Okay, I realize I'm really getting behind here. I have a few things jotted down for various days, but I think I need to come up with a plan to get caught up. I definitely can't skip certain things, like when Andrew told the toll booth operator, "I don't speak English!" (more on that in Feb. 4's post) But for now....
There was a PTA Welcome Coffee today at a parent's house in Hiroo (different part of Tokyo). The previous Saturday at the swim meet, a woman had come up to me and introduced herself. She'd seen me at the Saturday bus stop two weeks in a row and so figured that I must live in her neighborhood. We exchanged email addresses and later she invited me to ride with her and a friend, who had a car, to the PTA coffee. I thanked her and told her that if she would just give me her address, I could meet her and her friend at her apartment building; I'm getting much better with the iPhone map.
Well, while I am getting better, it helps if I have a correct address. Karen sent me her address and walking directions from the train station. Before I set out, I looked at her address on google maps, and based on her walking directions, I figured out she must have sent me an incorrect number in the address (more on addresses in a bit). There was no need for me to walk all the way to the train station, so I decided to use my iPhone to join up to her walking directions, and then follow her directions to her apartment. After going past a school on my right, the road was supposed to go the left and go up a hill. Unfortunately, there was a left turn right past the school that went up a hill, so I took it, but Karen meant for me to keep going and the road I was on would curve to the left and go up a hill. So I'm at the top of the hill, holding my iPhone and walking around, trying to see if there's anything that looks like it could be Karen's apartment building. I'm just now thinking that there must be a problem with the walking directions. Do I retrace my steps and hope I can figure out the glitch? Do I give up and call Karen? Then an older (meaning "older than me") Japanese woman walks up to me and asks if I need help. I explain I'm looking for a friend's apartment building and, luckily, I knew the name of the building. She was familiar with it, and since she wasn't sure how to explain to me directions to get there, she instead walked me all the way to the apartment building. Arigatou gozaimasu! (Thank you very much!)
Here's a little bit more info on addresses:
In Japan, you start with the largest unit and work down to the smallest. So our address would be
Japan
151-0064 (the postal code)
Tokyo (the prefecture)
Shibuya-ku (our city or ward)
Uehara (our district)
2-14-2 (the first 2 is our area, 14 is our neighborhood, and the second 2 is our building)
(a note on the number of the building: it's often based on when the building was built)
#101 (our apartment number)
last name, then first name
Don't worry about addressing things to us this way. You can keep using the conventions of the States, where we start with the individual and go the other way. Mail addressed like that makes it to us just fine.
I read a description that addresses in Japan are based on a spatial instead of a linear organization. The author described is as being like a pie. You cut the pie in slices, and then you take each slice and cut it in smaller pieces, and so on until everyone has a piece of the pie. All I can say is thank goodness for Google maps and my iPhone. I really couldn't find anything just based on its address.
Japanese word of the day: juusho (click to hear pronunciation)
means "address"
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Feb. 1, 2012 - Money matters
Well, I've been waiting for Drew to write his part for today about his exchange with a bank teller. That's what the hold-up has been. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
First, my "money matters:"
Japan is very much a cash-based society. Many places do not take credit cards, and personal checks are not used here. We used to walk around in the U.S. with $20 in our pocket and think nothing of it. Here we feel underdressed if we don't have at least 30,000 yen in our wallets. So if personal checks aren't used in Japan, how do we pay our various utility bills? Why, at the 7-11, of course! Today I paid my first bill at the conbini (convenience store). And yes, there are 7-11's here, though that wasn't the specific one where I paid my bill. I gave the cashier my bill, he scanned the barcode, I gave him the cash, and he gave me a stamped receipt. Pretty easy (though it feels a little odd)!
