I'm allowed out of the country! Hooray!

[dr4b]

Today was an errands day of sorts. It started with going to the post office with my E-Mobile payment slip and my hanko and basically being like "I have a postal bank account and have no clue where they want me to stamp on this thing, help!" and the lady going "just stamp here, glue it shut, and we'll send it for you". So, good.

Then, onwards to Shinagawa, to the immigration bureau.

Getting a re-entry permit is REALLY fast these days. I went in, bought my 3000 yen stamp, filled out my form, went upstairs, and 10 minutes later literally had my re-entry permit in my passport. Seriously. It's that fast. I guess it's a simple thing to process for most cases and they like taking money from us for permission to leave the country. And yeah, I still got a single entry pass... I should have gotten multiple last time, but didn't expect to need it.

I got sushi at the kaitensushi place in Shinagawa Station that I really like and pretty much only go to when I go to the Immigration office. Yay.

Decided to go to the Tokyo Dome for whatever reason after that... actually, mostly that it was a nice day and I wanted an excuse to walk around a bit, plus I hadn't been to the TODO shop yet this year. As it is, they have WBC tickets on sale but only for the non-Japan games... and at the shop, there were very few calendars left, but you could get a Chunichi Dragons poster calendar for 1230 yen, OR instead you could get a Doala calendar for 1575 yen. Yes, the Chunichi mascot is more popular than the team itself. I didn't get anything at all, though I did get a Stitch out of a catcher in the bottom arcade -- the attendant rearranged them for me so I felt obligated. Hee.

Then I... umm... then I went shopping for real. Went up to Urawa Misono, to the AEON mall there. Basically, I wanted to replace two of my dress shirts from last year that had gotten kinda ragged after going through Japanese washing machines, and getting to the other AEONs in this area requires a bike or car or something, but this one is convenient to a subway stop, even though Saitama Rail GOUGES you for the price of travelling on their line. Sheesh.

Urawa Misono is also home to Saitama Stadium and the Urawa Reds, the most popular soccer team in Japan. They are so popular that even the mall side of the station has incomprehensible messages on their vending machines supporting the team:



I should perhaps mention that I was actually watching the FIFA games the other night with Japan vs. Australia and such. And you know... I swear that Chiba Lotte models its cheer songs after soccer cheer songs, they have similar tunes and similar simple words and all.

Anyway, I went to the mall, and I found the dress shirts I wanted at Jusco. Good. I also found winter coats all discounted to 3000 yen. Yow. Went around the mall and thought about it for a while... I even got dinner at an omurice place in the food court which was super-yummy, I had a croquette-omurice hayashi combo. I dunno, I didn't really want to buy all that much in the mall except those dress shirts, but I couldn't resist trying on some jackets, and did end up buying one. Now I look more like a typical Japanese person with a black jacket instead of with my REI outdoor coat, maybe.

(The dress shirts, for the record, cost 1980 yen each and don't need to be ironed, which is why I wore them out last year, I think. I bought two new ones today.)

The lady at the counter was like (this is all in Japanese) "do you need validation for your car?" and I'm like "Car? Um? I took the subway here."
"Really? Where from?"
"I live in Akabane."
"Wow, in Tokyo? That's FAR! How long does it take?"
"About 30, 40 minutes..."
"Isn't it EXPENSIVE? Saitama Railways is EXPENSIVE."
"Yeah, but I only take it to Higashi-kawaguchi, then..."
"I know, but it's still 210 yen for one stop!"
"Well... I used to go to the Diamond City Jusco when I lived in Saitama, but now it's too far to walk from Warabi station, so I thought I'd come here instead."
"Much closer to the station?"
"Yeah."
She finished folding my stuff to put in bags. "Are you from Italy?"
"Eh?"
"Italy? Spain? What country?"
"Um, I'm American."
"Really?"
"Really."
[pause] "Well, thank you for shopping at AEON Jusco..."

If there hadn't been someone waiting behind me in line, I would have asked why she said Italy. I've gotten that a few times before... it's curious. Is it a compliment?

I changed into my new jacket on the train and wore it there and home! I felt so... Japanese! Or something. Except it turns out that if I'm sitting down on the train, the sleeves actually aren't long enough. Oops. Infact in general they are not long enough, if I have the jacket buttoned up, but if it's open they can sort of stretch down I guess. Oh well, in this weather it'll suffice just fine I think, it's still decent for cold weather, but won't be for the COLDEST weather.

