In about fifteen hours I will no longer be a resident of Japan.
I found out that the only way to not to pay the expensive residence tax is to give up my visa. At least getting a residence visa in Japan is no where near as difficult as getting a residence visa in the States.
On the way back from getting a few odds and ends tied up, we were delayed by a good ninety minutes. This was due to a traffic jam caused by a tiny fender-bender of an accident. When I am delayed that long by traffic, I want to see blood on the asphalt. Ok, I do not wantto see blood, but I didn`t want to be held up in traffic either. I just want to be able to say “Ok, I was held up by thirty minutes, but that guy lost part of his hand. Thus the cosmic balance is restored.” I mean, if I am inconvenienced in the slightest, I at least want a decent reason for it. Rough guidelines for maintaining karmic balance between other`s tragedy and my inconvienince are as follows-
30 min delay- massive vehicle damage.
1 Hour delay- Maiming.
2 hour delay- three words “Orphanage bus fire.”
My wallet currently holds $50 U.S., 200 Euros, 5,000 yen and a random assortment of British Pounds, Thai Baht, Korean Won, and Chinese Yuan. It also contains various IDs in Japanese and in English. I feel mildly like a secret agent, though, obviously not a very well-funded one.
Neither C nor I are looking forward to another trans-Pacific flight. At least we can say our biggest concerns at this point is weather or not they will let me take my shamisen as my carry-on and weather or not the in-flight movies are any good. Obviously, things are not going too poorly. Next time I update will be from the states.
Repatriate 