5.12.2004

Yahoo! News - CBS to Air U.S. Soldier's Video Diary of Iraq Abuse

Wanna watch the shit hit the fan? This is going to cause major waves worldwide in the whole Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. Atleast it's not happening in China, where the only way you could find out is if a satellite photo somehow caught it from space. Atleast CBS isn't with-holding this story for the purposes of "national security" like they did when they first broke the news. Wish I was back in the states to see this. If anyone can video tape this and mail it to me send me an email and I will give you my address here in Japan. This is something I need to see...

Immigration Bureau

Usually a trip to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau brings the same shudder from people who have to go, and people who know someone who is going as well. It is the worst of the worst. To compare it to something in America, I would have to say the DMV. Not just any DMV though. A DMV on steroids like the Nassau County (Long Island, NY) DMV office, or the one in Manhattan...I am sure any big city in America has a central DMV office that is just the absolute worst. You sit there for hours at a time. Waiting and waiting and waiting. One time I got a ticket in the Nassau one that said "estimated wait time 435 minutes." I sat down and cried.

I once spent an afternoon at the immigration bureau for my number to never be reached. I got there at noon, stupid me it closes from noon to 1 for lunch. So I sat there an hour with my thumb up my ass. Then I got my number at about 1:15 by the time I reached the machine...There is no estimated wait time on these tickets.

I sat there until the bitter end. They called the number two before mine, but not the one before it or mine...I was so angry. I flew into a rage. A mad fit. I was beside myself that I missed an entire afternoon for nothing. I was never so angry in my life as I was that day.

Yesterday, however, was different. I went in with my replacement passport for the one I lost with all of my work visa and re-entry permit info in it. I lost it sometime during my trip home. I don't remember how or when exactly. But it was gone. It cost almost 300 dollars to get back, and it had no visas. All I had was my new passport and my expired gaijin card (alien registration card). The odds were stacked so highly against me that I was sure of certain defeat. This time I walked in, grabbed my short application form and filled it out. Not the 4 pages of forms from the last time. Instead of taking a number I walked up to a re-entry permit window and asked the question like a dumb foreigner hoping they would just do it. So the guy takes my card and my form and my passport and says "hold on, I'll brb." 5 minutes later he emerges with my passport and says "come with me." then we go to the work visa window and he says "take a seat" and then 5 minutes later my passport is handed to me with both a work visa and a re-entry permit stamped in free of charge. He says "have a nice day."

That was it. No arguing, no waiting hours at a time, no hassle. Just efficiency. It was amazing. I have never been so effortlessly helped by anyone in my life. It was amazing.