Getting Married in Japan part 1 - Japanese Bureaucracy

Having become engaged last year, my fiancé and I are wading through the wonderful world of Japanese bureaucracy in getting our marriage registered. Being a foreigner, there are a few extra steps on my end that I have to take before getting married to a Japanese national. So I though I would chronicle my experiences so far. 

The ultimate goal is to go to our local city hall to register our mariage. One of the documents I needed was a Certificate of Non Impediment to marriage (CNI) from my country's embassy. The name of this document will vary from country to country, but basically it is a document that states that there is nothing legally preventing me from getting married (of legal age, not being forced to get married etc.). Filling out the application for the CNI is straight forward enough aside from getting someone to witness my signature and sign the document also to prove they witnessed it. Only certain people can be a witness, and being outside my home country, that significantly reduces the pool of eligible people: Either my embassy can be a witness at no extra charge - but I need to make an appointment on a weekday (and take time off from work) to go to the rich part of Tokyo to submit my application; or if I want to submit it via post, I would need to go to a notary office for a fee (about 11,000 yen) for a witness. 

The thing is, I had planned to submit it via mail, but despite my best efforts explaining to the various notary offices I called, they apparently can't witness and sign my document because it is a government document. At best, they apparently could only produce a certificate to say that my form is a genuine original. I spoke to my embassy who suggested finding another notary office to do it, but the notary office I spoke to in Ikebukuro said that the result would be the same no matter which office I went to. Eventually, I did end up going to the embassy and saved myself the frustration of dealing with the notary office. Somebody is not telling the truth, or something has changed regarding the notary office being a witness. 

The next step is to go to the local city hall to submit our marriage registration form. However, my fiancé and I encountered some issues that required us to speak with someone at city hall on what to do. Since the marriage registration form is all in Japanese, with the assumption that a Japanese couple is to get married, we had to confirm how I would be writing my name in the application (either in English, or in Katakana), along with the format of my name due to me having a middle name - usually one would write their family name, followed by a comma and then first name, but we weren't sure if a comma was needed between my first and middle names to (answer: It isn't). In addition, I needed to confirm what other documents were needed on top of the marriage registration form. Besides my CNI, I also needed to bring my passport, as well as my original birth certificate, along with translations for all three of those documents. We were a little worried if city hall was going to be picky about who could translate my documents, but fortunately, the city hall staff told us that anybody can translate - even myself if I wanted. Also, the requirements seem to vary from city to city, as I have read that not all city offices require birth certificates, and others require certificate of residence (住民票/juminhyou)- which my city does not require luckily.

I know it seems rather pedantic to be confirming about things such as writing format or style, but any foreigner who has had to deal with any kind of Japanese bureaucracy will know that there is no room for mistakes when it comes to these sort of things. If you are missing even just one document, no matter how minor of importance it is, they will not process you and send you away. Better to ask stupid questions now and get it correct the first time, rather than having to find out you got it wrong and have to go through it all again later.

As for my original birth certificate, after reading a while ago about how some cities require it, I asked mum to send my birth certificate to me. Funnily enough, according to her, the post office told her that it is apparently illegal to mail birth certificates, much to the post office staff's surprise too. The staff member was all too happy to bend the rules and classify the contents of the envelope as simply "documents" and sent it to me express. Fortunately, the document arrived safetly. While it is apparently illegal for the commonfolk to send birth certificates, my state government has a service to mail birth certificates overseas - for a significant fee (fuck you Australian Government).

So as of right now, minus the translations, I just about have all my documents ready. Besides getting the translations ready, we also need two witnesses for our marriage registration form. Unlike applying for my CNI, anybody can be a witness, and they don't need to witness the signature itself supposedly. We have asked a friend of ours who I used to work with during my ALT days and still keep in touch with, and my future mother-in-law in Kagawa. My fiance will be mailing the form to her shortly to sign, before we go to city hall to register our marriage.

As for the wedding ceremony itself, we decided on some time later this year, but this is not set in stone yet. But whatever date we set, I do understand that will come with its own share of stress too, especially because some members of my family naturally want to attend the wedding.

