Gaigokujin Tooruku Shomei - Jan. 11 2007

I spent the last two days trying to register as an "alien" in Japan. The first day I went to Kyoubashi station, to find a automatic photo booth that I remembered seeing from another time I had been in the area. It took me half an hour to find it back because I didn't turn the same direction I had the last time... Taking the picture was stressful because I was not sure what format the picture was going to come out... And the whole process was pretty long. You have to choose the brightness, you have to accept the picture once it has been taken, after seeing a preview, you have to adjust the margins one side at a time... Granted, it is much more advanced than what we see in Montreal because most of the time it takes the picture and that's it! you get what it took. After I headed to the Osaka City Public Office, I had also came across this building by chance before.. Once I got there I was told I had to go to my neighborhood's office. They gave me an extremely unreliable map and I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find the place. The map seemed to be pointing out that the office was near Kyoubashi station, so I went back to where I had came from and from there I went in all directions and never found any of the pinpointed buildings on the map. Exhausted and disappointed, I returned to my room and checked out other maps on the government's website. These maps seemed more reliable and it looked like I could easily reach the place from my place. The following day (today) I went off by walk, following the map. It seemed that the map was indicating that from my train station, you could take a street right to the office. But the map is not drawn to the nearest detail and it is impossible to walk from the train station street to the office.. at some point you have to turn on a different street! When I had been walking for 45 minutes and still hadn't spotted the building, I called (yesterday they gave me the phone number). They could not speak a word of English so they put an interpretor online (I did not have the patience anymore to figure things out in Japanese). So the interpretor gave me the directions after the office lady gave some explanations. At some point I arrived near an imposing building with tall gates and barbwires all around... I thought it was a prison, but it was strange to have a prison right in the middle of the city... I looked at the sign and made out a few kanjis: East High School.. this building was a highschool! This was one of the indicated buildings on my map! I was on the right track... I even asked a construction worker if that building was the one indicated on my map. He said it was, but he also noticed that the Neighborhood Office was highlighted on my map and asked me if that's where I wanted to go. I said yes! And he told me it was the next building on my left. Indeed, the building was right beside, and there was a huge street sign saying: Neighborhood Office in English. I was relieved to finally find it. Once I was there, everything went well, I could understand the agent until he noticed that my address was in Hirakata (where I will be living for university)... Then things started becoming complicated and I also could not understand anything of what he was telling me... He would repeat the same thing over and over, and all I could do is have a puzzled look on my face and say I could not understand. (It is quite strange that an office that handles foreigners registrations in the country cannot speak one word of English)... Then he took his elecronic dictionary out and it did not really help... .I obviously understood thought, that I would not get to do my registration today at this place, so I asked him if I had to go at the hirakata office instead. He answered it was better to go there, with the one English word he had found in his dictionary: hirakata tsuitatoki hirkatashiyakushoni iku no hou ga BEST desu. He then felt sorry that I went there for nothing, and the natural response is: no no, it's ok. I asked for a map of Hirakatashi Public Office (like that will help me), and they looked for a map on the internet and printed it out for me. I thanked him and ended by saying that I needed to practice Japanese more (seeing how it was difficult to communicate)... he answered: mou sugu ni oboeru ne.