Monday, November 29, 2004

Trip to the Chinese embassy

This morning I went to get my visa to enter China. I headed off to Roppongi with my 5x5 photo and a bunch of other things. It was surprisingly easy! Basically the form just asks you for your name and address, and what places you are going to see. I didn't even need the copy of my plane ticket that I had made. Of course the photo should have been 3X4 or something, but they had a fandangled cutting machine there that would cut the picture down to the perfect size. (Hopefully this picture won't go anywhere, because it is actually worse than the one already in my passport.) The whole thing took all of ten minutes - that included filling out the form, copying my foreign resident card (had to wait in line at the copier for that) and standing in line at the counter.

And get this, the woman at the counter was not only polite, she was actually nice! Of course the woman who decided that lines don't mean anything and just butted in and started to talk to the woman at the window was a bit irritating, but I guess that is the Chinese thing (lines don't matter). So the embassy staff lady gave me a receipt for my passport, and smiled and even politely answered a few questions I had. Can someone please send the Tokyo Immigration staff here for training in basic politeness?!?!

The additional good news - despite the website saying it takes 4 days to process, it will be ready in 3. How's that for service?

1 comment:

tallgirl said...

Hey Liz -
This is Noelle, from Erik's blog... question for you - how hard is it to get a job teaching English in Japan? I have a friend that is teaching in a small town someplace, but her process was like ages and ages... I'm looking to start sometime after Feb 15 or so... any ideas? You can email me back at tallgirl@alumni.washington.edu, if you can... I appreciate any help you can give.
Thanks!
Noelle