２０２４年の反省 - Reflecting on 2024

With 2024 coming to a close in a few hours (at least here in Japan), I thought I would take the time for a bit of 反省 (hansei/self reflection) on this year. Compared to previous years, a lot of big things have happened for me this year - both good and bad. 

So below are my highlights for 2024, with links pointing to the relevant posts.

I was hospitalized for the first time in Japan.

As a result of a bad diet, I was admitted to hospital for a little over a week. Compared to my experiences with ambulance crew when I had the CCP virus, the nurses at the hospital were actually rather friendly and kind. 

This experience was also a wakeup call to make significant changes to my diet. I'm trying to cook more often, and avoiding a lot of oily food, especially deep-fried food. So no more karaage, or curry and rice. Hell, I haven't had McDonald's or even Mos Burger since then.

I got engaged.

Yeah, after 10 years, my girlfriend (now fiancée) and I finally got engaged, and we are going through the process of getting officially married before having the wedding ceremony. Furthermore, we are looking to move to a new apartment so that we can officially live together.

I visited the future mother-in-law.

Earlier this month, I travelled to Kagawa prefecture. While my fiancée had some other business to do here, it was an opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing in a part of Japan that I have never been to before. However, the main purpose was to visit my fiancée's mother for the very first time in all the years that we had been dating. Her mother was happy and approved of me (even though I had proposed before that), and my fiancée gave her approval of my performance when meeting her mother for dinner.

I went overseas this year.

I travelled overseas for the first time in 5 years. While I didn't go back home to Australia, I did go to the Philippines to see mum and the rest of my mum's side of the family. It's been nearly 20 years since I went to the Philippines, and it's also the first time to go to the Philippines without Dad since he passed away. 

So what will 2025 bring? Hopefully more good news than bad. In any case with just under 3 hours left here in Japan as of this post, よいお年を/Have a happy new year!

Random stabbing in Kitakyushu

For the last few days, there has been a major news story been going on in where 2 high school students were randomly stabbed while waiting in line at a McDonald's restaurant in Kitakyushu, with a boy being seriously injured and in hospital, while the girl, Saya Nakashima did not make it. The attack was seemingly random, with the perp entering the McDonald's restaurant, stabbing the 2 students and then leaving all within the span of 30 seconds.

However, news just came in a few minutes ago that they have managed to arrest a suspect who lives nearby. 

While it is a perception that Japan is safe, it doesn't mean that there is no crime. You need to understand that if a news story makes its way to international news outlets, you know it's a big deal. The McDonald's restaurant in question seems to be a high traffic area with lots of people visiting this particular branch, especially students. Since the incident happened, the McDonald's store has only allowed for drive-thru orders, with dining in being closed until further notice. 

A short trip to Udon-land aka Sanuki aka Kagawa prefecture

So I got back from Kagawa prefecture earlier today, and thought I would share my experiences of my short trip there. As mentioned previously, the main purpose was to visit my future mother-in-law(義母). It did not set in until a few hours before when my fiancee started coaching/drilling on what things I should and shouldn't talk about. Fortunately, despite initial nervousness, the dinner/meeting went well. I can confirm with certainty as my fiancee gave her official seal of approval on my performance for the evening. We also gave her some おみやげ that we purchased in Ikebukuro, including cakes and せんべい (crackers). She in turn gave us an engagement gift of a rather generous amount of money that we (reluctantly) accepted, though we reached a compromise in that we would set the money aside the next time she will visit us in Tokyo, or for emergencies.

Aside from meeting 未来の義母, I also did some sightseeing, though time only permitted for two places to visit.
The first place I went to was Ogijima (男木島). As the name suggests, it is an island that requires taking a ferry from Takamatsu. Fortunately the ferry trip only takes about 40 minutes one way. The first thing I noticed upon arriving was how quiet it was. Ogijima is a very very small island, with less than 200 residents, though there is apparently a school here. All the houses are located close to the ferry port. I spent some time taking in the views, and stopped at a small bakery for a muffin and coffee. After, I followed the trail and headed to the island's main attraction, the lighthouse. Aside from 2 or 3 other tourists, I did not encounter anybody else along the trail. As I got closer to the lighthouse, the wind got stronger, and there weren't any trees to protect from the wind. I spent a bit of time admiring the view, and the made my way back, but not before stopping at another cafe for some tea and pumpkin icecream... served inside an actual pumpkin, though you are told to not eat the actual pumpkin. Aside from myself, there was a group of 3 elderly people that were seemingly residents, based on where they were going afterwards (I left shortly after they did, on my way to the ferry).

