journal features

meetings and a visa

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2009.10.16

For some reason, I decided to sandwich in a trip to the Chinese consulate between important business meetings today. Serves me right!

It took an hour. Not to get there, fill in forms, and pick up the documents. Just getting through the queues. The pick-up queue switched back across the first floor, then up to the second floor via the stairs, then from there on up to the third floor where it wandered around the place.

Ye gods. Naturally, it was a free-for-all of line-cutting as various parties dodged in front of mild-mannered Japanese. I was sweating and unhappy when it was over, but now I can go with my family to China next week so it was all worthwhile.

We're doing some interesting things these days, both in business development and in understanding some things that are brand new to us—like what it takes to get an investor interested. Whew.

rand()m quote

On the endless saga of Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto; "It shouldn't have had to come to this. I'm so tired of getting up every morning and wondering, 'What will it be today?' I'm so tired of giving the benefit of the doubt again and again, only to be let down again and again.... Somewhere a responsible adult has to appear, draw a bright moral line, tell the truth and say unequivocally what won't be tolerated. Somebody has to do the right thing."

—Denzil Minnan-Wong