The picture here has nothing at all to do with the Menkyo Center. I don't have any pictures to go with that, but I want to put up some kind of illustration with every post, so here's today's.

If you look at it for a moment, you'll get it. I'll wait...

Yeah, the dog is asking the boy to remember to clean up after him, with attendant vocabulary. In case the written message isn't clear, there's the graphic in the bag. That ain't soft serve...

Everything in Japan seems to be made cute. Both of these characters seem to be very happy with the situation. It's an anime-like tradition, I think. I tried to think of an equivalent in the U.S., but there isn't one, just "Curb Your Pet" signs once in a while.

This sign is at the entrance to a cemetery.

Back to the Menkyo Center...

So there we were. Mitsuru-san was providing translation, but this was, again, fairly straightforward. The only problem I had was that in Japan on a true-false sheet, X means ‘no’ and O means ‘yes’. There were a couple double negative problems. Number 23 - “I have not had any vision problems diagnosed in the last three years.” I marked ‘X’ for “No, I haven’t”. The answer needed here is O for ‘Yes, I haven’t”. You can see the confusion. I hope it’s not just me.

So after a while, the paperwork is taken care of and I’m okayed to take the test. So, I ask, where do I go to take it? The man replies the test starts at 8:30 every day. This, of course, is one hour BEFORE one can start to get the paperwork for the test done, meaning that every single person caught up in the licensing process must make two trips to the Menkyo Center and, it follows, take two days off work. In addition, I’m told that after the test that second trip out, I have to stick around and take a scooter driving lesson in the afternoon of that day, making it a full day’s outing. Whoever Yoh-san had talked to when he called up to get the information for me the week before had not thought it necessary to mention those little points.

Well, I was a bit upset, but tried not to show it. Unfortunately, I’ve come to expect things like this whenever I try to get things done here. I’m sure a lot of it is because I don’t understand the language well enough and miss some of the explanations, but some of it is definitely cultural and that’s just the way it is.

For example, I wanted to get a table for my office for work-related purposes - grading, sorting papers, etc. I went to my department head office and made the request. A 10-minute discussion between staff members ensued, followed by a five-minute phone call, followed by me being told I already had a table in my office. By this, they meant a small coffee table that goes with a sort of lounge suite of chairs that were furnished with the office - not a work table in any way.

I think they were all wondering why I hadn’t noticed I already had a table. When I said that table was too small for what I needed, they told me to use my desk for sorting papers and grading, like I hadn’t thought of that, either. I explained that with a computer and printer on my desk, there was no work space left. Didn’t matter. I already had a table and a desk and I didn’t need another table.

Mitsuru-san finally cut through the red tape and introduced me to someone in charge of tables and we all went down into the basement and chose a nice, functional unit, put it on a cart, and trundled it across campus to my office.

I now have a table, but I was told not to mention it to the other instructors because they’ll all want one, too. True.

So, anyway, the Menkyo Center...

Well, there was nothing that could be done about it, so I just had to make plans to go back there the following Monday. It was a long trip by car, but at least Mitsuru-san knew the way. Now I was going to have to figure out how to get there by train and bus by myself. On the plus side, I had another week to study before taking the test. Stay tuned...