A test of patience

Adapting to a new environment takes time. There are moments of utter desperation, objects or systems that vary so much from the previous environment you were in that it frustrates you like nothing else. Well, one such place that really gets to me is any city hall in Japan.

I have been to city halls in two different cities on countless occasions over my time here, for births, a marriage, obtaining an "Alien Registration Card" (now called a "Resident's Card"), establishing an official address, and changing an address. Each and every time, I leave that building feeling frustrated and speechless. The whole building it seems could be replaced by a few good databases and a well-designed online platform. Instead, you must go there, fill in one form, submit it to the correct counter, wait for it to be processed, which is a series of checking, rechecking, stamping and photocopying only to be told to take that form to another counter and have that same process inflicted on the form again. This all takes time. An enormous amount of precious time.

I just needed to have my current address formalised (yes, that is correct). I am struggling to find an equivalent document in Australia. Does it exist? I don't know. Anyway, it took more than two hours from start to finish and resulted in me having a fancy colourful page with my name as the "head of the household" and the address printed onto my Resident's Card.

Two hours!