March 28th So Many Umbrellas!

Good Morning world! Just so you know, I am generally not a morning person so a cheery greeting like that isn't something you'll see often!  I'm more like this guy:

 Today, however, the SUN is shining and I gotta be happy about that because I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Tokyo is a cold cloudy place! It could be because I've only visited here since October but so far I haven't seen many sunny days, so today is a happy day with sun! Speaking of cold and cloudy, yesterday threw rain in there as well! It was very cold as we made our way around town. First we went to Fuchu City Hall to have our residency cards stamped with our address. The streets were full of people with umbrellas:
                                                     

Like bicycle riders though, everyone seems to navigate the sidewalks without crashing together their umbrellas. I'm taller than many here so I would just lift my umbrella and stay out of the lower bobbing umbrellas.

When we arrived at Fuchu City Hall there was an umbrella holder for people to leave their wet umbrellas outside of the office. Apparently it is safe to do this as umbrella theft is virtually unheard of!

 

The first lady we wrangled with at City Hall didn't speak any English and while we were able to pick out a few words in Japanese we really weren't getting anything accomplished. Finally (after about 30 minutes with the first lady),another lady with some English skills took over and we were able to finish our business there in under 15 minutes. Stamped residency cards in hand we headed to the bank! We were able to work with the same nice lady at the bank as we had the day before so were able to pick up where we had left off. She inputted Gary's information into the computer because as I mentioned before they don't do joint married accounts here and we really don't have enough money to split into two accounts anyway! When she asked his occupation he told her he was a Pastor. Turns out that in this country of less than 1% Christian ,this lady is a Christian! We had a very nice conversation with her and exchanged emails and hope to stay in contact. She was very excited when we left and I said, "God Bless You" and she said it back and said, " I can't believe I got to say, God Bless You, in the bank!" A simple phrase that we say so lightly after a person sneezes means much more in a country where there are so few brothers and sisters in Christ!

When we finished our business for the day, we headed back home, anxious to get out of the wet and cold weather! We stopped at a grocery store on the way and picked up some prepared food to go for dinner. So many people work long hours here and the grocery stores have extensive prepared foods ready to go. I got some delicious fried rice and yakitori. Gary was feeling more like fish and fried octopus. We also shared some fried potato ball things and thinly sliced roast beef with a dipping sauce.  I made Gary a nice bowl of Oden soup, it's comes pre-packaged with the broth and all the goodies (including a boiled egg) ! All I did was throw it in a pan and heat it up!

 

Now that we have our Residency cards stamped and our bank account I believe we can start the search for our apartment! Yay!