phones and banking
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Mari and Ken took off at 09:00 or so to do some banking and to buy some mobile phones. They got home just after five! They needed the bank account for Ken so the remainder of his school payments could come from his own account. It's a weird thing in the Japanese banking system that you wind up with a non-financial outfit (such as the school) can require that their counterparts have an account with the same bank. I put it down to the lack of a history with things like checks. But they have electronic transfers so I really don't understand what the problem is. It drives me nuts.
They also got iPhones; the inexpensive new SE model. Mari's phone, despite being only two years old, had had problems from about five minutes after the warranty expired and is heading for the great rare Earth recycling system in the sky. By both of them having iPhones, they'll be able to track each other's position (a native feature) which will help with The Boy commuting on his own some 15km one way. The delays included the telco's reluctance to provide "foreigners" with phones.
Mari had to demonstrate that she was Japanese. This was in part due to her name but she's finding that people are treating her differently now; I've long held that there's such a thing as "face accent" like there is with voices, and I think that people pick up on her nine years in Canada. She moves differently, smiles differently, and has different way of thinking about situations where the Japanese would respond in certain set ways. Also, she now demonstrates a somewhat relaxed attitude toward Tokyo's rigid fashion dictates.