Beauracracy

I forgot to turn my tests in for the last series of finals in March, so in between classes I've been rummaging through my ill-filed paperwork, desperately looking for the tests. Fujii comes to me in the middle of class, and tells me to give it to Fujita ASAP. I tell him once I'm done teaching, I will. Nothing could entince me to abandon this class with Takeuchi. They are already awful at English, and leaving Takeuchi alone with them, I fear, will exercebate the problem.

I give the test to Fujita during the passing period. He turns around, at that exact moment, and gives it to Takagi. I walk back to my desk, with Takagi following me, and as I sit down I watch him hand it to Takahashi. I laugh a little, and explain to him what I think is so funny. He, too, chuckles a little bit. Then, he sees Yamagami enter the room. "Ah! Yamagami-sensei! Onegaishimasu!" he says, handing my test to Yamagami. Both Takahashi and I are grinning broadly at this point.

"Ok! I'll give it to the vice principal," says Yamagami.

We both burst out laughing.

...

I've only been to work for fifteen mintues, and already I want to go home. Pretending to work is the hardest thing in the world, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm cut out for this job.

Getting a license is "worse than a prostate exam" according to Travis, and although I'll never have to undergo it, I can imagine. You have to make appointments to get paperwork in, and then if you don't have it all, make another appointment (all of these last only five minutes). Then, you must make another appointment to take the written test, and then another appointment after that to take the driving test (which is famous for failing foreigners about four or five times).

I can't even get to the tests. No, I'm having trouble prooving that I drove in the United States for 90 days. There is no document prooving that in the history of the world! My tax returns don't work, nor does my Certificate of Residence becaue the signature on them are copied. Yes, that's right, they want a real signature. The reason is is that the Japanese use hankos (stamps) to sign documents, and they figure the closest equivalent is our signatures. However, stamps are easy to give out to the grunts on the clerical staff for them stamp on documents as the please. When it comes to signatures, there is only one guy who can do the signing, and seeing that he is the head hancho, it's likely he has other things to do.

Irritating? Right? Well, I lose my license in under a month, and I'm starting a new job where I absolutely HAVE to drive, but it seems unlikely I'll be able to drive. I have hour and a half bike rides, and expensive bustrips to look forward to now.

It's enough that I'd like to break my contract. Japan... Japan just sucks too much sometimes.