7.12.2004

One of Those Days...

Today I decided to take care of a few things that have been on the back burner that I should have done a while ago and never got around to. What was I thinking?

First, I lost my Gaijin Card (Alien Registration Card) a while ago and never got a new one. Not a big deal, if you just say "gomenasai, baka gaijin" (Sorry, I am a stupid foreigner) the person at the city ofice has a good laugh like they did this morning and then they lecture you like I was lectured this morning and then when they feel that they have thoroughly reinforced the idea of you being stupid they move on. much like what happened to me today. I filled out all the forms, showed my passport with my visa, brought passport photos, etc and then "it" happened. They needed my old alien registration number, which there is no chance in hell I could have possibly remembered. What am I, a human palm pilot? So they decide I need to fill out another 6 forms and they then tell me to sit and wait.

After a good half hour they finally acknoledge that I am still there and tell me they have good news; thay they found all my info and I can have a new card in 3 weeks. I asked her what the bad news would have been and she said "YOu would have to wait 3 months for a new card while they use a special investigator to audit me and recover my info." Good thing that didn't happen. The auditor would have unearthed all the skeletons in my closet....right.

I also decided to buy a new cell phone today because the phone I busted a nut over when it first came out a few months ago is on sale this month only for 1 yen...it's normal retail price is 15,000 some odd yen. This phone rocks. I have wanted it since I first laid eyes on it. This phone is more fun to use than sex. So anyway I fill out the form and am told to wait an hour and go back to the store I bought it at "Sakuraya" on Center-gai in Shibuya. So I go to a net cafe and am raped for 500 yen for a half hour of net surfing and then go to Sakuraya and am told to wait another 20 minutes. I go back and am told I cannot have the phone because I owe Vodafone money from my old cell phone. They tell me to go to the Vodafone shop down the street. It is the one next to Shibuya Dubliner's. So I go there and no one speaks english.

I am able to get a translator on the phone who gets my name and birthdate and she says when she has all the related info she will call the store back. 40 minutes later still no call, so I get hungry and go downstairs to MosBurger for some food. I come back and eat and I have now been waiting for an hour. Still no call. Finally at 2pm she calls back, 90 minutes later! She tells me I have two unpaid phone bills in my name, which is impossible cause I only bought one phone since I got to Japan. So I try to see what the deal with that is and I am blown off pretty much. So then we try to figure it out over the phone for the next 20 minutes and I am getting no where with this robot so she tells me to fax my alien registration to her and she will call me back at the store. I ask her to mail me the bills and I will figure out what is going on and take care of it. She says that mailing me the bills is impossible. I ask her how I am suposed to pay and she says to pay at the store...I tell her I want a copy of the bills. She refuses.

I lost it. I told I was not sitting in that store for the entire day waiting for her to call me like I am some girl who just got used on a friday night and is waiting for the pimp that twisted her out to call her back. She took my cell number and agreed to call my cell phone before 330pm, when I have an audition for a Playstation2 commercial...it is now 3:06. I am not going to hold my breath. All I want is to pay an old bill I must have forgotten to pay. It is from around the time Miho was arrested...I must have just forgotten about it dealing with all the other things I had going on at the time. Vodafone will not let me pay my bill. They are holding my credit here in Japan hostage. I have paid every other bill and all of my rent on time except for that one mistake I have goo credit here. I am pissed.


I better get this commercial.

Also, I have been trying to access my Gmail account for the entire day and I cannot for some reason. I keep getting some dopey apology message from google on my screen that says they are working on the problem. Good thing I mailed out my resume to 5 investment banks over the weekend. It looks very good if it takes you a few days to reply when you apply for IT jobs. AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!