ward office

Several weeks ago I went to the Minato Ward Office to renew my resident terrori-, I mean, permanent resident registration card. By law I am required to carried this photo id with me at all times. It used to be worse; when I first came to Japan I was finger-printed and my thumb print was on my card until a few years ago. I thought things were a bit Draconian in Japan, but the USA's recent post-9/11 antics make Japan look like a bastion of free democracy.
Anyway I made photos in the photo booth, filled out some paperwork, showed my passport, etc. I also had to show some supporting documentation for the kanji I use for my name, because my payslips from work get paid to my Japanese name and tax filing gets ugly if the names don't match.
And now three weeks later I come to pick up my card and...the kanji is wrong. It's correct on the form I filled out, and it's correct in my file, it's just wrong on the card. Oops.
So we take photos again, redo the paperwork, and I'll be back in another few weeks.
So much for Japanese perfection.

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