Went with mama to Minato City Hall (Ward Office sounds lame) to register Tonchan's birth and start some paperwork. The federal gov't gives us a fair amount of money for a child's birth, plus Minato will kick in some more, for both the birth and for the mom's medical expenses.
The interesting bit, as always, was how they deal with a foreigner dad. Technically, when we got married P came off of her father's family registery, had her own created, and I am on hers (in the section on the bottom where it says "Pets and other notes" there is the comment "married to a foreigner.")
So to register Tonchan's birth my name as father has to be just like it is on P's family registery, which is basically my maiden name. I am curious as to how the US Embassy will react to that, because I don't actually have anything that shows I am me, with my current name and my maiden name. When I got married and changed my name, I simply went to the US Embassy and said "Got married, took my wife's name" and they updated my passport. When I went back to city hall to renew my registration as a resident alien, they used the name in my passport, no longer my maiden name.
So when I go to the US Embassy with a copy of Tonchan's Japanese birth certificate, it will have dad's name as my maiden name...not quite sure I will use that to prove she's mine! This should be interesting...
After that little adventure in Japanese bureaucracy we had a quick/cheap/easy/filling pork bowl at Yoshinoya and took the train to Shibuya. First showed mama the 5-story fabric store across from 109, and then reminded her how to get to Tokyu Hands, so now she's set for shopping. Finally had a warm and refreshing bevvie at the QFront Starbucks before taking the bus home.
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