Questionable Progress

Yesterday (Monday) was the last day of final exams, so I asked to take today off to get some household business taken care of - especially while I have Russell available to help (he's got a business trip coming).

On the "to do" list was:

1. Sign up for a community Japanese tutor (can only be done on the first day of every month)
2. Try to figure out what taxes I need to pay
3. Renew our apartment contract (our two year lease is up in March)
4. Figure out how to dump our old moldy futon.
5. Finish grading writing exams

Russell's superior Japanese was needed for most of these projects, but he needed to put in some solid work time first, so I started with what I could manage.

First up, getting Japanese lessons. I already have an excellent tutor and friend who is helping me once a week, but I am beginning to be really frustrated that my Japanese isn't better than it is and I don't seem to be studying enough on my own. Having a set study time with a tutor really helps. Luckily, the line for tutors today was extremely short - and I was at the head of it. No problem. Task #1 taken care of.

Next, I decided to hang out in a coffee shop and grade writing exams. These take quite a bit of time, and several students haven't turned in the take-home part of their exams yet. I did grade all of the complete exams I have and I will finish what I can of the partial exams tonight. Task #5, mostly done.

At this point Russell was available to help. We went for some (awesome) vegetable curry and then headed to the city ward office to deal with taxes. Last year, I hadn't been in the country for a full year yet, and since Japan assigns taxes based on your prior year's income, I didn't need to pay anything (very nice). This year when I looked into taxes I got mixed messages. For the regular Japanese staff, I was told that taxes are withdrawn automatically every month and you only need to do tax forms if you want to claim a refund. When I looked up tax percents for Japan and compared to what had been withheld from my salary over the year, the numbers seemed way off. I spoke with a co-worker who has been in the country for at least a year more than I have and she told me the school doesn't withhold enough and that she had had to pay significantly more. She tole me to take my contract to the ward office and they would figure out what more I needed to pay. Russell and I set out to do that, but the ward office told us the university was taking care of it and not to worry. Just to be double sure, we went to the international community center to ask their opinion (they help foreigners with things like this) and they confirmed that the school would figure it out. They said if the school has not withheld enough, I will get a bill to pay more in the next month or so. Okay... I guess we'll wait and see...

We also asked about how to get rid of our futon. The community center lady helped us call the garbage center and confirm that we can get a special tag for our futon at a convenience store for $30. We then need to call the garbage center and arrange a pick up time and place so they can come take it away. Stupid moldy futon. Grrr. At least our new futon set up is working much better. The wood slats are working great an we are being extra good to dry the futon every day.

After a side excursion to get guitar strings we headed to the central office for our rental company. We hadn't ever been there before. After learning a great deal about the Japanese address system, we managed to find the building. We went in and asked what we should do to renew our lease. We were told it would be done automatically so long as we kept paying normally. Okay. Next we asked about the insurance renewal letter we had received. They confirmed that we should pay by bank transfer and not to them directly. Check. Finally, we admitted to them that we had managed to punch a hole in one of the closet doors, took full blame and asked how to go about getting it fixed. "Ah, are the doors not working properly?" they asked. No, no, the doors work fine, there's just a very large hole in one of them. (We look down sheepishly) "Oh, well, no problem, then. We'll just replace them when you move out. So long as their functional for you, we aren't worried at all." But... there's a hole - a big hole - in the door... "Not to worry!"

Add to the list: Find camouflage for the hole in the closet door.

I can't help feeling that while we technically covered everything on the list... we really didn't get anything done. I guess being better informed is a start...