Original post
I ventured out again today with lack of anything else to do. I found the ward office and applied for my gaijin registration card. Thankfully I knew some Japanese or the application would have taken forever. The clerk was very polite and helpful. The map to find the office was not as I ended up wandering in a circle for half an hour. Would it kill them to name the streets here?
The rest of my day was shopping and killing time. Nothing interesting.
2013 Notes
The ward office in the Noborito area is just north of Mukogaoka-yuen station. The north side of the station is full of very narrow, congested streets with no names. I literally had sensory overload trying to process everything I was seeing – signs, bicycles, people, cars in every direction. When I say I walked in a circle, I mean that I literally walked for 30 minutes and ended up where I started by accident.
The clerk at the ward office spoke almost no English, which is surprising considering that they process gaijin registration cards. Other than the language issue, the service I received was exceptional. Public servants around the world could take lessons from Japanese public servants.
Drinking in Japan 