Ogijima has very narrow roads, not even big enough for cars

You can get some really nice views overlooking nearby islands

Ogijima's lighthouse, but there's not much here to protect from the strong winds

The other place I went to was Ritsurin Koen (栗林公園). It is a big park, and we didn't get the chance to explore it all. It kind of reminded me of the park in Okayama I visited last year, though you also have a nice close up view of Mt. Shiun (紫雲山) to go with the nice scenic photos you can take. Fortunately, there weren't many people at the time, but there was also a light up event happening later in the evening, and my fiancee and I suspected this was the reason for fewer visitors. Even so, it certainly is quite a sight to see, even during the day. It's location is also rather convenient in that there are bus stops surrounding the park, and the train station is nearby too.

Lots of bonsai trees in to see

Mt. Shiun is smack bang in front of Ritsurin Koen

Interestingly, Kagawa is the smallest prefecture in all of Japan. It is also one of the more quiet places in the country, but certainly not as quiet as some places I have travelled to. There definitely is not much to do around here, but if you are looking for a change of pace away from your Tokyos, Osakas and Kyotos, Kagawa prefecture is certainly a place to check out. Though if you do like your udon, then it would be a good opportunity to check out what is described as being the origin of Sanuki udon. Funnily enough, Kagawa used to be called Sanuki before its name change. 

義母会いに行く

Soon we will be visiting my future mother-in-law. This will actually be the very first time that I have ever met my fiance's mother in all the years that we have been together. This is despite her having met my mother a few times already, and she was able to meet my father when she visited me in Australia shortly before moved to Japan to work.

I won't go into the details, but distance and schedule were two of the reasons that I have not met her until now. She seemed shy about the idea of video calling in the past, so I have never had a video call with her either. However, I did have the chance to speak with her briefly on the phone, and she gave off a good first impression. Also due to her background, she has given advice for medical related matters, especially with my brief period in the hospital earlier this year.

Furthermore, while my work has taken me across many parts of Japan, this will be the first time to travel to Kagawa. From what my fiance has told me, her hometown is pretty rural, and while there are buses and trains, a car is recommended to get around quickly. I have also been told that udon is a local specialty, and compared to other areas in the Japan, udon in Kagawa is pretty damn cheap. I am still having a look in to Kagawa prefecture and what there is to do there, so I would like to a do little bit of sightseeing as well if there is time for it.

Business tripping in Osaka (さらに少し遊び時間）

For the last 3 weeks, I have been called to work out in Osaka. I have been to Osaka a few times recently for work, but this is the first time in a while that I have come to Osaka and stay for a period of time, and actually have some free time here.

I'm still not used to the Kansai-dialect, but fortunately my Kanto dialect is enough to get me by, and most shops use the official "Tokyo-dialect". I know people say Kansai-folk are generally more friendly, but I don't know if it's a case of being friendly, or just simply more expressive (for better or worse). 

I had a long overdue catchup with some friends in Osaka, where we hanged out for lunch. As they knew of my current condition, they picked out a nice restaurant that served a lot of vegetables. I ordered a ginger pork dish that came with a nice serving of steamed veggies among other sides.

I also took the opportunity to take a look around Nanba and DenDenTown. I wasn't after anything in particular there, as I was just curious what has changed since I last went there about 6 or so years back. I don't know if it's because I recently decided to stop purchasing gunpla/toys or because I have already lived in Japan for more than 8 years now, but I just didn't care for it at all this time. I suspect it's a combination of both - though maybe more of the latter in that it's very easy for me to buy what I want in Japan online or physical stores, regardless of where I am in the country these days. The previous times I went to DenDen Town, it felt more like it was one of the very few chances I could shop and get many of the things I really want. When I went there with a friend on holiday back in 2013 and visited there in 2014 during my year of study in Japan, it was like a dream, and I could buy what I wanted because I knew that upon returning to Australia, those things I wanted would be very difficult to find or expensive to purchase.

