Just popped home to the apartment to pick up some dictionaries and 
stuff. Checked the mailbox on the way out to find that I received a new 
updated guide to Okazaki's ultra-intrusive & meiwaku recycling "system".

It has my apartment number written on it, and the title is "Mais 
Reciclagem, Menos Lixo no Seculo 21 - Guia Oficial". On the front cover, 
no less a man than Tokugawa Ieyasu himself informs us that "Separar por 
tipos e a melhor maneira de reduzir o lixo". I checked the mailboxes of 
the two other gaigins living in the 8 apartment block and they likewise 
received Portuguese (despite being American and Chinese respectively). 
The other apartments got a Japanese version, so the only way they knew 
that a gaigin lived in B-201 was from the same database that would list 
my nationality etc.

Perhaps the city hall staff and the Family Mart Hijinks Krew could get 
together for a beer or three and a think. I would even be prepared to 
give them a free Guinness each if it would help.

-- 
That's why I live in Japan. It sucks, but the alternatives seem to suck 
with a bit more authority - Ed, my kinda philosopher king.