…and welcome back to the action. It has been pretty busy here while you’ve been away, so I’ll try to bring you up to date as much as I can. So, get yourself a caffeinated beverage and settle in…

It has been two weeks since I last blogged and we have had quite a few appointments during that time, so have been somewhat busy – so much so that I didn’t even do my nails for two weeks!!! That has now been remedied, because they were looking pretty shabby.

Weather-wise, we have had two quite different weeks; the first being cold and at times wet, the second being like a mini ‘heatwave’. Now, when I say ‘heatwave’ I mean it has been not as cold, with a few days above 10C (!) and the other days being sunny, so felt a bit warmer. This, however, is changing in the coming week, with some snow forecast tomorrow and the forecast maxima of 6C and less. The other night they said that a large very cold air mass was moving towards us and that the temperature in Siberia was -67C at the time as a result of this air mass…

Now to our main activities other than the usual shopping, housework (flatwork??), etc. After the high of collecting our new car it actually sat there for around a week before we got to take it out for a drive. Before that we had an appointment with the real estate agent we have chosen to sell our flat, our accountant and our builder and architect.

As I said a couple of posts previously, the real estate agent is one of the agents we were using to assist us in our search for a building/block of land to buy for our future minshuku. He really is such a nice and helpful person and it is always a pleasure to deal with him. He had contacted us post new year to say he wanted to come around to take a few photos and check a few things, such as measurements. It was funny watching him – he walked around talking to himself as he did what he needed to do.

The next day we went to our accountant to get information about taking on an employee and what we needed to do in terms of bureaucratic processes – we just knew there would have to be something, as there would be in Australia, and we suspected it would involve lots of forms. I had done some electronic oracle searching and had found a couple of employment forms to be completed, but I felt sure there would be more.

As it turned out, the law around employment here is regulated by one legislative Act and there don’t appear to be any awards or other non-government rules governing employment. So, as far as we can work out, there are no minimum hours or rules around other employment issues such as minimum breaks, etc. There is a minimum wage, but that is very low – wages here, overall, are very low and, in fact, the government is pushing employers to actually give the workers a decent pay rise this year, to help the economy overall. Without the significant tourism here, the economy would be continuing down the stagflation/deflation line it has been on for quite some time now and would be contracting.

At the end of the first week, we met our builder and architect at The House to talk about the handover and to make a few decisions in situ. It was a very cold day and our appointment with them was at 10:00, by which time it had jumped marginally above 0C. I was fully puffed up and had some thermal leggings under my pants but after about 10 minutes outside talking to the relevant parties I was really beginning to feel the cold. Still, it was good to see how much progress was being made, although we found out that we are probably not going to be able to move in until 15 Feb.

(l-r: builder, architect, translator, site supervisor, one of the concreters)

We were also told that the approval for the hotel licence is likely to take longer than they originally thought – possibly up to six weeks – because everyone is rushing to get their approvals through before 1 April when new rules come into effect. As a result, we have made the decision to push the opening date back one month to the 1^st of April. Disappointing but luckily the bookings we already had are in April.

Late in that week we also received an email form our real estate agent saying someone wanted to come and look at the flat on the following Monday, which was exciting even though ultimately it turned out that it was a young couple with two small children and this flat was a little small for their needs. What it did mean was that we had to do a full clean and tidy on the Sunday to make it spotless and look somewhat less crowded. We have been collecting boxes to use when we move, so we had to find a way to hide them…

After the inspection, we went up to collect our car to take it out to get petrol and we took the opportunity to go to a home centre and a large supermarket that is well out of walking distance. What we discovered in this process was that, while the GPS in the car had been set to English, not everything was in English and it was quite a complex process to set a destination and make it actually work. Once we got through that (imagine quite a bit of swearing and hair tearing…), it worked pretty well. Similarly, getting petrol was a complicated process (imagine more swearing and hair tearing, but in a more subtle way because it was in public view). After all this, we brought the car back to our flat and parked in the carpark across the road, because the following day we were off to get our licences (finally)!!!!

It took around 45 minutes to get there by car, in part because it was during a peak traffic period and because we avoided the toll road as we don’t yet have the necessary card to use on the tollway. Interestingly, according to the GPS, it would only have saved us around 5 minutes travelling time, so not really worth the cost anyway.

Our appointment was at 10:00, and we arrived around 10 minutes early (as we have a wont to do 😊). We were given some forms to fill out (surprisingly – not) and then we had to give them all the paperwork we had prepared, along with the forms and a photo each. The first surprise was that, despite having to wait one month for our appointment, there was no-one there who could speak any English and the second surprise was that the residence certificate that we each had to get from the local ward office was ok for Craig but not for me because it did not have the official stamp on it. They told us that we would have to go to the nearest ward office to get a replacement one before I could have my application processed – this was despite the fact that I had shown them my residence card (which they took a copy of) that has all my details on it, including a photograph. Thank goodness we had the car because it only took us around 30 minutes to go and get the replacement certificate, otherwise either we would have had to walk or catch a taxi.

Having jumped through the first set of hoops we had to wait for a while (20 minutes?) after which we were called back to the counter and handed another form to complete. We duly filled out this form then had to go to a machine and create a PIN, then go to another counter to pay some money, then have an eye test, then go to another counter and pay some more money, then have a photo taken (even though we had brought our own – one of which was used to attach to the first form we completed) then wait…and wait. 1 hour and 40 minutes later we were called and handed our fully completed licences! We finally left Police HQ (where the licence centre is) at just before 2pm!!! Not surprisingly, I got a bit restive and so took some photos (only a few, we were in Police HQ after all), including a selfie, which is only the second time I can remember having done so. Anyway, we now have official Japanese driver’s licences and thankfully the only test we had to take was an eye test. Also, in total, we paid ¥4,300 each for two years (around $AUD45)!

 (yes, I tried to rush and failed)

On Thursday, we had a meeting with our future employee, Takako, to discuss her employment conditions and to get her to complete a personal details form. On the same day we went to get our licences, she attended the Food Hygiene Manager’s course and successfully completed the test. She was happy with our employment proposal and so she will be working for us in the near future.

On Friday, we had to go to Aeon Mall to get provisions for The Kids, after which we went up to see the latest at The House. The round trip was around 8km, so a good walk and it was a lovely day. At The House, we found a lot has happened, with the front verandah and ramp nearly finished, most of the wallpapering upstairs and down nearly finished, the back and side decks well underway and…our kitchen mostly completed!!!!!!

To Say we were thrilled, is somewhat of an understatement. It also made us wonder why we can’t move in sooner, given there really is not that much more now to do. The commercial kitchen still has to be done, along with the tatami flooring, the light fittings and a few built-ins but otherwise the inside is getting very close now. I know, I’m just very, very keen to move in. Later that day, we had an appointment to organise the insurance for The House, contents and cover for our guests.

On a final note, yesterday we received an unexpected delivery by courier. It was an envelope in which there was ¥10,000 in gift vouchers (just over $AUD100) from Toyota, as a contract completion gift. A very nice surprise 😊.

Cheers for now

PS – the second form we had to complete at the driver’s licence centre had a number of questions about your health, such as do you take medication, have you blacked out in the last two years, etc. My favourite question asked if you had had a period of at least three consecutive days in the last two years where you had alcohol in your system continuously, ie had you been on a bender for at least three days!!!

 bagels as handles…

…because you want to buy antique bread…