Class registration day was last Thursday and the first day of the winter term was on Friday.  Registering for classes reminded me once again how contradictory Japan sometimes is in terms of modern technology.  In a country so efficient and convenient in some areas (transportation, unlimited vending machines and 24 hour convenience stores etc.) it's continually surprising to me when I run into situations like registration day.

Many moons ago when I was an undergraduate at Hope College, we were able to do online class registration.  As students, we received an email informing us of our registration window according to the number of credits that we had accumulated.  When our window arrived, we logged in to the campus server, registered for open classes and that was that.

Registration at ICU is an entirely different beast.  For starters, it has to be done in person and on one single day.  If you can't be there to do it, you have to pay a hefty fine and take part in late registration.  There are many steps to the registration process.  First I headed over to the single computer lab on campus to wait in line for an open computer.  After about fifteen minutes I got a computer and had to log in three different times in three separate ways in order to access the registration screen.  I chose my classes, clicked print, then logged out of everything.

Vending machine for certificate stamps

Next I left my computer station and stood in line at the printer.  After about fifteen minutes I reached the printer console and logged in once again to access my document.  After it was printed, I headed off to another building where my adviser's office is located.  After standing in line for another fifteen minutes, I had a ten minute required mini-conference with my adviser who looked at my grades from last semester, looked over my class selection for the upcoming term and signed the paper.  I signed the paper as well and then left the office, vacating the space for the next student.

With paper and ID in hand, I headed to the second-to-last stop of the day where I waited in another line to turn in the signed paper.  Once I reached the start of the line, I handed in the paper, showed my ID and walked to the bookstore for the final stop of the day.  ICU has a campus bookstore that has school supplies and some course textbooks, but for some reason, a few books are only available for purchase on registration day.  Such was the case for my Japanese textbooks.



At this stop, I walked upstairs in the administration building to wait in line to purchase "certificate stamps" for the price of my books.  Then I took the stickers that the machine spit out back downstairs to the cashiers and attendants to receive a receipt and my Japanese books.

The ridiculousness of this process is heightened by the fact that at ICU, there is no limit on class size.  Thus, students are rushing around and standing in line to sign up for classes that any number of people can sign up for.  Sadly, to drop or add a class or make any changes requires a similar amount of work and we have a one week window to do it.  I already know I'm going to drop a class and just the thought of going through all that again is enough to bring on a mild anxiety attack.  When is the vending machine for the entire registration process going to come out?

Books in hand - success!

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