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gaijin at Narita

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

My mum's arrived on a short visit. While at the airport to greet her, I was twice stopped by security staff to show my passport.

I can understand why they want to ensure that people milling about the airport have passports. It's a good way of learning who's at the airport at any given time, and I'm sure it's a fine deterrent for people like pick-pockets and unlicensed cabbies.

But I watched the security guards as they did their thing, and I couldn't help but notice that they weren't approaching people who seemed to be Japanese. I don't know if that impression is a mistake on my part, but if they are focusing on foreigners, I wonder why. Do they expect to find foreign undesirables hanging around the airport with no passport? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Also, it seems a bit much to have to produce a passport simply to meet someone at the airport. I'm not, after all, passing through any ports, I'm just in the public area of the airport and not actually traveling. I wonder what would have happened if I'd left my passport at home. Would my alien registration card have been enough?

Security stops aside, it was good to have my mother back for another (too short) visit and we had a good chat catching up on the long train ride back into the city. The conversation revolved around the various ventures I'm involved in, what I'm doing towards those efforts, and what I saw coming out of them.