In Tokyo, there are more artificial islands than the one every tourist should know, Odaiba. Sooner or later, long term residents (foreigners who stay in Japan for more than 3 months) will have to cope with one of the most bureaucratic offices in Japan, the 入国管理局, or Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. It is located not far away from the Tokyo Monorail and Rinkai-Line on Tennozu Isle 天王州アイル, one of the smaller artificial islands in Tokyo bay area, .For me it was time to apply for a visa extension, which proved to be tougher than I remembered.
First you are given several papers you have to fill out. It takes some time but is not unusual. Then they send you to another counter until they tell you please go to the one on the other side -_-. As a German it used to be pretty easy to obtain a new visa status. However, this time they gave me an extra sheet which i had to fill out. They basically wanted to know what I did in Japan so far, what I plan to do since the extension is granted and then, the unbelievable part, they wanted to know any contact person in Japan with contact detaills! -_- Also if you write Sight-Seeing as your main activity in Japan you have to write down a detailed plan where you want to go. Seriously, this is nuts why can't they just give me the extension when our countries have this kind of agreement?
Anyways, after 4 hours waiting and a 4000yen I had to buy from the local convinience store they granted me the extension, again on another counter. I felt like the hero in those old Asterix Movie in which there was a pretty well done satirical part about nagging bureaucracy.However, I guess I should be glad that I am a citizen of Germany and so it only took some hours to get a new visa. As I heard, for Italians i.e. thsi would beimpossible because their country doesn't have the extention agreement, not to mention the problem which have citizens of other Asian countries such as Tailand, China and so forth.
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First you are given several papers you have to fill out. It takes some time but is not unusual. Then they send you to another counter until they tell you please go to the one on the other side -_-. As a German it used to be pretty easy to obtain a new visa status. However, this time they gave me an extra sheet which i had to fill out. They basically wanted to know what I did in Japan so far, what I plan to do since the extension is granted and then, the unbelievable part, they wanted to know any contact person in Japan with contact detaills! -_- Also if you write Sight-Seeing as your main activity in Japan you have to write down a detailed plan where you want to go. Seriously, this is nuts why can't they just give me the extension when our countries have this kind of agreement?
Anyways, after 4 hours waiting and a 4000yen I had to buy from the local convinience store they granted me the extension, again on another counter. I felt like the hero in those old Asterix Movie in which there was a pretty well done satirical part about nagging bureaucracy.However, I guess I should be glad that I am a citizen of Germany and so it only took some hours to get a new visa. As I heard, for Italians i.e. thsi would beimpossible because their country doesn't have the extention agreement, not to mention the problem which have citizens of other Asian countries such as Tailand, China and so forth.
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