I think we are slowly getting things for my sister and her boyfriend organised. The problem is that Japan never makes things easy. There are so many "official" things that need to be organised, but there is a definite order in which they have to be done. First you need to be registered as an "alien" - but to do this you need an address. To get an address you need to have an apartment, but to have an apartment you need to have an "alien registration". To get an apartment you also need to have a bank account, but to get a bank account you need to have an address and an alien registration. And so the circle goes around and around. I think today we managed to solve some of the problems and found a really nice "seaside villa" for them that they can probably move into next week.
One of the other "essentials" of getting anything official in Japan is a "seal" which is essentially your signature. We went and got my sister one the other day and I ended up getting a new one for myself too - my old one has lasted 13 years so I really shouldn't complain! It was interesting watching the machine carving the stamp - basically they just inputted the data that they wanted carved and the machine worked away scraping away at the plastic for about 5 minutes until the final image was completed.
Next step - becoming a full alien......