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a long day

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Kawasaki, 2020.03.09

I woke at three this morning, unable to shake the jetlag. So I had an early breakfast followed by a chat with Mari and the kids. I told Ken that I found his nice note saying that he'd miss me, and he said, "Yeah, I'm over that."

Mari and I worked out some strategies about handling things like the imploding Canadian dollar as well as the crazy demands for thousands in payments to the landlord and real estate agents.

Then I had a chat with the HR people at NN Life about my upcoming start date. I learned that they've split the entire company into two teams: A & B. Teams A & B alternate weeks in the office. I suppose it's to minimize everyone's commute and city-center time, and to lower the population at the office. Anyway, the call went well.

So I had a follow-up chat with Mari.

Then I went to the ward office to get my "My Number" (SIN equivalent), and to get my address registered. I had to tell them that I had a key already, because they wouldn't do it the day before I actually possess the key. I then picked up two signed copies of a document saying that such-and-such is my address. I got a similar document which to be honest I can't make out. All in, it took about 90 minutes.

Then I went to the Yaesu district of the inner-east-side of "downtown Tokyo" to open a bank account. That, too, took quite a good deal of time. Along the way I learned that they offer prepaid credit cards, which seem like a great idea. I told the fellow I wanted my son to have one and he said The Boy would have to wait 'til he's 13.

After that I crossed town to Shinjuku to pick up a "pocket Wifi" device to connect my voice/text-only phone to the Internet. 5GB of data for $35/month.

Then I did a bit of shopping to see if I could replace the Y1500 non-circular polarizer filter that I left at home. Nope, not for that price anyway.

And finally, I popped off the train to go to a sushi boat place that I remembered. I couldn't find it (or the Thai noodle place) but I did find a "sushi shinkansen" place. There's a normal conveyance with plates doing the rounds, but if you order something special a shinkansen flies out on its own track, taking the order to the right customer.

And then home.

rand()m quote

The problem is not people being uneducated. The problem is that people are educated just enough to believe what they have been taught, and not educated enough to question anything from what they have been taught.

—Richard Feynman