My luggage arrived yesterday! Two big boxes full of stuff that I now think I don't need. Well, most of it anyway. I did find my old computer-related stuff though, like my old harddisks. One of them is an external raid-array that I used to mirror all my important data like my photos. Unfortunately the raid case's power adapter only works on 110 volt... My dad managed via a friend to get his hands on a home-made power inverter, but right after connecting it the fuse blew and half the house was without electricity... Today he brought a proper one, and I can finally access all my data again. Well, to make a long story short, I was struggling with building a working PC the whole day. It took me until deep in the night until I finally got everything to work. Thanks to my family's selective cleaning tendencies I was able to find obscure things like old graphics cards and hard disks, but wasn't able to find the things that I really needed, like a keyboard, a VGA-DVI converter and a PCI-express power supply connector for graphics cards. I managed to solve the last issue by home-making a cable myself by the way...
I'm setting up by own place to relax, but it doesn't feel like home (yet?). I just can't get myself to accept the fact that I'll be here for several months. I want to go back to Japan! I'm still adjusting, I guess.
Also, minor update on the tax issue: it seems that most foreigners, when they leave the country, just exit the country right after quitting their job. This means that they never receive the residency tax bill, and never have a chance to pay it. I have not heard of anyone having problems coming back to Japan after not having paid their residency tax. If you are one of these persons, please let me know! I'm still wondering whether I should pay or not. 250.000 yen is a lot of money..
Tomorrow's the Netherlands versus Japan in the world cup football. This'll be interesting :D