The banking stone age

Today we were taken to open our bank accounts, and for such a technological society, the process was a bit hard to believe.

1. Before we were able to open an account, we needed to get a hanko.  A hanko is a stamp that can be used in place of a signature. Expensive ones can be hand carved and difficult to duplicate; ours are cheap plastic ones with our names in Japanese. The reason that we needed a hanko was so that it is easy for someone else to conduct our banking if we are overseas or otherwise unable to do it! Heritage, drop AML, KYC and basic ID. If someone has the right stamp, let them do whatever they want.
2. We were automatically given a passbook. I never thought I'd open a passbook account, the Dolarmite should have been my last one. Nobody else seemed much phased by the passbooks, but really, even Heritage is starting to phase them out.
3. The ATM at the bank wouldn't accept my Australian card, even though the 7/11 around the corner does.

But on the bright side, we all have accounts now, and it only took about an hour to do, unlike the 3 or so hours predicted.