Hey...

So hello there,
I trust respective weekends were pretty fun around the place. Before I get onto another description of a desperately lazy weekend, some observations...
The Japanese banking system is crazed.

"No surprise there!!" Say those eyeing the Japanese banks and their trillions of yen in bad loans which, despite a good 12 years of looking the other way (and occasionally whistling, checking their watch, tapping their feet etc) by the banking corporations don`t seem to have fixed themselves- disappointing that.
No, but as old Vincent Vega once so memorably put it...its the little things.

I have a bankcard. To get money out of my account. From a machine. Just last week there was an ad on TV from one of the larger banks around (not mine) giving themselves a huge pat on the back for introducing a service whereby their ATM`s are open 24 HOURS A DAY!!!!! WOW!!!! THE FUTURE!!!! HERE!!!TODAY!!!

Thats right. The ATMs over here close. Because even computer systems get crabby when they work overtime. Generally they close at about 9:00 at night and open again at a leisurely 8:00 or so in the morning, all refreshed and ready to face another day....as a computer. Even if you want money out of the machines, when they are open but outside of banking hours, there is an extra charge....nothing like a distinct lack of viable competition to really make these guys try hard...

In our wee village there is a choice of three banks. The largest is the 16 Bank - so called because we live in the 16th prefecture and it is a prefectural bank. The next largest is a bank that operates out of the 2nd biggest town in the prefecture - thats where it gets all its money from. And the third is a cooperative of the Japanese Agricultural sector - the less said about that, the better. There is no available access to a large, nation-wide bank around here. I could certainly have an account at one- but there are no ATMs or branches for larger banks anywhere outside the main centres. It is very odd. We are going to Kyoto next weekend. We will have to guesstimate how much money we will spend on the weekend and get that out before we go. Our (prefectural) bank doesn`t have outlets in Kyoto, which is 2 hours away.

Now I know I`m probably sounding a little disilliusioned, angry perhaps, but this isn`t the case. I simply find it very interesting to daily see examples of the contradiction of Japan being the largest high-tech exporting country in the world while still floundering around in a domestic sense.Having said that, it`s an increasingly exciting time to be in Japan at the moment, people are starting to scratch their heads and ask some questions, I look forward to the results of any reshuffling after the general election on the 9th of November- Koizumi is pretty much a shoe-in, but once he gets in I think he is going to have to come up with some, any, goods pretty quick to keep people happy.

Anyways, enough of that, we managed again to hit the Izakaya on Friday night, followed by a splendid Mexican feast on Saturday night with Kerryn and a bunch of folk in Gifu. Nic was most distraught when they ran out of Pina Colada ingredients, but managed to find comfort in the bounteous Margaritas available. A super night out to be sure. Sunday saw stews being made and frozen, squirrelled away for the winter months.And by a quirk of fate I have a three day week this week before we head to Kyoto for a long weekend.

Trust you are all spiffy,
lots of love,
berin