By the way, this is what I looked like today with the new jacket and all. I took this photo after I got home, but I felt remarkably like I was almost fashion-conscious:





OH, which reminds me, speaking of photos... anyone else ever see this game? I saw it at the mall too. Seems like a dumbed-down DDR for kids or something:



I was not tempted enough by Happy Days or Shanghai Honey to actually play it.

I've been home all evening... goofed off on PP some, wrote some other blog entries some. Infact, I have started a new blog just for my UFO catching exploits. I don't know if I'll continue to write in it, but it seemed like it might be a funny idea for a blog.

You know, if anyone in Seattle wants anything from Japan, now would be a good time to tell me.

Comments

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

I can see where people would get Mediterranean from your features if they were guessing European. When I'm not recognized as American, I usually get mistaken for Dutch or German.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Yeah, dark, wavy hair, lighter skin tone, high cheekbones, that does make sense.

The outfit's also very nice and utilitarian - anywhere from a train trip to a nice dinner. Maybe she thought you were on vacation?

[dr4b]

Actually, the outfit is downright schleppy for Japan. I'm always underdressed no matter what I do.

But since I was shopping for dress shirts in a suburban mall, I would think I did not seem like an average tourist, especially since I mentioned that I used to live in Saitama and now live in Tokyo.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Ah, I misread and thought she asked about the nationality before then.

*shrug*

[ohhim.livejournal.com]

>If there hadn't been someone waiting behind me in line, I would have asked why she said Italy. I've gotten that a few times before... it's curious. Is it a compliment?

You definitely have a slight "mona lisa" dark hair, light complexion look.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

perhaps you would have time for a games night next time you are back?

[dr4b]

I would, but during the week would be better than weekends -- is that possible?

[mh75.livejournal.com]

It seems like Mon, or Thurs. may work?? or Friday, but i don't know if that counts as a weekend.

[dr4b]

well, if the second friday, we will certainly have puzzle hunt things in motion.

monday or thursday would be great though!

[mh75.livejournal.com]

OKay. Can you send me the dates, and i'll post to the hos forum?

[dr4b]

I get to town on Feb 19th, so the Monday/Thursday in question would probably be Feb 23rd or Feb 26th?

[keevon.livejournal.com]

It looks like it would be really hard to use the bar on that machine.

[dr4b]

Maybe not if you were a little kid :)

[nykkel.livejournal.com]

It looks like the sort of machine that probably doesn't have any songs hard enough for the bar to be all that necessary. :)

[keevon.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that the bar is always necessary!

[seishinbyou.livejournal.com]

Oh, Dance 86.4

That is a few years old. It was an elementary level DDR, yeah. Nothing on it was hard at all, and the timing was so loose, that even if it was hard to someone, they would still do awesome at it.

It did have the "mines" from ITG before DDR ever got them though.

[arashink.livejournal.com]

DDR has had Poison Arrows for a while. Okay, so it started in DDR Ultramix for the XBox, which no one played. 'cept me.

[seishinbyou.livejournal.com]

Shinagawa Immigration?

You could also go to the one in Kita-Yono (Saikyo line), just one stop from Omiya. Lines are a lot shorter, and everything is finished up a lot faster. When I got my reentry permit there, I was finished up and out of there in less than 20 minutes, including the time to go get the stamps.

[dr4b]

I knew there was one somewhere in Saitama, but I was always too scared to just go try to find it on my own... figured I'd totally get lost.

To be fair, the Shinagawa one is pretty quick at re-entry. It was the visa extension thing that took forever.

[georgejas.livejournal.com]

Maybe your non-japanese accent sounds italian...

[catbus.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I ever saw that game, but I think I've seen mickey mouse kiddie DDR.

Yeah usually I get mistaken for American... but once in a while it's French. This weekend someone thought I was Russian.

[catbus.livejournal.com]

And I wish I was good at UFO catcher! Recently they released these little pop'n music figures, you can probably find some.

[firearmofmutiny.livejournal.com]

Oops, I meant to post a comment here but forgot to--I said the exact same thing about soccer chants/Lotte chants when I went to a J-League game. :P

[guitarcries.livejournal.com]

You do look Japanese in those clothes, hehe.

[kitsuneracer.livejournal.com]

Dance86.4 has been out since at least 2005 because I played it when I was in Japan :) I can't remember where I was when I played it though... maybe the SEGA arcade in Shibuya?