Three Months Already

あっと言うの間に・・・

Tomorrow will be my 90th day in Japan. Three months since I’ve moved in this country from Ottawa on October 23rd. This means my first working-holiday visa is half done and I’ll have to go renew it for another six months ideally before April.

Time sure flies! I barely had a chance to truly enjoy myself here. Since I moved in my new apartment last month, most of my time was occupied by the holidays and chores I have to do for my new life. Towards the end of December, I changed my address on my foreigner registration card. No need for a new card, fortunately; the lady at the city office simply wrote my new address at the back. I also ordered my custom-made hanko stamp at a nearby department store which was ready for pick-up only a few days after.

Both the change of address and the hanko were useful at validating my identity to open a bank account at the local post office at to sign, or rather to stamp, the required forms. Apparently, since the privatization of the postal service, Japan Post, formerly the Postal Services Agency, became the privately-owned Japan Post Group (Nihon Yuusei Kousha, 日本郵政公社) in 2007 and operates a few companies including Japan Post Services (Nihon Yuubin, 日本郵便) offering post and courier services, and Japan Post Bank (Yuucho Ginko, ゆうちょ銀行), which offers banking services under the same roof of any Japan Post office. There are many post offices and many of them now have ATMs. Quite convenient, but I find that ATMs in Japan not to be 24-hour interesting; like those machines need to sleep every night.

This month has been mostly spent on work for two projects due this month. And I was worried my freelance Web development wouldn’t be enough… I haven’t got many opportunities to go do something outside and meet many friends lately. Frankly, I want this to change as soon as next month and I wish to spend more of my limited time exploring this country and to be with my girlfriend.