Today’s deck is The Infinite Door.
Like the one from yesterday, there’s an undercurrent of “real cool but the cards are too big”.
Today’s reading is basically egging me on to get going with creative work.
The Paypay card arrived so I was able to do the whole process to finish opening the account and I have a few issues already.
So first: Turns out Paypay the app where you can put in digital money and get a credit card from is actually so separate from Paypay the bank that if you send money to the bank it’s not in the digital balance part of it. It’s not a card to use the digital balance, basically.
The bigger one, which is admittedly self-inflicted was that Paypay itself doesn’t have a Forex trading option. Rather, they’re like “we at paypay recommend this other app” which means I could’ve started the process on the forex bit… but the app seems to be just for the trading part of it rather than to just receive money. You can put your money in “foreign currency deposits” back in Paypay bank but it’s treated more like an investment plan than conversion.
No harm no foul, as I’ve mentioned I SHOULD be diversifying the banks I do things in anyways.
Out of all the applications I put there’s three left.
Rakuten I’ll probably let lapse since they were like “login and request an envelope”. The main thing though is that it was to confirm my place of employment. Which isn’t an unreasonable thing to check on, but notably it’s the only bank that has done that. None of the others have requested that or be like “hey we’re gonna call your workplace” (if you’ll remember I’ve been moving offices also).
Sony Bank I’m still waiting.
Shinsei Bank I’m also still waiting. Both of those sent me “please send us this other document” envelopes (instead of telling me to login and request it manually, may I add). And the Shinsei one seemed more like it was for the Forex trading part of it. So they might be on the way.
Speaking of banks, I tried to make an international transfer from Yuucho (one that converts yen that come in but allows you to make transfers in foreign currencies), and it struck me how little transfer info it has. No field for intermediary banks or transfer instructions.
I get that Yuucho is the everyman “even a kid can have an account there” bank, but sheesh. The funniest part is that if you want to make transfers from overseas to Yuucho you do need to input an intermediary bank.
I spent most of the day cleaning things here, shuffling things around there, prepping some of the girls to take photos another day and such.
I go to check my mailbox and there was a notice from the pension office that was like YOU HAVEN’T PAID AND IF YOU DON’T PAY YOUR RESIDENCE MIGHT BE REVOKED COME TO THIS OFFICE BEFORE THE 12TH.
Now, I already have beef with the pension service because they’re some of the most annoying bitches in this government. When your population starts skewing older that means there’s less people paying for the pension fund and more people taking from it so they’ve gotten really annoying about enforcing all that.
Problem is that… I only get one year visas and they still go around threatening that if I don’t pay pension even that might be taken and well… you tell me how it looks when the pension is something to threaten you instead of giving you reasons to pay it since hey you might actually get to grow old here.
Yes, I still like this country, not because it’s perfect but because even through this bullshit I feel like it’s worth gritting your teeth through it for the good it has done to me.
So I go to the office and I’m blasting Animal I Have Become because, like I say, I don’t take kindly to someone holding my residence here as a threat… doesn’t help that the reason shit hasn’t been paid was because of all the other bank nonsense and me making do with what funds were left. And you know what transpired?
“Hello, we’re still missing these payments. Do you want to get new copies of the bills? You do? Here you go. Have a nice day.”
I hate how dramatic the notice is, both for the severity (or lack thereof) of the whole thing and how the staff reacted and treated me.
To be fair the most infuriating thing about paperwork in Japan is that the staff is so NICE and HELPFUL that it’s hard to remain mad which is maddening.
The system might be a mess of contradictions but damn if the staff doesn’t try to make things flow as best they can.