City Hall Adventure

There's no sign that says it's the City Hall...so weird....

For some strange reason I was terrified of going to the Hikone City hall, and I'm not entirely for sure why I was. Either way I still had to go, being a international student has it's perks! I have national Japanese health insurance! Along with many other insurances. (Right now this is the most health insurance I've had for several years...it's like what do I do with it?)



Anyways I went to the city hall with backup times three! There were three other students that also needed to get insurance so we all went! Instead of taking our bikes we rode the free bus to the station and walked two blocks to get to there.

Here is a picture of the city hall, depending on which way you come in. Anyways we walked in and over to the station where we were told to go when we filled out the forms for the insurance. How I was feeling at the moment was the complete opposite of how I felt before actually going there, I was calm and leading the group of students. Anyways we turned our forms in and was given a number ( pretty much waiting...maybe 30 mins?) Everything was going smooth until there were some issues with the dates on one of the students, normally in the United States they would say "This is the wrong date I'll fix it for you" or "The date is wrong change it". I also we were told that there is someone who speaks English there on certain days of the week and if there are any issues you would be able to speak to them.

Haha!! There was no one there that spoke English and we had to rely on the Japanese that we did know to get through everything.

So after fixing the date, and waiting we got our insurance card! It didn't seem that hard...so I'm not for sure of why I was so nervous.

Was I going to get lost?
Would I be able to answer them in Japanese?
Did I do this right?
Can I really do this?

I think these were some of the thoughts that were floating around in my head, it made me think about my confidence in myself and in my Japanese. I have the mindset to do what I need to do and there's no doubt about it, but when it comes to my Japanese I feel like I hesitate. I feel like I especially hesitate when I speak to my Japanese sensei (teacher) I'm not for sure why I feel like that or how it came to be.

In America I was perfectly fine speaking to people, especially the senseis, well except for one sensei, but here I feel that I've become timid, and soft spoken when it comes to speaking to them. Is that something that normally happens when you're studying abroad?

 Is there a quick way to get over it?

Hm...I'm not for sure but I have three months to figure it out, just have to put my mind to it!

-A