Forms, forms and more forms!!

So thanks to today being a day off due to the typhoon, I had loads of time to sort out my forms! (As for the typhoon, it was pretty much just normal English picnic weather, so nothing to worry about there!)

I think this post will be less fun and interesting and more like a ‘useful for others going to TUFS or doing a year abroad’ post, sorry family! 😛

Basically I hadn’t yet found any time to go to the bank with my really helpful Japanese buddy person, so I hadn’t been able to do any forms! But today I did 🙂 So firstly, we went to the bank, and after some address and name writing I got a bank book, much like the one I used to have with Nationwide when I was young. In about a week I should get my debit card too 🙂 Here’s a picture!

I love how my name didn’t fit so they just wrote it on the end 😛

The whole process took about 15 minutes and they didn’t need any crazy info except for my medical insurance card (another reason I hadn’t done it until now; it only arrived recently!)

So after this I had to do my dorm fee form, my electricity bill form, and ask about how to pay water and medical insurance fees. There were an awful lot of times per form that I had to write my address! At least I now know my address and telephone number off by heart! So my dorm fees come out quarterly, the first installment being in December for 63000 Yen (about £400) which seems like a pretty good price to me! The price I pay here (probably even with bills on top) is less per month than my last house in London cost per week!! How crazy is that? On top of the £133ish per month I have health insurance at 1000ish Yen (£6.35ish) and water and electricity bills. I think for all of those they send me monthly letters which I then take to the nearest convenience store and pay with my shiny new debit card!

Other than dorm fees and bills, I also did some forms for a fancy part time job! Yay! I’ll be speaking English (so nice and easy) with some Japanese people in the ELC (English Language Centre) in my Uni for 90 minutes per week and I get 2000 Yen for my trouble 🙂 That will about pay for my fun trips into central Tokyo I reckon! Lastly I also did my class registration form and general info form.

On a side note, I had my health check the other day; it was weirdly efficient! You go with your little info form filled out and your pee in a crazy stick/pot contraption and they pass you from one numbered station to the next, checking a different box each time. They did blood and urine tests, height and weight, blood pressure, eyesight, a doctor’s consultation and finally an X-ray. So in about 20 days I’ll get a certificate that (hopefully) declares me fit and well to work! I felt a little forced into an unnecessary health check and did seriously consider not going, but I guess it was free and if I want any other kind of job here then I’ll need that certificate. Plus it only took about half an hour despite them telling me it would take hours of waiting!

So now all that kerfuffle is over with I think I’ll sit back with my Matcha Latte and do some more homework!! I hope this is helpful to someone in the future, or at least that it was interesting on some level!

Maisy