We dragged our tired bodies out of bed this morning and reluctantly headed off to work. I went in for just my morning class, and then soon afterwards took the rest of the day off to solve my visa issue once and for all. <\/p>\n
I’ve been taking lots of time off lately – an hour here and there, sometimes half a day to take care of things relating to my visa. I feel pretty guilty about it, which shows you how well I’ve adjusted to the Japanese workplace. My school has been really flexible, though, and as long as it doesn’t conflict with a class it is no problem. <\/p>\n
Before I left for Kobe, Nozaki sensei asked me for some help. One of her ex-students had sent her some phrases that she has run into in America, and she asked her to interpret them. Nozaki sensei didn’t know exactly, so she asked me. The phrase was a big surprise for me.<\/p>\n
“Falsie manufacturers live off the flat of the land.”<\/p>\n
Lots of things to delicately explain, and it took me about five minutes to get through it carefully. I like the phrase, though, and I’ll have to remember for some other occasion.<\/p>\n
I caught the train to Akashi, and from there to Kobe, and then walked to the immigration office in the south of town. I paid 10,000 yen for two permits – one to live in Japan legally and one to come and go as I like. I put all the papers in a folder and fifteen minutes later they called me up and gave me my passport with a brand new visa that lets me live in Japan for the next three years. This is good news – now I can safely take our trip to Europe in the summer and be able to come back. <\/p>\n
On my way back I went to the Akashi city office and updated my foreigner registration with the new information. They were very helpful there, and I got through the paperwork fairly quickly. <\/p>\n
On my way out I considered how far I had come in three years. When I first arrived somebody had to talk through the whole operation – now I’m doing it on my own. It’s a nice sense of satisfaction and independence.<\/p>\n
I finally got home around 3, and then I called my mom in the US to wish her an early happy birthday. It sounded like they had a pretty good birthday party for her tonight, so it turned out to be good timing.<\/p>\n
Tonight I’m going to try to cook the gnocci I bought the other night – it’s pasta night. Tomorrow I’m back to school for the whole day, and I’m looking forward to a pretty light week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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