Three Year Visa

You see this?

Yes, that's right. Three Year Visa!

That means that I can be here for three more years if I want.

From what I heard it's really up to the whim of whoever is processing the visa, but the usual is two one year visas and THEN a three year one is granted.

Of course I boasted to the other teachers. One who's Australian said, "F*&ckin' B***tard!!"

I had many things on my mind today. Not being least was my debacle with the sunglasses.

I had trouble sleeping last night and being awake at 8am, I decided to just get up and get the Visa unpleasantness (AND the possibility of refund unpleasantness) out of the way.

The Immigration Office was very busy today. Again, if you have to do this as well, arrive early.

While I was waiting I constantly willed the powers-that-be to give me a three year visa and somehow, with this jedi mind trick I managed to score one. I hid my excitement well, but inside I was joyous as you can imagine.

Luckily, after waiting a while I decided to get my ticket for the re-entry visa line slightly earlier. With a multiple entry visa as well, I won't have to visit this place for another three years, which suits me just fine.

All up I was there for a little over an hour. I had an extra queue ticket that I gave to a girl who would've had to wait much longer. If only for a little extra karma, I think it was a nice gesture.

After going back and forth whether to keep the sunglasses or not, I decided to just go back to the shop and try to exchange or refund them.
If I waited for Oakley to check the glasses, it might take longer than the store allowed for that.

I figured if another pair was suitable, I'd be ok.

At first they weren't keen to even exchange them, but after trying on the alternative I still wasn't totally satisfied so I asked for a refund.

It wasn't the most comfortable situation, but I have to say it's not just this place that are reluctant to give refunds. Just be sure that you'll be happy with what you buy, and maybe this won't be a problem. The only exception to this would be your big chains like Yodobashi Camera, where I don't think a refund would be that difficult.

After such a long day I was happy for station beers to come along.

At the combini they had some 8% STRONG lemon drink that I just couldn't resist. I bought two.

I bought what I thought was a nikuman, but it had no pork (vegetarian?) I was still satisfied because I was pretty hungry.

The gf SMS'd with an unusual request for pudding on the way home. I asked "Purin, wa doko des ka?" and a clerk swayed the shelf like a TV game show girl to point out the obvious.

Hey, I was pretty drunk by this stage.

I could have done all this tomorrow on my day off, but like the old man says, "Don't do tomorrow what you can do today". Good advice but me being lazy, maybe I should have done this tomorrow on my day off.

Jerk Off Myself

Unusually for a day off, I was awake at 9am.

Why?

I decided it was time to try once more to go to the Immigration office near Shinagawa, and re-apply for my visa extension.

Only having two pieces of toast and coffee, and struggling to get ready, I was out of the apartment after an hour.

If you ever have to do this, I'd strongly advise doing visa applications in the morning. Unlike last time, the initial line was virtually non-existant and I only waited a little over half an hour to get my application looked at.

I filled out a postcard with my address so hopefully in a week or two I will get it, telling me my visa extension has been approved. I have been having a lot of trouble getting mail recently. For some reason my mail has been returned to sender on more than one occasion. Strangely, my mobile phone bill has come without any problems.

I'm still waiting on my following month's national health insurance bills to come through, and the next one is due the end of this month.
Damn you Japan Post!

From Shinagawa I made my way to Akihabara. The gf asked me to get a USB memory stick for her. It was also a good excuse for me to look for my retro 80's games.

Arriving at the station, "Together In Electric Dreams" played on my iPod. How appropriate.

Even though I've been here many times I still find new things here. I saw some nice watches in a hidden alleyway, where I had to go up stairs. One watch was see-through for 4000 yen, and another had a unique way of telling the time for 1500 yen. I didn't buy either of them. Two watches are plenty for now.

No such luck with finding Nazo No Pyramid. The games they have here are mostly overpriced. I managed to to get a 2GB Silicon Power Flash drive for 980 yen. The cheapest I could find.

For the first time since I've been in Japan, the police questioned me on the street. They asked if I spoke Japanese, checked my gaijin card, then said they wanted to search my bag and jacket.

I'm surprised they never asked before. I've actually been wondering if any police would ever interrogate me. Even though I was expecting it to happen, I felt a little uncomfortable and so did they when they said it was part of their job.

I'm sure I looked really suspicious to them.

On a lighter note, I couldn't help but notice this sign in front of Aso Bit City.

Look closely.

First it says, "Any Plans For The Weekend?"

Under that, it says, "Jerk Off Myself"!!