Another thing that I noticed in Osaka is that there is Cinnabon cafe here. This is the first time I have seen a Cinnabon in Japan at all, as I have never seen any in Kanto - or at least Tokyo and Saitama areas. I did go to Cinnabon in the Philippines, and it was way too sweet for me (which says a lot as I like sweet things). Not sure if it's just an American thing, but it was way too rich for me to completely finish, and I know that the minibon I had at the time is the smallest cinnamon bun one can purchase. I'm not sure if the sweetness has been dialled back for Cinnabon in Japan, but I am in no rush to find out. 

Also, last week Konami released IIDX 32 Pinky Crush. Not a fan of the overly Pink colour theme (I personally like Epolis' theme better to be honest), and I tried some of the new songs, including Bling Bang Bang Born, which was a surprisingly popular song a few months ago, and I wasn't expect this song (or at least, a cover of this song to show up in a Bemani game. Though I only played on Hyper, it had few patterns that I am not quite used to yet, but was able to pass on my first try with not too much trouble.

In the meantime, my regular gym has many branches in the area, with one that I went to yesterday a few stops away from the hotel I am staying. There are several more along the way to central Osaka, but chances are that depending on the time of day I go, it can get very busy. It is a refreshing change to have easy access to my regular gym when I am on my business trips compared to my time in rural Hyogo earlier this year.

Not sure how long I will be working out here, though my employer is hoping to have me back in the office soon. In the meantime, I will just take some time to explore more of Osaka on my own on the weekend.

自分の好きなネットショップ (My favourite online stores)

私はガンプラなど買うとき、ネットショップはめっちゃ便利だ。

Recently, I have decided to put a stop to buying new kits, having recently gotten engaged. I have been meaning to put this together for quite some time now, but for one reason or another, I never got around to doing it.

But I figured I would write about where I have been buying my kits since I started living in Japan. While there is always the option of going to a physical store to buy kits, unless you happen to live somewhere with easy access to major geek hubs like Akihabara, or Osaka's DenDen Town, usually stores are limited to the most recent series, or what has been reissued recently. If you looking for an older kit that hasn't been reissued, you might have some difficulties here. Enter the online stores.

While there are other online stores out there, below are the five that I have used when it comes to shopping for model kits online.

Amazon

Amazon is usually my first choice when it comes to buying regular release Gunpla kits, because most of the time you can get current or recently reissued model kits at a good price (if not cheaper). Whenever something has been sold out at my local store, I take a look at Amazon shortly after to see if it's available there.

However, I must warn you that for very popular or highly anticipated kits, you may find yourself looking at inflated prices, especially if you are looking for a kit on the day of its release. In those cases, I would suggest you keep refreshing for the page and hope someone is selling the kit at retail price, and that you are quick enough to add it to your cart to purchase. Be aware of those scalping model kits (those that sell model kits at significantly higher prices), as nothing seems to be done about it - at least on Amazon Japan anyway.

Amazon also does sell P-bandai kits, but from my experience they are way overpriced - sometimes selling at 3-4 times more than the P-bandai prices. I understand that P-bandai kits have limited runs, and that demand is much bigger than supply, but that reasoning can only go so far in justifying the high prices. Fortunately, there is another site that I will talk about shortly that addresses this problem.

Rakuten

Rakuten is a bit of a weird one. It's basically like Amazon, but operates purely for the Japanese market. Though if I were to sum Rakuten up, it would be... overpriced. 

While it is generally more expensive compared to Amazon, the keyword is generally. I have managed to purchase kits and games at prices that have been cheaper than what Amazon offers. Hell, a while ago, I managed to get my hands on an Ichiban Kuji campaign version of the Master Grade RX-78-2 version 3.0 (unopened) at a surprisingly good price, and that campaign was from a few years ago, meaning it's not something one comes by easily. In addition, I was able to purchase the HG Gundam Livelance Heaven at a very reasonable price, cheaper than what Amazon was offering at the time. 

Despite my thoughts on Rakuten being overpriced, I would not be so quick to dismiss it either. You can find some things through this service at some competitive prices, and not just Gunpla. As a result, whenever I'm looking for things to purchase at Amazon Japan, I always have a tab open for Rakuten also. 

