Immigration office in the morning, hoping for a five year zairyu extension. I’m sure this mustache will make all the difference.
Update: Just back from failure of Immigration office visit & put bedroom into “shut down” mode, curtains closed, Air con on, carafe of water, noise canceling headphones on – to try to calm down. Did obtain some free pallets.
I should really not say any of this aloud but have long hospital tomorrow (made a memo) so was really hoping immigration would be done and i could have rest time but turned into much more work / demoralized & trying to keep outta flare mode :(
I’ve also had a rough go of it this time with my immigration status renewal. I shouldn’t take it “personally” but it’s taken three visits so far for what should be a basic extension.
The first visit I went in confidently, freshly shaved and a big boy outfit with my paperwork, photo, card, passport, revenue stamp etc. thinking I would be leaving that day with my new card but it’s turned into an endless paperwork chase – I’ve done everything from the pension, taxes, “my number“ card and have lived at the same address for four years #shrug #waitinghereinlimbo
Digression:
Pardon my extraneous and highly personal riff, just getting it out of my head. My poor old noggin has just not been right since we’ve been back.
A lot of stressors coupled with brutal typhoon/rainy season (I don’t mind the rain but my goodness, the humidity and then the low air pressure when storms are coming in crash my delicate head which are part of the reason
I’m going to do these head injury/spine tests as there were at least 4 concussions as I fainted several times in the early days of my illness, plus a couple dislodged discs from a car accident on Christmas Eve in Jerome, Idaho in 1988.
Observations from the immigration office continued:
Heck, I even shaved and put on a presentable outfit and had all my papers in a special folder and that didn’t do the trick. The best part though is the weird little shop on the 10th floor that you go to for the revenue stamp. A random selection of services from dry cleaning to underpants and neck ties to 78 varieties of coffee and that’s about it
There was a little table and chairs in the shop and I really want to go there and sit and drink a coffee and just observe what happens in there over the course of two hours – And during the lunch time *rush* & can figure out who buys the two day old sandwiches sitting on the shelf
Funny enough, some other “obvious western foreigner” came in with short shorts, crocs, and bad Kanji tattoos on his forearm… Never seen him anywhere before and couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the walking cliché #judgemental