Drama

Ugh! Today was full of drama and hassles. I sure hope that you didn't think our time here would be nothing but rainbows and butterflies.

We've been working on getting our condo sold since the beginning of May. We're down to the final documents and closing is scheduled for this Friday. The title company sent us some documentation that needed notarized. In the states this is not a problem at all. Here we had to travel to the U.S. Embassy.

Ian took several hours off work this morning so we could go. We got on a very packed train at 8 a.m. hoping to be the first people to the office when it opened at 8:30. HA! There was much waiting, much creative entertainment for Addison, and takusan yen (much money) given over. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. We had to go through security and let me tell you, it's comparable to airport security. There was the metal detector, X ray of our bags, Addison's sippy cup and snacks had to be left outside the guard house in a cooler, and all of our electronic devices (cell phones, PDAs, iPods, etc.) had to be left in the guard house.

So after all the waiting we got our documents signed, embossed, and witnessed. We collected all of our multiple belongings and headed for a nearby Mail Boxes Etc. MBE ships UPS, which is how our documents were to head back to the states. The title company was even nice enough to give us an addressed, prepaid UPS envelope. At MBE we began by making copies of the documents that we had signed and noticed that the embassy didn't notarize two of the pages. My thought was that the title company wouldn't send us optional documents and we'd better go back. Blah. We didn't want to, but we did. Back through security and some more waiting. The head notary (for lack of an official title) told us that he couldn't notarize those documents because they are specifically for a Notary Public, which they are not. They provide notary service, but aren't a Notary Public. This makes little sense to us, but we obviously can't force this man to notarize the documents. We leave and I'm left feeling panicky. We're supposed to close on Friday and we aren't returning all the documents that were sent to us. ACK!

It gets better (insert sarcasm). We trudge back to Mail Boxes Etc. so that we can give them our addressed, prepaid UPS envelope. The man at the counter had very little English and we were without our dictionary. He wanted to charge us 4000 yen (about $40) to send the envelope to the states. We kept trying to explain that it was already paid for. After much frustration we walked out still in possession of that stupid envelope.

By this time it was 11 and Ian needed to get to work. We traveled together back to Senkawa where Addy and I got off. It was noon by the time I walked through the door and Pea was hungry. I grabbed my bag to get her sippy cup out and was sickened to find it wasn't there. Remember that whole security check? Food and drink left outside the Embassy. Yup, that's where Addy's sippy cup and snack container were. And of course I had noticed the sign above those coolers that said anything remaining after 7:30 p.m. would be disposed of. Grr!

I did manage to call UPS customer service and arrange for a home pick-up. Hoping that since an official UPS representative would be showing up that our problems would be solved. Of course they could only give me a window of time from noon to six p.m. for pick-up. Worse than waiting for the cable man in the U.S.! Not to mention that if the UPS man didn't come until six that it could be a tight race to save the sippy cup and snack container from the trash heap.

Shoko came for my language lesson at two and I was distracted to say the least. But, thankfully, she was still here when the UPS man arrived at four. While there was still as much confusion about the prepaid envelope, it left with the UPS man without a yen out of our pockets. Now we're praying that it actually arrives in the U.S.!

As soon as the UPS man was gone we gathered up and headed back out to the embassy. I never imagined that I'd be there three times our entire stay let alone three times today! Addison and I arrived at 5:05 and the sippy and snacks were still there. I suppose that some people would just said "Forget it" and not gone back for those two things. But, I don't lose things. Ok, on a rare occasion I do, but then it torments me to pieces. One of my idiosyncrasies I guess.

Boy, that turned into some kind of rant! So I'm resolved about the documents now. They will eventually get to the states. I hope that the closing isn't put off or put off very long. We did what we could. We tried our best. All the rest is out of our hands now.