Whoa Hoah, Im an Alien

Im a legal alien im an Australian in Japan.

No shit, on the top of my alien card it actually says:

GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN CERTIFICATE OF ALIEN REGISTRATION

and I thought it was a cute nickname invented by some crazy gaigin.

So now Im entitled to open a bank account, move into a house and stir up trouble. Hee hee. Last weekend I was taken house shopping. Well I was shown two. Its difficult for me to get a house because most real estate agents demand key money. A tidy sum which amounts to about 3 months rent, never to be seen again. All the big schools pay it once and then move teachers in and out and write the cash off on tax. My boss isnt that big though, which meant finding a place that is happy with a security deposit. Now I have to come up with four months rent, but its rent in advance. I get it all back except for maybe a months worth, which I can live without. Finding such a place meant calling in favours from Japanese friends, so I didnt want to be a pain in the arse and too picky.

The place ive got is pretty cool. Its relatively cheap and really large for one person. Affectionately known as a 2DK it has a big kitchen/ dining room and two adjoining tatami rooms of good size. Tatami are the mats that older houses have and are the traditional way of measuring room size. The rooms also have traditional sliding paper screens. Pretty cool.

I have an antique bathroom and a small garden out the back. Its practically a mansion. It doesnt get much light, and is in the industrial part of town, which accounts for the age and ralative cheapness, but Im pretty stoked. The other place I was shown was 1500 yen cheaper and was all windows, light: good, hot in summer, cold in winter: bad. It was one tiny room attached to an equally tiny kitchen and made the grotty communist block apartments in Mongolia feel like the Ghobi.

So the upshot is I get to move in about 2 weeks when all the bureacracy has finished and I can afford a fridge. I have lots of room and expect lots of visitors.

P.S. My other exciting news is I bought a real bike. I had to order it in especially. A red goes faster Specialized mountain bike that all my Japanese friends are amazed by and my gaigin friends jealous of. Except my boss who cant understand why anyone would spend so much money on a bike. I tried to explain it cost much less than half of my bike back home and then she thought I was really crazy. I can only hope all the cyclists will understand.