Alienation

I am officially a registered alien now. Not kidding. I now have my "certificate of alien registration". Alien is the name given to non-Japanese residents. I'm glad it's finally over with. There are so many papers and documents needed in order to live here. Visa, foreign registration, health insurance, bank account, etc.... And the international office here isn't very international. Nobody there really speaks English. If you can't understand Japanese well enough, it's very hard to understand the important information they're giving you. Luckily, thanks to my host mother and a couple of friends here, I've managed to get all the necessary documents. One less thing to stress about : p