Today's main mission was a trip to the regional immigration office to sort out a multiple re-entry visa for the year. After having slept in I set off to Cosmosquare (seriously that's the area's name), fully prepared to deal with the same level of bureaucracy as it takes to just get a bank statement here. Surprisingly I was in and out in about 20 mins, visa, passport and all. That takes the total time I have spent in Japanese government buildings to just under and hour, which isn't bad considering I had to get a certificate of eligibility, entry visa, alien registration card, certificate of registered matters and the re-entry permit.
I suppose a better way of putting the level of efficiency into context would be to use my South African ID as an example. Being a citizen of SA one might expect getting a new ID would be a fairly painless process. However I've been waiting for this document since late 2005 and had to make multiple trips to the home affairs office to hear that it wasn't ready yet. I wouldn't usually be to peeved about multiple trips for an ID but when the trip involves flying from London to Johannesburg it does start to get on your nerves.
Anyhoo enough ranting and raving, back to Japan. As I begin to understand how things work around here, it seems to make more sense (trust me, it totally didn't a few weeks ago, some things still don't). Convenience stores are actually convenient, in terms of location, operating hours, facilities (ATMs, ready made meals, photocopiers). The Osaka subway system actually runs on time so you can actually plan your day around the train schedule. And obviously there's the jewel in the crown, the Shinkansen (bullet train) whose timetable only slips by 36 seconds over the course of a year.
For all the shortcoming I'm sure I will encounter in Japan over the coming months, the efficiency is a welcome comfort...a sprawling metropolis without structure, now that would freak me out
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