Hanko Registration

Unless you know exactly where a place is, never, ever go anywhere without a map, and even then, take one anyway.

I went to collect the Hanko name stamp I bought on Friday this morning. It was just outside the train station, but I still got lost. It took me 15 minutes to find the place, but when I did it was very easy. He remembered me and produced my stamp, showing me the mark it made.

If you need to find out how to write your name in Japanese (it will probably be in katakana) then this site is quite good. Mine is just my surname in katakana, but you could have it in kanji similar to the sounds in your name too, but it's probably best to stick to simple to avoid any possible confusion.

Then I headed to Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Bank to change my official signature from 'sign' to Hanko stamp. It has a different name when you use it for official documents, an inkan. Easier to remember because it has the word 'ink' in it.

I asked one of the employees how to do it and she gave me a couple of forms to fill in my name and address on. Then I took a ticket from the machine and waited for half an hour to be called. It was then that I realised I hadn't brought the proof of Alien Registration with me. I thought I'd have to go back and get it but it turned out it wasn't a problem. I filled in some forms and stamped about a billion things. The whole process took about 45 minutes, but it would have been quicker if I could have understood everything she said to me.

That was done! This wasn't on my initial itinerary but I decided to go to Chuo-ku Ward Office to see if I had to register my inkan as my official signature.

I did have to! I asked one of the men standing near the door and he helped me through the form, then gave me a ticket from the machine and I waited. I was called up to the counter after about 10 minutes and they gave me another form to fill in, and I had to sign and stamp in several boxes. The whole process took about 45 minutes again. At one point, I saw a card with my face on it in a folder they were using and I wondered if it was my Gaikokujin Tourokusho (Alien Registration Card).

It wasn't a problem here either that I didn't have the receipt of my Alien Registration or the certificate. I did have my passport and that seemed to do.

They gave me the certificate that said that I had registered my inkan as my official signature and a card that I could put into any Ward Office in Chuo-ku to obtain a copy of this certificate. I had to choose a 4-digit PIN number for this. It cost me Y350 (£1.75ish).

And then they surprised me by giving me my Alien Registration Card! I was meant to collect it on Valentine's Day but it was ready early! So that was definitely a trip worth making.

Another successful morning! I can now cross a lot of things off my 'To-do List'!

Alien Registration

If you are staying in Japan for more than 90 days, then you need to apply for an Alien Registration card at your current nearest city, town, village, or ward hall. If you change address, visa status or name in the time you have one you must notify your nearest visa office (it doesn't have to be the same one as you originally registered with) and they supply you with a new one. This seems crazy to me, as with the Working Holiday visa, you have to move around a lot and your address might change weekly! But never mind. I applied for mine today.

As I am residing in Chuo-ku, I had to find the Chuo ward office. I went to Tokyo's visa immigration office in Shinagawa last week in an effort to try to find the address, because I couldn't find it anywhere, and afterwards found a website with all of Tokyo's ward offices.

The visa immigration office was a real trial to find, and when I got there it was one Japanese man in an office above a convenience store, who didn't speak any English and I thought - "this doesn't seem as grand as the name suggested, this can't be the place I want" and it wasn't! But, through my garbled Japanese and frantic gesticulating, he printed me a Chuo-ku Living Guide, which not only has the ward office address inside, it has all the information about living there; including disaster procedures, education, health and transport information.

So today I took three metros (even though it's not that far away, there's no direct route) down to Tsukiji (where the famous fish market is), and found the ward office (it's right outside Exit 1). I went inside and started to fill in a yellow form on a table marked 'For foreigners', then realised it was a form for people wanting proof that they were an official alien, which I was not yet! So I sat down and waited until someone was free then went up to ask them where I should go. Turns out I was in the right place. I sat down and she talked me through it (she didn't speak much English so I used Japanese) and gave me an example of what a properly filled out form should look like. The form was quite simple, I made a couple of mistakes though. I said that 'Sakura House' was the head of the household, but it turned out that I was the head of the household. So the other people in my guesthouse need to bow down to me!! (No stereotypical pun intended there.)

She told me I needed to come back in a month to collect my Alien Registration Card, I think I may have just missed a period or something, because she kept saying "nyuu perioddo". So I have to wait a month! I have the number of the card I would be given, so maybe that will be enough for potential employers/ phone distributors but I have to say, I doubt it, as there is no guarantee that I will be granted the Alien Registration Card. Although I can't see why I wouldn't be, it's still not a definite.

So things are getting tough at the moment. I have job interviews, bank accounts and phones to sort out, and the biggest barrier at the moment is my age. No one said anything about problems with being under 20! But we shall see... time will tell. As will some phonecalls tomorrow...