I keep trying to think how that could've be translated, but from my sources, the japanese translation is pretty much the same. Weird.

Aso Bit City has a lot of anime character goods. Today I found the coffee mug in the store that I lost a lot of money playing for, in Yokohama. I realised how much I did the catchers more for the challenge, than the actual item.Having said that I still bought the mug. If you hover the mouse over the picture you can see both sides of it. 

It features Miku Hatsune.

She is part of the Vocaloid singing PC software that allows you to create songs without singing any words yourself! Too easy huh?

Apparently she has quite a big following in Japan.

Can't get enough of cute Miku? Maybe you will after watching this video.

It's hard to believe that it's not a real person singing the melody. The simulation is really convincing.

Akiba is just one big toy shop to me. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Great lightsabers for 12,800 yen. An Alien figure for about 1100 yen.

What's not to like?

To finish off the night the gf wanted to eat out, so we had some nice okonomiyaki and ankomaki near her apartment in Yotsuya.

Yummo.

Re-Entry Visa

This is my first full day off in Tokyo now that I am finally living here. 

 I woke up at 11am. I had in mind to go to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Office to get my re-entry visa organised. 

 I still have a lot of time to do it, but knowing me if I leave it to the last minute I would forget about it, meaning that without it I will not be able to return to work in Japan next year, which in a word would be a real "bummer". 

 After a lot of procrastination, I managed to leave the apartment at 2:10pm. 

 I worked out that the cheapest way to get there is to get off at Shinagawa Station and walk the rest of the way. 

 The immigration website suggests to get off at Tennozu Isle Station, but that costs almost double and the walk isn't that much different. 

 There IS a bus to the Immigration Bureau from Shinagawa Station that costs 200 yen. True to my mantra, "That's Crunky money!", I decided I could manage the short 20 minute walk by myself thank you.

You'll know you're going the right way if you see the Minato-ku garbage factory tower on the left side of the second bridge.

 

From the bridge you can also see very clearly which building is the one. It's shaped like a cross. 

 The procedure is pretty painless. In 30 minutes I was outta there. 

 First I picked up an application form from the ground floor and proceeded to the D section on the next floor, where the lady informed me I didn't mark off that I was a male. Oh. 

 Before she put my application through she told me to go downstairs and buy a 6000 yen (multiple entry visa) revenue stamp from the am/pm convenience store while holding onto my gaijin card and passport ( true to it's name, conveniently located on the ground floor in the building). 

 I picked up another queue ticket thinking I'd have to wait in line, but she motioned me to come to the desk and had my passport already processed. Nice. Shinagawa is a pretty ordinary place. I used to go through here quite often as it links my old Keikyu (Keihin Kyoku) Line between Tomioka and Tokyo. I thought there was a Suica Penguin shop but I could only find combini selling JR's overpriced penguin merchandise. 

 I made my way shortly after onwards to Akihabara, a strange place. The land of maids and geeks. I went through Electric Town looking for the Sony micro-portable and found a second-hand one for 69,800 yen which isn't too bad. Don't know if I really need it though.

 

I scored a plush turtle at the UFO catcher. It's made by the same company as the penguins and the purty fur feels similar. I did it for around 600 yen. It's VERY easy to lose track of how much yen you put in. 

 After that I met up with gf and we had dinner at a ramen noodle place in Yotsuya, with the unusual difference of tomato sauce and cheese. I was expecting it to taste like pasta, but the sauce was kind of spicy with unexpected pieces of tender chicken. Gochiso sama Deshita!

Picking up my Visa and Yen

It's a good enough day to be up by 10am. The bank called me up to pick up the 300,000 yen I ordered. That is approximately $3000 Australian dollars (Gotta love them zeros). The teller girl was a trainee and she asked how long I was going to be in Japan. She said have a good time, and you know what, it lifted my spirits. Yes, I will have a good time thank you very much!

I went to the library to download the boot camp software so I can run Windows for doing my tax return overseas. It's a shame the tax dept doesn't have a program for a Mac. The download took over an hour and a woman who had booked the PC was getting annoyed that I was taking up her time. After all that the download didn't work so it was a total waste of time.

I caught the bus to the city to pick up my visa and retry the Boot Camp download on my lappy at the law courts. I went to the Japanese Consulate to pick up my passport but the security guard said it wouldn't be open again until 2pm and I was there at 1pm. So here I am doing this post and getting my download. Boot Camp has only taken 15 minutes to get.