A New Life in Japan

A Better Life in the Second Act

The magical envelope of the last documents I needed to submit, about to be mailed

Daily Thoughts: 2021-04-15 Thursday

Today marks what is hopefully the end of a long, complicated, horribly confusing period of trying to renew my work visa/residency here in Japan.

Today marks what is hopefully the end of a long, complicated, horribly confusing period of trying to renew my work visa/residency here in Japan.

The last time I renewed my visa was 5 years ago. Since then, I’ve changed jobs, which complicates things somewhat, and they changed the requirements for extending one’s residency, which apparently doubles the paperwork and triples the related headaches.

Getting everything together in the first place required a lot of run-around. New forms to fill out, new documents to procure. After weeks of preparation, I finally went to submit everything on April 8th, and that turned into an ordeal of a day all on its own (see related blog post here).

The real kick in the pants, though, was the requirement for an additional five documents. These had to be procured and submitted not later than April 20th. I just about shit myself with frustration, but kept on pushing, and today (April 15th) I think I got the rest of it all worked out.

I think. I’ll know one way or another based on whether my next communication with the immigration office is one telling me I did something wrong or one telling me to come pick up my new residence card.

Either way, though, I feel an enormous weight off. The stress that had been fueling me in recent weeks (while also making my sleep quality crap) has all but entirely evaporated in the last few hours since putting the envelope containing the remaining documents in the mail.

I start the day’s teaching in an hour, and will have to be deliberately very active, because I am crashing. Fatigue is flooding into the space left by that dissipated stress energy. Didn’t even want to write anything today, but I’d rather not let the day get past me undocumented.

Tonight, sleep will come quickly and draw me down deep into that thick molasses darkness of overdue rest.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

Recent evening clouds above Saitama City

Reestablishing Routine

For several months after I began my new job earlier this year, I established a very fruitful structure to my day, a habitual pattern of

Two pair of scissors I’ve recently restored

Daily Thoughts for 2021-06-25 Friday

Many miscellaneous things today. At work now, and I’m writing this while my students do their homework. It’s strangely quiet in here for what is usually a pretty rowdy group of elementary school kids.

I don’t really have an appropriate picture for this post, so here, play find-the-cat instead

Discarding Socks and Suits Alike

This morning, I put about ten pairs of socks in the trash. These were all still in OK shape, but filled a role for which I no longer have any use. Since changing jobs, I no longer have any need to dress in a business casual style, so a sizeable chunk of my wardrobe has sat untouched for months.