Finally, the bureaucratic stuff related to my stay in Japan is all dealt with (for now, anyway). Having to deal with bureaucracy somehow never fails to make me tired - especially when I don't speak the language.
Luckily, a fellow lab member agreed to accompany me to the city hall and the post office to translate for me. I would have had a hard time otherwise, especially opening the bank account would have been next to impossible.
Our first stop was the city hall where I had to fill out two forms: one for the alien registration itself, and another to obtain a preliminary alien registration certificate (which is required by all banks in order to open an account). The forms had English labels, so it wasn't too bad. I'm supposed to return to the city hall to pick up my alien registration card at the end of December.
At the end of the procedure, I received a map of Toyonaka (which is the suburb of Osaka that I'm living in) - entirely in Japanese, so pretty much useless for me - and an English leaflet giving advice for living in Toyonaka.
The second stop was the post office which, like in Germany, also offers banking services. The application form was entirely in Japanese and held a few surprises. For example, the year of birth has to be entered using the Japanese era names (which are based on the period of an emperor's rule). So in Japanese terms, I was born in Shōwa 54, and 2010 corresponds to Heisei 22. They also required my name to be written in Japanese.
After the form was completed, I was asked to choose a PIN and enter it on a small terminal. Then I received the bank book for my account, and was told that the ATM card would be mailed to me in a couple of days. I also deposited most of the cash I had received earlier into the new account.
I have to admit, I'm a little confused about the bank book. The last time I encountered a bank book was for my savings account - about 15 to 20 years ago. But apparently, they are still in use in Japan, even for regular bank accounts. They told me I could even use an ATM with the bank book.
The final stop was the lab where I had to fill out another form for my scholarship to notify them of my brand-new bank account. As some of the instructions on the form as well as the labeling of the account details in the bank book were in Japanese, I ended up watching the lab's secretary fill out the form for me ;-)
