairly successful presentation. I’m happy with it. I fly back to Japan tomorrow.

[14 May] I arrived to Paris CDG2 at about 4:30 am. I can tell you there is not much going on at that time. Upon arrival I followed my way through the signs and ended up outside of security and immigration. Drat, how did that happen? So now I have to go through security again. Who knows if I am violating any European security requirements. I hope not!

At 4:30 am there are not a lot of services open. There were a lot of smelly travelers sitting around though. Funny, I thought, they must be traveling with plastic bags. Of course they were homeless. I had read of homeless people using airports as homes, posing as travelers. Some of them pulled it off well. Others were indeed travelers. Of course, I thought I’d wait until I got to get to my terminal before stopping at the bathroom (which I needed to do). If homeless people are using the airport as a home, how likely will it be that bathrooms are open? Ah, well the first one definitely was NOT open. So I followed some signs and found a bathroom open on a lower level. Of course it was isolated, away from people. So the next thing that went through my mind was that it was a wonderful opportunity to get mugged. Fortunately I accomplished my mission with no drama.

It has been a long day. I worked until 4:00 pm Japan time, scrambled back to the hotel, grabbed my bag, walked downstairs to the train station, and passed out until Tokyo. Do they drug the air on trains? I don’t know but I couldn’t hold my head up. Then I changed trains at Shinagawa, and hopped on the Narita Express. I wolfed down a train station ton katsu on the train and made it to my flight. It turns out my plane was the LAST flight out of Tokyo. And, apparently, the first to Paris. It was a short 12:43 flight … ugh. I caught up on LOST and Ugly Betty and was able to sleep for a while. Not particularly fitful sleep, but some sleep. I head to Frankfurt in an hour and a half. By the time I get to Heidelberg it will be Taxi-Train-Train-Flight-Flight-Train-Train-Taxi. Taihen ne!

Well, it looks like I was able to move up my apartment key date to May 22. That is quite convenient and the timing works out well with my work schedule. The only problem is Tomo is unavailable that weekend. He has to work. Bummer.

[Actually written the evening of May 11 but had connection troubles ...] How did it get to be 10:30 pm already? I can’t tell you how hard it is to find a duvet cover in Japan. When I called my friend Kevin, he just sighed. Buy them in the States or have them custom made was his suggestion. The enormous department stores all had the same few brands. I don’t think I need a Burberry duvet cover. The last time I was here, I had good luck with the store Muji (www.muji.net). It is kind of cheap but not really. It just seems to have the things you need. So … we made our way to Muji and guess what?!? They had duvet covers that were nice enough AND the right size AND not that expensive. Cool. Now all I need is an apartment. Oh, I tried to extend my hotel and of course they are full. But I am guess I can get past that. Muji also has silverware, dishes, glasses, cookware, etc.

We had a nice day just checking out places around Nagoya and getting to know the area.

That’s all. Just thought you’d like to know about duvet covers.

It is Sunday morning. I’d love to be in my apartment, nursing a cup of tea while I catch up on life via the internet. Already this morning I’ve paid bills, read the news (if anything CNN posts could actually be called news), and generally futzed around. But, alas, I’m doing this all in the confines of my hotel room. As expected, I didn’t get in to my apartment before Friday. Now, the estimated date is June 1. June 1! That’s crazy. I’ve asked the relocation company to try to accelerate that. Yesterday my shipment from LA arrived at the hotel, so I have two large boxes of my stuff, one medium box of stuff, a boxed MacPro computer which I am dying to use (but I have no monitor yet), a printer, and 5 suitcases worth of clothing and accessories (only three suitcases but I took multiple trips so it kind of adds up to be 5 suitcases).

We got a slight taste of summer here in Nagoya last week. It got warm and humid enough to turn on the AC in the factory, and then turned wet and cool while the AC stayed on. I froze in the factory yesterday!

Tomo came down to Nagoya to help me move this weekend. Ooops. Well, glad he’s here. We went to Yamachan for dinner on Friday night. Yamachan is a famous Nagoya tebasaki (手羽先) restaurant. Basically, spicy chicken wings. They were sooooo good. Probably not that healthy but delicious. The bad news is there are two Yamachans within one block of my apartment. I’ll have to watch my consumption. I worked Saturday and got home about 4:00 pm. Then we went bowling! It was a good time. A wee bit more expensive here of course. But hey, why not? We didn’t completely embarrass ourselves, so that’s cool.

As much whining as I’ve been doing about not being in my apartment, I am very comfortable in the hotel. The Nagoya Marriott starts on the 15th floor of a skyscraper. My room is the 31st floor. The room is comfortable, the hotel is comfortable, and since it is literally on top of Nagoya station, there are a ton of restaurants nearby. Things are walkable as well. It isn’t like when I was staying at the Intercontinental in Luxembourg. That was outside of town, no nearby restaurants, and just depressing. No one has to feel bad for me in the hotel here.

On Tuesday I’m off to Germany to present a paper at a conference. My first paper! It is not a good time to leave, but is there ever? Fortunately, I have management support.

Finally, I thought I’d show a few pictures looking out my window here on an overcast morning in Nagoya.