Settling into Tokyo

Sunset from our balcony. On the right is the Mori Tower where Eugene works
At Christmas my Dad gave me one of those tiny pocket diaries. He also showed me his diary from when I was born. Apparently he bought his first computer nine days after I was born. I don't know when I bought my first computer, so perhaps he is onto something. Having said that, I may or may not make a habit of writing about my life for posterity's sake.

On January 14 I got my visa for Japan in Sydney and I arrived at Narita late on January 15 (delayed by snow) where I was lucky enough to have an apartment (with heated floor, toilet seat and lots of buttons) waiting for me.

Lounge / Dining
Master bedroom
Second bedroom
Tokyo covered in snow with
the Tokyo Tower from our balcony
Despite the apartment being furnished, I have still spent quite a lot of time acquiring things:
  • Residence card with registered address
  • Suica/PASMO card. Tickets for trains in Tokyo are priced by distance, and it's not uncommon to have to use more than one of the three major companies for a single journey. To avoid having to work out which tickets/tranfers to buy, you can simply swipe a suica/PASMO card when entering and exiting and the fare will be automatically deducted. The card can also be swiped to pay at vending machines (which dispense both hot and cold drinks!) and most convenience stores. If I hold it near my NFC phone, the phone displays the current balance and details of my last 20 or so transactions.
  • Bank account from Shinsei bank. This required generating a phonetic Katakana name (mine is ナレル カズンズ) and would usually require a seal. Since we are gaijin, we were allowed to sign with a pen, though Eugene had to fill out his forms numerous times because they were not accepted due to his signature not being consistent. Much to the amusement of everyone, he ended up just printing his name :)
  • Two data only SIM cards ordered entirely in Japanese. The second one is for you to borrow when you visit :)
  • Groceries, also ordered entirely in Japanese from a site I can't even find a reference to in English. Right now this is easier for me than going to a real store because of automatic Google translate. Unfortunately there is a significant lack of any sort of variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, and even those that are available are expensive. Seitan is also hard to find despite the fact that it was invented here.
  • Stuff from Amazon - ordering before 1pm with prime gives you same day delivery!

2 responses to “Settling into Tokyo

  1. Which color bank card did you get?

    http://www.shinseibank.com/english/powerflex/card.html

  2. Orange Juice. Only 8 of the colors are available immediately in the branch.

Leave a Reply

Powered by Blogger.