Thursday, July 03, 2003



Well if I was searching for a good reason to leave Japan permanently I found one - the banking system here SUCKS!!!

How the hell did this country make so much money before with the most unorganized and totally inefficient user UNFRIENDLY system I have ever encountered, I will never know. I definitely know how come they are almost bankrupt now.

The banks in this country consider it a privilege for them to allow you to place your hard earned money in their bank. There is no customer service what so ever. They are open from 10 to 3 Monday to Friday and never consider cracking a blind on a Saturday. The ATMs used to be open at the same hours. It was only about 7 years ago that they decided to open the ATMs until 9 on weeknights but until only 7 on the weekends. Can someone please explain the STUPID logic behind this. OHHHH and you can not deposit money into an ATM after 5. No joke.

You can take money out but ya cant put it in.

Very backward thinking I must say. The term 24 hours only works with Convenience stores and well banking is not convenient is it? Stupid people.
There are tons of people that keep their money all tucked away in their socks for this very purpose.

Hell on major holiday the entire system shuts down, including bank machines. There is actually a huge holiday week here where you can not acquire ANY of your hard earned money for almost an entire week even from ATMs because it is a holiday.
It is sooooo ridiculous that it is almost laughable. It sure the hell isn't when you are cash less in a cash only country. This is not a country that lives off of interact like we do. You pay for everything in cash and you cant get it out of the bank. Again they wonder why people are not spending money and the economy sucks. hmmmmm....

Today was just one of those shitty day.
Morning was ok but at noon I horfed down my lunch so fast my stomach hurt and I raced off on my bike with Li to the bank. Part of the Canada visa paper work required a bank statement to prove we have money and wont be borrowing from the government while we are there. Understandable and I thought simple enough. I knew I was short for time though.
I have already experienced the inefficiency of Japanese banks. It is lunch time and more then half of the stupid tellers are on lunch break and I have number 158. No joke.
After waiting for more than 15 minutes ( I now have only 12 minutes left in my lunch break) our number was called. Li explained it to the guy a dozen times. He explained what we needed and why. He had the kanji and the whole thing. It turned into such a bloody ordeal we had to be moved to another teller section and have this other guy go through his English explanation book to try to figure it out. I found it not him!!!

Well guess what, they dont do bank statements!!! MY bank book is my statement so why print it out on a VERY simple piece of bloody paper for me. God NO!! We finally settled for this other thing that is definitely not a statement but the closest we could get to one.
I had to leave and left Li with the guy. I was already late for work.
Stupid morons.
Li thinks that it will work ok, he knows I am totally stressed about the whole thing. Canadian government people are just as bloody anal.

I shouldn*t worry but of course I do. It is my nature.


I was able to mail off a very bloody long letter to my mother though.
She phoned the other morning crying very hard. She needed to cry. I can understand that. And she needed someone to cry to. Again I can understand that. We had a long talk but the problem was that I was totally useless and could not think of anything good to say. I felt quite shitty after wards actually. So that morning at work I wrote her a long ass letter filled with all the things I wanted to say. I hope it helps. I do sympathize and relate what she is going through.

Sorry mom. I hope it helps.
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Posted by (Top)Andrea::7/03/2003 :: 0 Comments:

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