In between trips to the furniture store and electronic stores etc, we had to get ourselves properly registered as residents of Osaka, sign up for the national health care system and enroll the children at the local school. We decided to put them in the local public school, because our daughter speaks Japanese fluently and our son is only in first grade and understands more Japanese than he realizes.
To accomplish these three tasks, we have to visit the local ward office. A ward is basically an administrative section of a city and Osaka has 24 of these. Our ward, Hirano, is the largest of all with a population of over 200,000 and they all seemed to visit the ward office on the days we chose to go.
This is how a normal visit to a ward office visit goes. You walk in and take a number, then proceed to the sitting area. After a few minutes, or hours depending on your luck, your number is called and you go to the window and state the nature of your business. The officer gives you another number so you can speak to someone else. On out first visit, we had to register as residents and enroll the kids in school, so my wife was given two numbers for two different windows. Thankfully they are in the same room so we don't run the risk of being skipped. After about four hours of paperwork and talks we were told to come back the next day. Since it was right around noon, we went to lunch and then shopped for furniture.
This process was repeated for three consecutive days with children in tow. Sometimes, things were taken care of in the general area, sometimes we had to go up to the third floor and back down and back up. I lost count of how many people my wife spoke with and how many forms she filled. Every morning at the ward office was followed by shopping for stuff we need to make our lives easy.
Finally, after four days, we received our certificates that show we live in Hirano ward and the kids were enrolled to attend the school located less than 100 meters from our home. The children will finally get a Japanese education! Uniforms were purchased and the following Monday they were up bright and early, all excited to go to school. Especially my daughter.
You will notice on the picture that we still had not received any furniture. Only our appliances had come in and the only place to sit was the little $8 wooden chair.
After sending the kids to school, my wife and I headed back to the ward office for the 5th time in six business days, this time to enroll the family in the national health care system. Based on our previous experience, I was expecting days of the same fun bureaucratic torture. Shockingly, we were finished in 30 minutes and my wife and I found ourselves outside the ward office at 10:00 AM with nothing to do. So, we went back to the store to buy ceiling lights because we've been living in darkness for a week.
I need to add this here. I have to be thankful once more for my wonderful wife. Since I can't read or write Japanese, all these tasks fell upon her and she took them on ferociously. She really causes me to fall in love with her all over again when she does these things. Those of you that know her are well aware this is true.
Next post: Trying out universal health care!
