everything seems so complicated..cell phone, money/banking. I just want to get there and have a great experience. I hope that all this stuff won't be as difficult as it sounds. There's so much stuff to do, im planning on changing my UA award to an earlier date instead of the designated date for arrival by the school.

Is the city hall based upon the prefecture that i live? I'm going to be living near the Machiya station. Or is there one for the entire Tokyo?
could anyone provide me with a link of city hall in and around the Tokyo area?

Thanks for all your help..it's greatly appreciated. So much great insight!

Don't stress out about this stuff!

Yes, getting your alien registration card can be a bit annoying, and the procedures for getting a cell phone and bank account could be easier, but you'll get it done.

Presumably there will be other people arriving with you, and they'll all need to go through the same process. You'll figure it out, and probably get some humorous stories out of it--I certainly did.

I also tried to plan for a lot of these things before I left for Japan, but you really can't. It's still largely a mystery to me but the country as a whole functions extremely well, and stuff like this tends to work out. (As an aside, be grateful you don't have to deal with the phone company).

Just keep in mind that sometimes the rules/procedures may be completely arbitrary and accomplish no discernible purpose, but they're the rules, and you have to do it that way. If you play along, you'll be fine.

Alex

Tokyo is not a city--it's a prefecture, sort of. The city you live in would be the last thing in your address before "Tokyo." I think Machiya is in Arakawa City but I'm not sure... if your address is in Arakawa then your city hall is here:
http://www.city.arakawa.tokyo.jp/for...lish/0004.html

You can get to any Tokyo city government web site by going to www.city.XXX.tokyo.jp where XXX is the name of the city. Or just google the city name...

Thanks!!