Day 4: Registering With The Gov't

Today we went to the local government offices to register. We needed to register several things:

1. For health care insurance
2. As a family living in Tokyo
3. Terry as a foreigner living in Japan
4. Social Security, whether we intend to retire here or not.

We got in Mio's father's car and punched in the gov't office phone number in his GPS system and it guided us there. His car is 6 years old, but it's still very nice. It's a Toyota Royal Crown G, which is the top of the line for Toyota. The back seats recline at a touch of a button. It has a monitor built into the dash for viewing car information, GPS directions, TV, etc. It's interesting to drive down the road and see the car next to us watching TV from the dash. Kind of scary!

Regarding the social security registration, we should be able to get a refund once we leave here since we don't plan to retire here.

It took about 3 hours to get all the registrations submitted. Mio did a tremendous job in translating and taking charge. She left Japan when she was 21 to go to college in the US, so she's never lived here as an adult and this was all new to her. We'll have to go back in a few weeks to pick up Terry's alien registration card.

All in all, it went fairly smoothly. The Japanese are fluent in bureaucracy, so they know how to get things done.

After we finished the registration marathons, we went to a late lunch at a bakery/restaurant. They had European styled breads that were very tasty. Prices were more than for Japanese food, but the total price was only about $50. Not bad for a nice lunch.

After we returned home I borrowed Mio's father's bicycle and went for a bike ride to explore. Several people have asked me to send pictures of the vending machines here, so I took my camera along. That is why you see some vending machine pictures here.

On my bike ride I got a flat. I stopped at a shop that had bicycles outside. They told me that they don't fix bicycles, they only sell them. They told me there was a bicycle shop about 5 minutes away by bicycle. So, I pushed the bicycle there, sweating in the 85 degrees with 84% humidity.

Once I found the bicycle shop the owner showed me the problem. The bicycle had been running on low tire pressure for some time and the tube was really thin along the sides. He could fix the hole for $17, or he could replace the tube for $32. I chose to replace the tube to keep everyone happy. He fixed it very quickly and I was on my way. It was a good practice of my Japanese. While there I perused the bicycles for Michael and Tommy. A basic kid's bicycle was $178. They went up from there. I'll keep looking around for a better deal!

After returning home I took the boys to the local park (2-3 blocks away) for some afternoon fun. Now it's time for a beer with Mio's father. Tomorrow we're thinking about going to Costco!