Week 3, 4 and 5: school, medicine, paperwork and the saki bar

In week 3 Elizabeth started going to school on her own.  Finally, I had time to actually start doing some of the things I planned to do while I was in Japan.  And as luck would have it, there was a parent-teacher conference at the school.  It was, most certainly, all in Japanese.  I did have a translator with me, but I don't think I have ever felt so useless as I did in that meeting.  The teacher introduced me quite suddenly in the middle of the meeting to all of the other parents in the room.  I had to stand up, and was expected to say something.  Improvisation has not usually been my strong suit when I am tense even in my native language, so something terse that was polite came out of my mouth but I don't have a clue what it was.  And Elizabeth had her first ear infection this week which meant we had to explore the realm of children's medical care in Japan.  I had already meant my new Rheumatologist a week before and had an excellent experience with her.  We also got to visit the closest Immigration Office, which was a 20 minute walk, 3 train rides which took an 1.5 hours, and another 20 minute walk to get to the office and reverse direction to return home.  But before we could get to the office, they went on lunch break.  So we had to wait the hour out and entertain Elizabeth while feeding her the little bit of gluten free food we had brought.  This was a poorly planned trip, it really was the worse excursion planning we have had in Japan.  When we finally got to the first desk (first of 3), Kurt had a lengthy discussion in which we learned that the form that was filled out by the company Kurt works for, with all of the attendant documentation including digital picture, was the wrong paperwork for E's visa.   They gave us a different 8 page, front and back form to fill out along with a few different documentation requirements.  We were in that office a total of 40 minutes and after the entire trip, it took us most of the day to go there and return and now we had to go back again!  When I said I wanted to experience culture in Japan, I did NOT mean the Immigration Office and the trains.

Week 4 was blissfully less time at E's elementary school and more time to get the pile of paperwork settled down to a reasonable mountain.  I believe we ended up at the City Hall at least twice during this week for various visa and health insurance reasons as well as returning to the Immigration Office.  It was more then a bit frustrating to be emailed and told that we had to return to City Hall once again to complete some other form or turn in some piece of paperwork.  The total mind-blower was the trip Kurt and I made to City Hall to bring them a carbon copy of a form we originally filled out and filed in that office building.  The request came from a different office in the building (same floor, just next door!) and apparently they were unable to acquire the information from the other office.  This just totally ticked me off because not only is this a complete and utter waste of time, but I already had to walk E to school in the heat and humidity and now I had to go in the opposite direction (right past our apartment) to bring this form in and we both had to appear.  Utter ridiculousness.  But the Immigration Office in week 5 was by far the worst.  Kurt returned with the second form filled out and all the possible documentation they could want.  And guess what, it was the wrong form too.  But thankfully, since the form is entirely in Japanese and the officer knew Kurt had already been there once, the officer helped him fill out the supposedly correct form and submit it.  I wonder if will really be the right form.  We should find out in 1-2 months.  Nothing like some suspense in life to keep things interesting.  But at least the officials have been very courteous and helpful.

Week 5, was fortunately a true improvement over week 3 and 4.  Although I had to bring E to the ENT several times during week 4 and 5 for the ear infection, this was a much better and shorter amount of time to waste then the City Hall or the Immigration Office.  This is how Kurt got elected to go to the Immigration Office alone the second time, so that I could bring E to the ENT 3-4 times this week.  This is also the last week of school for E until September 3rd.  Much to our surprise (and chagrin), we learned that there is a 5 week break in school during the summer in which they still go to the school swimming pool 2-3 times a week for required class time.  What exactly is the point here, are we tethered to school or not?  A bit frustrating to the parents who were finally starting to enjoy the fruits of that 630 am wake up and get-ready-for-school routine.  We also heard that our boxes were arriving from Boston this week, which was the cause of much joyous celebration for the 6 year old.  Seems that she was tired of playing with the 10 or so toys she had for the 4 weeks we had been in Japan.  But, by the end of the 4 weeks, she was really appreciating those newly arrived toys and books.  I don't think Kurt nor I saw her for 3 or 4 days other then at meals since she was off of school by the time the boxes actually arrived.  I was barely able to get the boxes open to verify what was in them before she would scuttle off with the entire box.  So E ended up having a few (several) things in her room that didn't quite belong, like a hard drive, a few of my books, a small hammer, a pair of pliers and a garlic press to name a few.  I walked into her room to see how bad the mess was, and to figure out how I was going to contain said disaster.  The disaster was certainly there and the garlic press was in the middle of the floor like all of the other toys scattered around.  I was wondering to myself why it was there and what she could have possibly wanted with a garlic press when I realized I needed to check her boxes for other misplaced items.

We ended Week 5 by going to our first saki bar with our neighbor and one of Kurt's Japanese associates whom he has not seen in 10 years.  Yes, we took E too.  It was the family friendly sort of bar I was told by the neighbor who had suggested it.  And it was a fascinating and enchanting experience.  The bar only had 8 seats and covered about a 20 foot by 10 foot area.  The walls floor to ceiling were packed with various types of liquor and in between were all these miniature statues and various curious knickknacks.  I have never seen a bar quite like this one.  Every time I looked around, I would see something else I had not noticed before.  The master of the bar only speaks Japanese, and lucky for us, our neighbor knows him well and speaks enough Japanese to get by better than we would.  The master first served Kurt and me saki champagne.  It was very different, tingly like champagne, not bitter and not sweet.  I am not a big fan of carbonation though so we moved on quickly.  We tried 7 or 8 different types of saki, both ones the master recommended and some our neighbor had tried and enjoyed.  I tried saki from all over Japan and the variety was astounding.  I did not know saki could have as much variation with only 3 ingredients.  In between tastings, the master served different types of Japanese snack food like sushi, sashimi, sea urchin eggs and seaweed, mango pudding for E, melon with whiskey and kelp chips.  The master's specialty is Japanese whiskey and although I would have loved to try it, whiskey is one of those questionable alcohols that may or may not be made with grains containing gluten.  I think I will just stick with exploring saki for now, in all of the myriad variations available, in the most interesting bar I have ever been in.