Bikes and banks

The season's starting to change. People say that summer here lasts well into October, and I believe it, but the dog days of it are, I believe, starting to finally fade out. I may be saying this prematurely, but I noticed earlier this week that I haven't heard the cicadas... at all. Finally, quiet. And tonight? I don't have my a/c on. That must be the first time since the beginning of June that I've come home and not had to turn on my a/c right away (I probably will once I go to bed just to clear out the air and put on the dehumidifier, but my point stands).

On Monday, I'm going to go and pay a ridiculous amount of money for a bike, but I'm tired of waiting for a windfall or deal to come along, and I have the money required; I'm just going to go and buy a bike at full price, damn the torpedoes. It's really going to be quite indispensable for getting around my neighbourhood, being able to maximize my time when doing groceries, and also for exploring. I've lived here three months and I'm still not really sure about anything outside of my immediate neighbourhood and walk to the subway station. I will of course need to register it, which will be a process and a half, but I'm confident I can make it through.

Speaking of which, this Thursday I spent a total of two hours at the bank, attempting to make an international transfer. I had anticipated that it would take a while, since I have no useful Japanese for banking situations and one cannot expect employees of a national bank in the busiest (most international) section of one of the biggest cities in the country to speak a singel word of English. I waited for ten minutes until it was my turn to go into the little international transfer booth, then waited another 20 minutes for my turn to come up in the queue: when the computer screen came up with the attendant on it, she made me go through all the procedures before awkwardly telling me that I should have filled out a form with my information on it to scan to her... and that was that. The television screen disappeared, and I was back in the queue: I waited another 50 minutes (filling out the paperwork, which had been on my right and that not a single person I had interacted with had bothered to show me was there or even important), repressing the mad urge to attempt to strangle the cartoony avatar of a nice office lady (asking me to wait in the most extremely polite of manners, of course) on the screen.

The actual transaction took all of ten minutes, after which I rushed to work. However, my slaving was not in vain, because the money I transferred actually did end up in my Canadian bank account. What with the yen being quite strong now, I'm quite happy with the results. I'm a little poorer on this end, but as soon as I figure out how, I'll be a little less in debt on the other. It's taken me the whole summer to get to this point, but I'm quite proud of myself. Here's hoping I can say the same in another three months.