Hobby Search

This is something that I check frequently, but I do not purchase from often. I think the last time I purchased from this store was 2 years ago.

They frequently sell reissues of Gunpla, but I find they sell out again rather quickly, so it's clear that this is also a popular online store. For some of the very popular kits, they do a lottery where you register, and have the chance to win the right to purchase the kit. If you've lived in Japan, this kind of lottery system is pretty common where you win the chance to purchase something, rather than winning the product itself outright.

I have bought a few kits from here in the few instances where I could not find a particular kit at a good price at any of the other online shops I use. This is also the store I used to purchase the Real Grade Hi V Gundam, on release day and happened to completely sell out across the country

Premium Bandai (P-Bandai)

Any Gunpla fan not living in Japan (and even those living in Japan) will most certainly groan in frustration at the mere mention of Premium Bandai (or P-Bandai).

For those that do not know, Premium Bandai is an online store that sells products exclusive to its site. In the case of Gunpla, they sell colour or re-tooled variations of regular released Gunpla kits, or release kits of certain obscure mobile suits that may not have that much demand, or showed up very briefly in their respective anime/OVA/film. Examples including the HG Conroy Haagensen's ECOAS Jegan, a very slight retool of the regular release HG Jegan D-Type ECOAS version. These days however, P-bandai also release kits that many would argue should have been a regular release - examples including the HG Gundam Rose or Gundam Maxter from Mobile Fighter G Gundam, or even the HG Gundnode and HG Demi Garrison from the Witch from Mercury line. Even Cucuruz Doan's Zaku was strangely a P-bandai release, despite the mobile suit being one of the main features of the Cucuruz Doan's Island film - and it keeps getting many reissues long after the film was released. Hell, they released the Mercuius and Vayeate from Gundam Wing, with many asking "Why?"

Aside from the odd choices of what is considered a P-bandai release these days, another issue is the timeframe of when you can preorder the kit, which is 12:00 PM JST. For many highly anticipated P-bandai kits, you may have just a few minutes to put your order in before it is all sold out. To make matters worse, even if you are on the P-bandai website in preparation to put your order in, the high volume of visitor traffic may sometimes lead you to missing out. In those cases, your only hope is that P-Bandai will do another run very soon, which is sometimes the case.Even if you are unfortunate and miss out, there are still other options, with many physical stores and online stores selling P-bandai kits after market, though expect to pay a little more.

Kind of related, but I find it funny that I had an easier time purchasing the HG Gelgoog Menace (standard colors) from P-bandai than purchasing the regular release Gelgoog Menace (Lunamaria's custom), despite the numerous reissues since it was first released in March this year. I have searched both online and in physical stores, and have had no luck finding the kit at a reasonable price.

Surugaya

This is something that I have only just started using this year. I am kind of cheating adding this to the list, as Surugaya is also a chain of physical stores where you can buy and sell games, DVDs, figures and even model kits. As each store in Japan is going to have different stock, their website lists every store in the country that stocks a particular product. In addition, for many of their products, you have the option of either buying it second hand (中古) or, if applicable, you can checkout their market place where you can sometimes get products either close to - or even cheaper than - retail price. 

I have managed to even get my hands on the P-Bandai HG Gundnode for almost the same price than if I purchased through P-bandai directly (which I missed out on preorder for), including delivery fees. The P-Bandai HG Demi Garrison (at the time of writing this) is also at a very good price. If you are after P-bandai kits that are either not being reissued, or if you just missed out on the pre-order and prepared to wait a little longer for it to show up on Surugaya, I strongly recommend checking it out over the other online stores that I have listed. There's a pretty good chance that you can get what you are after at a reasonable price.

However, compared to other online shops I have used, Surugaya is the only one I have noticed that does not allow you to pay at a convenience store.

There you have it, that's the list of online shops I use... or used for purchase Gunpla in Japan. If you are living in Japan and looking to get your Gunpla (or general model kit) fix, I would recommend using multiple online shops to make sure you get the best deal. It can be a bit of a pain having to set up accounts and monitor multiple online stores, but しょうがない, it can't be helped. Of course depending on where you live, physical stores may be an option, but stock may vary depending on place to place, with smaller, rural towns generally having less stock compared to major cities.