Hello and welcome to the week 22 wrap. Well, actually, it is week 22 plus the remainder of week 21. It has been unexpectedly busy this week, mainly due to bureaucracy – one of the perfected arts in Japan. I have also been preparing for a house guest, a human house guest!

So, to the bureaucracy…I was contacted by our lawyer during the week saying he had received a request for more information for our visa application and asking if he could come here, to see the flat. I immediately thought the worst and assumed he had some bad news and he thought it would be more personal delivering it here in my abode. He reassured me it was ok, but that he had to see the flat and healso wanted to do some sightseeing while here.

On the Sunday, at the allotted time, our lawyer arrived with his ‘assistant’ – his wife. She, unfortunately, doesn’t speak any English, so was somewhat left out. I did try to talk a little to her, but we were mostly consumed with the bureaucratic request. To provide some background to this, the immigration people had previously requested a list of ‘concrete’ things we would be doing in relation to being managers of our business during the period our house (where the business will actually be run) is being approved and constructed.

They are now saying that we need to have an office for our business at the current registered address of our company. I’m not exactly clear why we need an actual office, given we have an address which is our own property and where we will be able to stay until construction is complete (ie not a rental property which is essentially impermanent). Anyway, our lawyer said that he thought where we currently have the computer – at our dining table, in an alcove area – would be fine.

He asked that I go and get an official copy of the certificate showing our ownership, so that he could supply them with it. This document is obtained at the Legal Affairs Bureau, the closest office of which is 3km from the flat. Another longish walk, but it was a lovey day on the Monday, so it was quite enjoyable. I found the building easily, but the signage inside was something to be desired. As I was standing, looking confused (I’m sure), a man came in the front doors and smiled at me (I think he was surprised to see a foreigner in this setting.) I took this as an opening to ask him if he knew where I could obtain the requisite document (and, no, I don’t know the Japanese word for requisite…).

He lead me to the 2^nd floor, where he also happened to be going. He then went up to one of the multitude counters there (many counters, signs, staff, people,…) and I looked around to try to find where I needed to go. Turns out he had gone to the counter to ask where I should go to get what I needed. Another incidence of people here going out of their way to assist! I told the man behind the counter what I needed and was directed to blue counter number 3.

Luckily I had checked the website for the Legal Affairs Bureau before I went, had found the form I would need to complete, printed it and duly completed it. It was incredibly busy and somewhat noisy in this office. One thing about offices here, it is like walking into an office in Adelaide about 25 years ago, or more. Quite dull and not at all human friendly spaces. Significant use of grey and dull blue… Anyway, I got what I needed then had to pay. Hhhmmmm, I couldn’t pay in cash, I had to go to another counter to exchange my cash for stamps and then go back to the previous counter and hand over my stamps! This wasn’t mentioned when I submitted my form. I could have done it while I was waiting had I known.

Part 2 of the requested response involved getting signs made for the front door of the flat, the letterbox and to put on the wall next to the ‘office’ table – then taking photos of each of these and the flat showing the respective office and residence areas.  I also had to draw a diagram of the flat showing each of these areas. I tried to find a shop that I could have these signs made, but I couldn’t find one on the way back from the Legal Affairs Bureau.

In the end I remembered a shop I had seen on one of my ‘wanderings’ (where I decide to take a different route to where I am going just to see what’s there – my mother used to do this – she called it “getting lost”). I went to this place and they did have options for signs but after contacting five different manufacturers of these, it was clear that none would be able to make the signs I needed within one week. On top of this, this coming week is Golden Week, basically a week of public holidays, so in effect, it would take two weeks before I could expect to get my signs.

I reported all this back to the lawyer and he said I should make signs on paper to use. A short while later he sent another email indicating his wife had made me some signs, and that she could put them together and then could come here to put them up for me. Feeling a touch embarrassed about this, I accepted the signs she had created via email, printed them, bought some thick paper and glue and put them together myself. Even with my very limited craft-type skills, I managed this and took the necessary photos.

On the Wednesday I journeyed to Osaka to deliver the documents (the photos were sent via email). Forty five minutes there on the train, 10 minute walk from the station to the lawyer’s office, deliver documents, 10 minute walk back to station and another 45 minute train ride back to Kyoto! In amongst all of this administrivia, I had to do my usual shopping, including the big trip to Aeon mall to get the kid’s supplies.

OK, enough of that! On the hanami front, the blossom basically finished this week, however, it is now azalea time and there are still tulips around the place. I also noticed a tree on the streets – many on my favourite canal street, which by the way, is called Kiya-machi dori – coming into flower which I have never seen before. When they are open, the flowers are around 7cms in diameter, and are either white or orange and white. They are quite lovely, but I have no clue, at this stage, what they are. I have had one go at finding them via the electronic oracle but without success.

Turning to the tv, my highlight this week was a segment on one of the panel shows about the mermaid tail fashion, which has been occurring at the beach and pools around the world. These bathers, in the form of a large fish tail which includes the whole tail, have been around for a few years now, but it appears their popularity is rising. I am not sure I would want my legs bound in a tail in a pool, but some people (male and female) apparently love them. They had obtained one of these tails for the purposes of the segment – a bright pink tail – they chose, however, to put a slightly overweight man in it, with the added touch of a bikini top in the form of two shells.

I thought one of the panel members was going to wet herself with laughter! It was quite hilarious to see him kitted out and then they got him into the water to try it out… He was assisted by a younger, very fit looking, male who was an aficionado of single flipper swimming. The single flipper is very large and they essentially ‘dolphin’ swim. The look on this guy’s face was also priceless, especially in respect to the shell bikini top…

Finally, from the Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper) comes a picture which is so kawai, at first I thought it was a painting or electronic drawing. It is, however, a real photo, taken in Hokkaido at a shrine in Urausu. The flowers there are known as “spring fairies” and, unsurprisingly, this spectacle attracts many photographers. Apparently, though, squirrel sightings depend on one’s luck, according to a town official!!!!!

Cheers for now