Re-Entry Permit: Take 2

It was freezing today in Sendai and the brisk wind didn't help make that easier on anyone. Plus, I had to get on my bike and trek over to the station to go get my re-entry permit (or try to) so it wasn't only windy, I was also moving quickly through the wind, causing me to freeze even more. Great day to decide to not carry along my gloves.

If you read my entry from a week ago, you know that I need a re-entry permit to get back into Japan after traveling abroad and that it needs to be acquired at the Sendai Immigration Bureau. You also know that the office is separated from all other government buildings and is located on the farside of Sendai in a place really only accessible by train. You also know that I tried going last week but I showed up right when they were closing - at the ripe hour of 4 PM. And then I got lost in the dark on the way home (since it gets dark here at 4:30 PM). It made want to shove some immigration documentation up the collective governmental ass. But, alas, that re-entry permit is not only a necessity for my life in the coming few months, but also priced-to-own at a rock-bottom 6,000 yen ($60). I've always believed you can't put a price on preventing being deported from a foreign country, but boy do they try.

After sucking up the grudge I hold toward their office, I made the 45-minute trip (already an improvement - it took an hour last week since I had no idea where the fuck "Gorin 1-choume" was) and showed up on their doorstep ready to go in and out. Oh silly Fulbrighter - your naivete is adorable. It's never that easy. I asked for what I needed and then looked up at the large plastic sign next to the reception desk that said, loosely translated, "Since accepting cash payments would make far too much sense, we require payments be made in revenue stamps to maximize inconvenience". Okay, so I took some liberty with that translation. But aside from that and the fact that "revenue stamp" sounds like something used to purchase toilet paper and cabbage in the former Soviet Union, its true - they would not accept cash. Of course, there is no revenue stamp producing machine in-house; no no. You have to walk down the street, walk through an unmarked building, down a narrow corridor and out a side-exit to the back where a small post office is located for no logical reason. You can buy revenue stamps there. I felt like I was playing the Legend of Zelda or something. And let me take time out here to mention that they seemed to have decided to put this office in Japan's version of the inner city. This was the kind of place where the neighboring building was in the middle of a slow machine demolition, the streets were lined with dilapidated, anonymous buildings from many decades ago, and a pigeon with a snapped neck was lying belly-up in the middle of the sidewalk just to emphasize how sad a place it is.

So there I was holding a tiny stamp worth $60 on a windy day. Luckily, that just seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. After going back to the immigration office, I got my re-entry permit after filling out the required paperwork and waiting a few minutes. They were surprisingly pretty nice people. Surprisingly painless. And I made it back to my train in time to ride home from school with pretty much every high school student in eastern Sendai.

Tonight I met with conversation partner Taiga to recap my week and play his acoustic guitar in the freezing cold. Then, on this week's (penultimate!) episode of Last Christmas, Yuki's illness took a turn for the worst. I'm nervous for next week's finale - it better be a happy ending. It's Christmas, people!

Soon, I will have exciting new updates to the blog: pictures and daily lists (in honor of year-end countdown lists, one of the best things about the end of the year). Look forward to it.