Internet Drama

Early September 2007

I sent for my Internet the first week I was in Kanoya City, and it was supposed to have arrived around the 15th of August. But the day it was delivered, I was, unfortunately, at work—that is to say, sitting in my desk at the office, inventing new ways of vanquishing the boredom. So, rather than leaving the package there for me, the delivery company took it back and left me a piece of paper in my mailbox. In my second mailbox, the one I didn’t know about. I had found the one outside, where all the ads were left. I vaguely suspected the thing on my door was a mailbox, but I couldn’t get it to open.

Well, I waited until nearly all of August was over, thinking some problem with my paperwork had delayed it. Then I got an email from Yahoo BB, the company I’d ordered from, asking me why I hadn’t been using the Internet. Wherein, I forced open the mailbox in my door and no less than 3 pieces of paper fluttered out, all of them written in Japanese.

I had heard that when you got these pieces of paper, you had to take them to the post office to pick up your package. But when I took these papers to the post office, they said that the parcel had been taken to the company instead. At least, that’s what I think they said; they were speaking Japanese, after all, and I didn’t understand them very well. So, then, I waited a week and showed the paper to my supervisor. He called the company and told me to wait for them to come, from 4:00-6:00. But then he decided to take me to Soft Bank, which was the company affiliated with Yahoo BB. (Are you confused? It gets worse.) But they didn’t have it either.

Well, I finally decided to call the company myself and when I did—trying very hard to communicate with my minimal Japanese—they then told me that they didn’t have the package anymore. I got the impression that I had waited too long and they had just shipped the package back to—wherever it came from.

So… I’m going to have to order the Internet all over again!