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2003-09-25 - 7:25 p.m. I Want My Phone So, I was this close to getting the cell phone of my capitalistic, greedy American swine dreams, the AU A1304T, no more, no less. Sleek and utterly girly in a way, especially that 'fluffy white' version, it has movie-making capabilities (a few seconds, most likely) and cool games to doodle time away with, along with the usual stuff that all Japanese cell phones carry: digi-camera, email, downloadable ringtones, and a little place to hang all those straps from. I wanted "fresh blue". I even got an advance on my pay today just to get the adorably damned little thing. But I can't. NTT DoCoMo, the biggest company nationally (I think), lets anyone get a contract. Passport, gaijin card, or certificate saying you're getting a gaijin card: okay. Just sign up, pay them and it's peaches. ===gaijin card: the alien registration card. Any foreigner living in Japan for more than three months is required to register in the nearest government office (ward office, city/town/village hall) and get this card. With this card, the foreigner can do all sorts of things, like open a bank account (and get her very pretty, super cool phone). When registering, the foreigner gets a certificate she gets to carry around, saying she's getting registered, before returning in two weeks for the actual laminated card w/pic. The ceritficate doesn't have the address on it, but for a little bit of money, she can get one with it, just in case... AU, however, which has the best track record when it comes to Not Dropping Calls in the Middle of Nowhere that is Yorii (here), doesn't allow all that jazz. I have to have my gaijin card, with name and address and all that, to get a contract, and thus my phone. Because it is my phone, people. It's My Phone. slightly obsessive, no? So, I have to wait. At least I hope I don't, but I also don't know. I do know that I have to open my postal bank account by the end of the month, and that requires the gaijin card as well. What I'm going to have to do is go back to the town hall two blocks away from work and ask for a new cert. with my address. I can use that to open the account. ===postal savings account: how Ileana's gonna get paid. Her paycheck is to be deposited every month into her postal savings account. There's a reason why, but I've talked too much already (it's free and realitively easy for the company to do it this way). Maybe, with the cert. with my address, I can go get my phone next week, instead of, say, Oct 8th, the earliest time I can get my card, but I'm not sure. My Japanese refuses to become fluent. Maybe I should study more. Wow, a whole chunky entry all about the trouble with Japan. Be proud? The Past - Guestbook - The Future, Too |