Essential Japanese phrases

Your residence card, issued at the airport for medium and long-term stays. Carry it at all times — it is a legal requirement.

Ward registration, due within fourteen days of moving in. Saitama has ten wards; it must be the one your address falls in, and 'Saitama City' spans three former cities.

Your tax and social-security number, issued after ward registration. The physical card now doubles as your health insurance card.

Residence tax, calculated on last year's income and billed from the following June. Cheap in year one, expensive in year two, and it can follow you out of Japan.

The dry north wind that comes off the mountains all winter. It is why Kantō winters are cold, clear and unpleasant out of the sun despite almost no snow.

A commuter season ticket. Almost universally reimbursed by employers here, and buying the right one for a Tokyo commute is worth more thought than the rent difference between two flats.

'Saitama Tokyoites' — the very large number of residents who sleep here and do everything else in Tokyo. Half-joke, half-statistic, and it explains the direction of the morning trains.

The two halves of the city that merged in 2001 — Ōmiya is the transport and commercial one, Urawa the administrative and school one. Locals still identify with one, not with 'Saitama'.

'Land of colour', the prefecture's official nickname, using a homophone of the sai in Saitama. You will see it on everything from road signs to sports halls.

Not a tourist word here. Ōmiya's Bonsai Village in Kita ward has been the centre of the art in Japan since the 1920s, and has a municipal museum devoted to it.

Grilled eel. Urawa claims it as a local dish from its days as a Nakasendō post town beside marshland, and the old shops around Urawa station still take it seriously.

110 for police, 119 for fire and ambulance. Both free from any phone, including a locked one.