Your Japanese word of the week is...

"yuubinkyoku". It means post office. Really that's it. No fancy double meanings or jokes with this one. Although, interestingly, the post office also acts as a bank, so you can set up a "yuubinkyo koza" (post office account) to store all your money. There are private banks as well, but the post office banks are what most people use and they're standardized across Japan, which is helpful if you're travelling and need to get some money. I had to go twice with Arakawa sensei because, as expected, it's all set up in Japanese and I don't speak any of that.

So today, when I went back by myself, I managed to nearly grind all the yuubinkyoku work to a halt.

See, Paul, who was in my position before me, needs to wire me some money because I paid a cell phone bill for a time period when only he used it. Sounds easy enough, right?? I was kindly sent a email (to my phone) by Richard's wife stating, in Japanese, that I need the bank info so Paul can thus wire the money to me and not some offshore mafia drug laundering account.

As if not showing up at the counter holding my cell phone out at arms length was enough, the lady (who, despite having helped this foreigner nearly everytime I went to the post office, was very nice) needed to speak to the manager about how best to do what I needed. Then another worker joined in the discussion. I lured 3 of 4 bank workers into my cause and that didn't bode well for the people who needed to pay bills and the like.

Regardless, after about 5 minutes she came back and said some stuff that ended in "dekinai"- otherwise known as "cannot". So, it turns out I can't receive money from Canada through wire transfers. Sweet................

Anyway, long story short, I went to a post office whereby most people do send things internationally only to be told I can receive anything internationally. But I'm sure there are ways around it so........ who knows =).

Oh, and I attended the Wado-Kai East Japan Regional camp this past Sunday and Monday. It was a great chance to train with some very high level instructors (some of which are on the National team) in preparation for my first tournament this weekend. Fun but unbelievably tiring as the training lasts for about 2 hours each morning and then about an average of 3 hours in the afternoon.