Foiled Again

(foil mustachio) But you MUST pay the rent!

(foil hair bow) But I CAN’T pay the rent!

(foil mustachio) But you MUST pay the rent!

(foil hair bow) But I CAN’T pay the rent!

(foil mustachio) But you MUST pay the rent!
(foil hair bow) But I CAN’T pay the rent!

(foil bow tie) I’LL pay the rent.

(foil hair bow) My hero!

(foil mustachio) Curses! Foiled again!

…right, so I don’t remember where that came from exactly, but that’s how things are here. I called the housing office today to ask them to call my (Japanese-speaking only) housing agency to explain why my rent is 10+ days overdue, and the lady was like, “Why do you need the landlord’s phone number?” as if she was afraid I would try to call some dude I’ve never met who only speaks Japanese. I explained the system wouldn’t let me deposit my rent in his account without his phone number, and told her about all the other ways I’d tried to pay. She interrupts me to say, “You know you can do that at the exchange,” to which I replied, “Right…they’re the ones who need the phone number.” “…oh…well I’ll tell the agency to give that to you…if you need it.” I only need it if you want me to pay!!!!! She calls back five minutes later. “Sure, you can go over there. At 4 p.m.” …and it was only 10 a.m. at the time. Pretty much everything else I HAVE to do today has to be done after that. So…excellent. And yes, that’s 195,000 in yen, also known as the large amount of cash I’ve been packing for more than a week.