so .. that was the apocalypse
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
My flight went well, and then upon arrival in Japan things went somewhat less smoothly. Once upon a time, the authorities kicked me out of this country, and that's not the sort of thing that they forget. Actually, I'm not allowed to let them forget; I have to tick off the "yes" box on the immigration form. So, after waiting in line for forty-five minutes (there were ten windows for Japanese citizens, one for foreign residents in Japan, and all of three for the other 50% of us) I had to go through another forty minutes of explaining my situation. Which is: I was sent to work in Japan without a visa, and was ejected; then I obtained an engineer's visa; then I had a spousal visa; then my wife and I returned to Canada to live. I had to explain all of this in Japanese of course, and before I was finished I'd explained it nearly the entire staff in immigration at Narita. One of the common lines of question went, "Well you had a spousal visa, and now you don't? Did you divorce?"
I nearly told them "Yes, yes, divorced. Just let me in to visit my family!"
With that delay, the 90 minute trip across town to the domestic airport (through the giant tunnel under the bay, it turned out) put me dangerously close to the departure time for my second flight. I got to the gate with eight minutes to spare, in the end.
It feels good (if strange) to be back in Japan.
Three good things that happened today:
- Ken told me, "i'm glad you came."
- The new Mayan Great Calendar kicked off without a hitch
- I managed to sleep for three half-hour sessions along the way, which is a record for me.