Stupid visa...

My 'alien' status in Japan requires me, not only to carry around a special ID card (Alien registration), to renew my student visa after a minimum of two year stay. This is because the maximum length of a 'student visa' for Japan is 2 years, irrespective of how long your course is. SO, despite the visa I got from the Japanese embassy in London saying I have a multiple entry visa for Japan, valid for 3 years, I have to apply for renewal of my student visa after 2 years of stay, as well as apply for a 're-entry permit' if I ever want to leave and re-enter Japan. Craziness.

Anyhoo, as my last re-entry permit runs out with my last visa, I need to apply for one of those too; you can choose between 'single re-entry' (3000yen) or 'multipe re-entry' (6000yen). Visa renewal currently costs 4000yen which is all payable in lovely things called 'revenue stamps'.

Another thing, visa renewal takes 4 to 6, yes SIX weeks to be processed. AND you can only apply a maximum of 2 months in advance of your visa expiry date:

So, my visa runs out on the 1st of April 2009, and I have to get my visa renewed BEFORE it runs out and giving the minimum leeway of 4 weeks, and taking into account the earliest that I can apply for it: I have a window from the 2nd Feb 'til the 2nd March to apply.

I decided to make very sure that I had plenty of time for applicationy stuff, so I went on the 2nd of Feb to be at the office 9am ready to hand in my forms and all the certificates. I was all organised and applied for the re-entry and extention all at the same time (even though the re-entry permit is done on the same day as application... but hey, better to hand in all the forms at the same time right?). So, now I'm waiting for a postcard saying that I can come back with my passport to pick up all those lovely stamps I need to stay in the country. fun fun fun.

How to get to Tokyo Immigration Office

There are several way to get yourself over to the Tokyo Immigration office, but because I have a general dis-like of buses in Tokyo, and am also financially allergic to taxis, I took the Rinkai line [りんかい] train down to Tennozu-isle [天王州アイル], then walked for about 15mins to the office.

So when you get to Tennozu-isle, take Exit A.


When you hit daylight after your second flight of escalators turn LEFT (following the sign to the monorail station)











Follow the next escalators, then at the top turn RIGHT towards the traffic junction (and the monorail station)

















Turn RIGHT at the junction to walk over the blue bridge, called Shinagawa-futou-bashi [品川埠頭橋]





It will generally look like a sea of shipping containers for most of the walk, but follow the road... just after crossing over the river, the road goes under a highway (HUGE concrete thing, you cant miss it), keep following the road as it curves round to the left...














... and eventually you'll see a big square SUNKUS sign over some vending machines, and the big grey monstrosity behind it is the Immigration Office.

TA DA!

Robot in a wheelchair

There's always something odd going on around campus, usually just outside our building. from time to time you can find students using remote controls to guide a electric wheelchair (usually with another student sitting inside it), or better, using a Wiimote to do the same thing.

The other day I saw this:

I have no idea why there is a small hoist, or why they have put a robot in a electric wheelchair, but they have.

No need for grit on these icy roads!

I hear that the UK is gripped in a grit shortage in the midst of the wintry weather that is smothering the country. The Japanese however, have a different way of dealing with heavy snow. They pour water over it.

Parts of Japan spend most of the winter months under meters of snow, namely the ski resort areas, they have perforated hoses built into the road which spray water to melt the ice and snow. To be honest they also combine this water system with huge snow ploughs which move the general mass of snow out of the way first.

Anyway this de-icing system seems to have been built into the main roads of the northern parts of Japan, as we saw in Takayama. It is a lot more friendly than grit as it wont try and attack your windshield at speed. We did however see some very enthusiastic jets of water, which managed to shoot over cars. I think it was aiming at cyclists.

The system does seem like a huge waste of water, and i have no idea how they keep the pipes from freezing up.

5.8M wake-up call...

Felt another earthquake this morning.　It has been a while since i felt one. It was quite nice and gentle, but it did wake me up as it went on for nearly a minute.

5.8M (JMA scale) around 7am this morning.