Civil servants are an exercise in confusion

The gas man came today. Rang the bell and got me out of bed, as is wont to happen when the Japanese world needs me to sign something or recieve something. He was so polite that I couldn't understand that he wanted in the house at first, so I tried to nod my way out of it and see if he would go away and let me go back to sleep. That didn't work. Eventually we figured out what was going on and he came in and tested all the gas appliances. After he ensured that they all worked he handed me a sheet with pictures of the types of apliances that might be powered by gas with the ones present checked off. "You have a stove, a heater and a water heater." I indicated that I was happy to be informed of this and he asked for my number because they didn't have one recorded on the form. I mentioned that I had a cell phone and he lept at the opportunity to record a number, I was a little hesitant because I dont know how long I'm going to be in Ube and I don't want Yamaguci gas calling me for the next several years. But, I couldn't really talk my way out of it, so perhaps I'm due to become the next Sam Bawden. Hoping (against hope I might add) that maybe additional information could get him to change the form, I offered him the number of the Osaka Nova head office. Showing him a sheet of paper with the information on it, he surprised me by taking out the company camera and asking if he could take a picture of it. After snapping that picture, he asked what time I started work at Nova, I directed him to my schedule which I keep on the wall (gotta have the memory failsafe device), and he again asked to take a picture. Having completed his bureaucratic tourism, he thanked me and left.