Getting behind with the blogging

So I need to be better about updating this blog otherwise you will get one long post which is what this is going to be.

2 days ago:
We went to the airport (thats where the closest immigration office is) to start my visa process. It took about 30 min but seems like it should be no problem to change my status to a resident, much different than the process my wife had to go though when getting her green card. They said that it could take about a month to process it but once I have it it is good for 5 years, again very different and easy when compared to getting a green card. After we left the airport we stopped by my wife's grandparents place as it is close by. In Japan when you go to your grandparents house you better be hungry because all they do is feed you snacks. First we had ice cream then they brought out cake then there was a rice cake in the shape of a turtle then fruit, finally we had to say no more.

On the way back home we went to a grocery store, different from the one by the house, and as I was walking in I noticed that the whole ground floor was an arcade! Talk about awesome kids stay there parents go shop, win win. unfortunately my wife seems to think I'm an adult so I was not allowed to go play all I could do was take a quick picture while on my way up the escalator, it was kind of symbolic the ascending to adulthood and seeing a childhood left behind. I found what for some will be an inside joke, really small beer cans. The closest I can approximate would be to think of a red bull can that's what this is only a little shorter and a little fatter. Then I saw a sign that made me think my dad would have been happy to see when he last visited.

For Dad

Bagging stations

One last note about shopping in Japan in a lot, and all grocery stores, you have to bag your own things but it is not done at the check out line. First you pay then you move with your basket to bagging stations. I had forgot about this and figured I would share.

Yesterday:

Yesterday we went into the city which first meant we had to take the bus the one thing that always shocks me is how the buses show up when they are suppose to. At the stop the schedule said that the next bus would be coming at 12:09, this is on paper mind you it is not something that can be updated if there is traffic etc. Sure enough at 12:09 exactly the bus pulled up to the stop and we got on.

This is what I like to call the "why I love Japan" story. I have always said Japanese customer service is the best the treat everyone as if they are truly an important customer. The day before I had lost the screw to my sunglasses and thus had one arm of the glasses detached. We found a very well known glasses shop in the city and went in. We asked a clerk if it was something that they could repair for us, not having bought the glasses there and he said yes of course they could. He asked us to please sit down and that it would be just a few minutes, we sat down and he walked behind a counter. At this time another employee walked over with cold tea on a tray and gave it to us and thanked us for coming in, a few minutes later the clerk returned with the glasses. He explained that they replaced the missing screw and that the other one was also too big and had been sticking out (I knew about it because I had replaced it a few years ago with the only screw that would fit from a repair kit, however it was too long so part of it stuck out at the top) so he also replaced that one for me. We ask how much it was and he told us with a perplexed face that this was of course no charge. I had never been there before the glasses were not bought there and yet we were treated as great big money spending customers. That is why I love Japan.

We met up with a friend of my wife's that she went to school with back in Boston, long story short they went to school in Boston after he graduated he got a job in Tokyo but just last month by chance was transferred to Fukuoka. It really is a small world. We went to a cafe for lunch and I had one of the best salads I have ever had, it had ham, bread, apples and your regular salad stuff and it was all topped with horseradish sauce as a dressing. It was really good and it came with soup and all you can drink coffee or tea. One thing to point out that, again, was something I had forgot about was that at most restaurants there is a basket under the tables for you to keep your things, mostly for women's purses. Its just something I really like its simple and isn't in the way as it is in the middle of the table.


After we ate we some shopping and bought a cool air freshener thing then did one last thing before we left and that was to buy me a new wallet. I have had the same wallet for the last 12 years so this was a big change for me. I found one that I really liked and it had a change pocket, which is very much needed in Japan as they have 1 and 5 dollar coins and are all most entirely a cash society.