Now, Drew's "money matters:"
Today I needed to move 600,000 JPY from my bank account to that of the car dealer (note from Jen: we're buying a car). While this can be done online, if you don’t have a Japanese keyboard (or read Japanese, for that matter), the online route is a bit difficult. Fortunately, I have a Citibank branch in my office building, so I popped down there at lunchtime to get things squared away. Armed with my trusty printout of the email with instructions from the car dealer, I approached the teller with the normal amount of trepidation. I successfully told her what I wanted to do, and she explained that she could perform this transaction at her window, but it would cost 850 JPY (about 12 USD). However, this could be performed at the ATM machine for a smaller charge (425 JPY), which she would be happy to assist me to perform. She offered this service in a very apologetic manner, as it seemed to me that she felt that even the 425 JPY charge was excessive, and it was a personal failing that she couldn’t conceive of a manner to assist me and further reduce the charge.
First, however, we needed to call and, by using my phone banking pin (which I fortunately had in hand), increase the transaction limit so I could do this at the ATM. The teller placed the call to the phone banking center, navigated the prompts, and handed me the phone to enter the pin. She took the phone back and got me to an agent who spoke English, where I bumped my limit up (it took effect immediately).
We then walked over to the ATM together, where she pretty much drove for the entire experience, save entering my pin, and my verifying that a few details had been entered correctly. Total elapsed time, about 15 minutes. I’m sure the Citibank execs back in the US who set this counter fee at 850 JPY are quite pleased with themselves for extracting the right value for this service.
P.S. I went back a few days later to do another transfer and then noticed a small sign on the ATM instructing those who require assistance to go get a teller who will gladly help them. Only in Japan …
Japanese word of the day: conbini (click to hear pronunciation) means "convenience store"
First, my "money matters:"
Japan is very much a cash-based society. Many places do not take credit cards, and personal checks are not used here. We used to walk around in the U.S. with $20 in our pocket and think nothing of it. Here we feel underdressed if we don't have at least 30,000 yen in our wallets. So if personal checks aren't used in Japan, how do we pay our various utility bills? Why, at the 7-11, of course! Today I paid my first bill at the conbini (convenience store). And yes, there are 7-11's here, though that wasn't the specific one where I paid my bill. I gave the cashier my bill, he scanned the barcode, I gave him the cash, and he gave me a stamped receipt. Pretty easy (though it feels a little odd)!
Now, Drew's "money matters:"
Today I needed to move 600,000 JPY from my bank account to that of the car dealer (note from Jen: we're buying a car). While this can be done online, if you don’t have a Japanese keyboard (or read Japanese, for that matter), the online route is a bit difficult. Fortunately, I have a Citibank branch in my office building, so I popped down there at lunchtime to get things squared away. Armed with my trusty printout of the email with instructions from the car dealer, I approached the teller with the normal amount of trepidation. I successfully told her what I wanted to do, and she explained that she could perform this transaction at her window, but it would cost 850 JPY (about 12 USD). However, this could be performed at the ATM machine for a smaller charge (425 JPY), which she would be happy to assist me to perform. She offered this service in a very apologetic manner, as it seemed to me that she felt that even the 425 JPY charge was excessive, and it was a personal failing that she couldn’t conceive of a manner to assist me and further reduce the charge.
First, however, we needed to call and, by using my phone banking pin (which I fortunately had in hand), increase the transaction limit so I could do this at the ATM. The teller placed the call to the phone banking center, navigated the prompts, and handed me the phone to enter the pin. She took the phone back and got me to an agent who spoke English, where I bumped my limit up (it took effect immediately).
We then walked over to the ATM together, where she pretty much drove for the entire experience, save entering my pin, and my verifying that a few details had been entered correctly. Total elapsed time, about 15 minutes. I’m sure the Citibank execs back in the US who set this counter fee at 850 JPY are quite pleased with themselves for extracting the right value for this service.
P.S. I went back a few days later to do another transfer and then noticed a small sign on the ATM instructing those who require assistance to go get a teller who will gladly help them. Only in Japan …
Japanese word of the day: conbini (click to hear pronunciation) means "convenience store"
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