Small Cultural Misunderstanding
So my 6-month train card ran out last friday.
It ran ’till 20-07-08 and I’d asked for the paper bit to apply for a new one and promptly forgotten about it. So this morning I entered the gates and remembered I really REALLY needed to fill that thing in. But I could pay for the trip this once, no worries.
At the office I made my way through the application slip. YEEH! I got everything except the bit that asked for my age. Excellent. An entire form in Japanese filled out to perfection.
Except that my card didn’t expire last friday.
The more perceptive reader will have noted last firday was 20-06-08 (Yeah, I missed that)
The even more perceptive reader will note that my card runs out in 2 weeks!
You see, I live in Japan. (Yes . . . really)
Japan has its own calendar. They use the gregorian easily enough but . . . .
My card runs out in the year 20 of the current Emperor’s reign on the 7th month and 8th day. In other words: In 2 weeks.
It’s a good thing I wasn’t paying attention and started the apply on this thing. I’d've completely missed that