Day 1, Part 2: Trying to get my Gaijin Card (or, how I made someone’s job hell for one day)

This was lots of fun.

So when you move to Japan on a visa you have to get a gaijin card, the equivalent of a green card (I think). They suggest doing it as soon as possible. So on my first day here I decide to start the process. I found out where the Ikoma city office is and I try to start the process.

I don’t have passport pictures so I ask where a photobooth is (they’re everywhere in Japan and they all do passport pictures). The girl at the front desk of the city office tells me, in Japanese, that the picture booth is in the middle of the train station. This statement is vague. The middle of the train station could be so many different places. So I try to ask her where exactly. She just keeps repeating that the photobooth is in the middle of the train station. Fine.

I go to the train station and go to the office there. I ask and they can actually tell me where this mysterious photobooth is. So I get my pictures. I go back to the city office and fill out what information I know on the necessary form; I don’t know some important details.

Some important details: There is a special person to talk to, at window four, if you are getting your gaijin card. This woman speaks zero English. So as you can ascertain, this conversation was difficult for both of us.

So since I don’t know these details she is trying to get me to fill these empty spaces out. I don’t know any of the information she wants me to fill out. We’re both trying to tell each other what we know and don’t know and failing miserably at it. I consult my little phrasebook, which is utterly useless for the task at hand, and I come back with nothing but what I already know.

Finally, after much useless conversation, someone who speaks English (why isn’t SHE working at this window?) comes and helps us. Everything is better and I have a form that tells me when to come back to pick up my gaijin card.

As of now, I still won’t have the card for another week. Government is slow everywhere you go, even Japan.