Visa GETS

In this OH so stunning photo where I have literally just fallen out of bed I have my newly acquired JAPANESE VISA!!!!

FOR REAL REAL!!

A complete surprise to me as I hadn't had a phone call to let me know I'd been approved like Carly did.

They toyed with my heart!!

Oh cruel but beautiful Japanese Embassy, I thank you so much for the opportunity to visit your mad mad country!
After all that hassle in the office with my tickets and itinerary it was all worth it to make sure they had what they needed so I wouldn't have to be faxing stuff backwards and forwards all week.
There's only one little hang up I have....the visa is valid from March 10 to March 11....I'm getting scammed out of a whole month! I told them I was going in April, you'd think they'd make it valid from April!!

Not that I'm complaining..!
So that the last step on my way to becoming an expat! The feeling of relief that this brings is amazing, like a huge weight has been lifted. The thought that I only have 36 days left fills me with such joy, like the nearer my trip gets the further all the shit I've gone through over the last 6 months gets. It's so confidence building to know that I'm embarking on a great adventure, leaving my old life behind, leaving all the nonsense behind and using the pain to become stronger and make it into something positive!

All that's left is to pack, to finish my last few weeks of work and to make any extra money by clearing out my room.
HAPPY DAYS

...wow this is getting scarily real now lol

Visa update

Yesterday was the day I traveled to London to meet Carly and we would go to the Japanese Embassy in Park Lane to apply for our visas. There were a few hiccups along the way...

When Carly and I booked our flights with STA we asked for open returns which was all fine but the travel agents cannot book you on a flight 1 year in advance because the times and flights have not been planned that far in advance, 11 months is the furthest you can book. So what you have to do is phone STA up (while on holiday) and ask to move your flight date, they book you on a 6 month advance flight...I guess to kind of give you a return ticket...if you were retarded and forgot to ring up then you though "FUCK WHERES MY TICKET??". They are then able to book your time and seats and you pay a small fee.
The woman who was dealing with my application didn't understand this. She saw my itinerary was planned for 12 months, looked at my return date and proceeded to tell me they didn't match...

I KNOW THIS

My plan is to stay for a year, I am going to change my flight dates as soon as STA allow me to.
I can understand that it looks dodgy, what if this ISN'T an open return and my plan is to miss my flight that I've paid nearly £600 for...OK I kind of get it.
Maybe it was silly of me to assume that they would let it slide but then I didn't think it would be a problem. My worries were more focused on my bank statements to be honest! I had to get a print out from the bank showing my recent transactions with a special stamp on it but it doesn't say where the money is coming from so she asked me...I dunno I just felt like a criminal, like it was so suspicious to have 2 largish amounts of money going into my account! Obviously one was my wages from work and the other was a cash loan from a friend. Still I felt like she thought I was really trying to con her into giving me a visa!
Anyway so the itinerary and the plane tickets didn't match so she told me that I wouldn't get approved. So I asked her what to do, she said the only thing I could do was to change my itinerary to a 6 month plan. Seeing as I'd do pretty much anything for this visa right now, fibbing a little bit so the documents matched wasn't going to be a problem but it involved phoning my dad and getting him to edit one of the pages aswell as going into my e-mail and finding a receipt for the plane ticket then fax them over to the embassy.

Carly also had to get a photocopy of the cheque that had been paid into her account. All this stuff just seems so fucking red taped it's stupid.

C'mon Gaby! Jump through those hoops!!

Now would probably be a good time to say I dislike dealing with bureaucracy. I'm not very good at it for one thing. I don't understand terms and conditions and when I don't understand what an official is saying to me I go blank as keep asking them to explain, which gets us both annoyed and I look like an twat.
Anyway the whole process of getting the forms sorted took about 3 hours but I did express to the woman behind the counter how much I wanted this visa and how I wanted to make sure everything was sorted so I gave myself the best chance possible of getting approved.

I'll be honest she wasn't very sympathetic or helpful but then she might have been having a bad day...I made sure to give her big smile and thank her honestly for her help and she eventually smiled back and said they phone if there were any more problems.

Unfortunately now we have to play the waiting game. I doubt they will even get to review our applications until Monday, then if there are any more problems it'll take another day...then if we get approved our passports have to be sent back...that's another day. Maybe by the end of the week we'll know.

So Carly and I headed into London Town for some well earned food. Also we went to the puri kura place in China Town but none of the Japanese machines had paper....still we had fun on the crappy old ones!







I guess that concludes the visa part of my story. It's the last step apart from packing and actually getting on the plane.

On a personal note I'm meeting my ex on Tuesday to tell him exactly why I nearly smacked 7 types of shit out of him the other night. Wish him luck!

Gaby

Let's get a visa!

So, first thing's first. I need a visa!
As I have no job offers from Japan (on account of me not having a degree yet! Ke) I'll need one holiday working visa. The point being that for the most part you're supposed to holiday...

I should probably tell you all that my plan is to one day find a permanent job in Japan, but I've never holidayed there before! So....what if I hate it there??! It is my mission to find out if I still want to reside in a culture that is completely different to my own. So this trip is much like a gap year for me...just to test the alien water.

SO! Holiday working visas.

This Friday, Carly and I will be going the the Japanese embassy to apply for our visas. You need to fill out some form on the day.

http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/visa/visa_application.pdf

Nothing tricky there, except having to pay £4 for a fugly passport photo.

Then you need a personal statement, basically your reasons for wanting to invade Japan. I won't post the whole thing but I briefly outlined my main interests in Japan, the things that I have read up on (namely the music scene, fashion tribes, and the FOOD) then I put what I found intriguing about the country and lifestyle..so things that you can't really know unless you experience them.

Next is your itinerary. Your twelve month plan. AKA your blag cos you actually have no idea what the fuck is gonna happen when you get over there!

Now I know that I'm gonna have to be super careful with the little money I have managed to scrape together for this trip. I also know that travel costs soon mount up. Whenever I go to London for a weekend I always come away feeling like I've been raped by the London Underground and National Rail! I may plan to travel from Osaka to Hokkido during my trip but the reality might mean I stay working in Tokyo for the majority of my stay and just taking day trips and weekends when I can.

I've tried to blag as much as I feel comfortable blagging on the itinerary, putting some districts of Tokyo I want to explore, some festivals I'm interested in seeing and the cities I want to visit but I've kept it very brief and to what I can comfortably talk about in an interview.

I'm being realistic here, I'm not an expert on Japan by any means, but I think its better to have a vague idea about something and go experience it for yourself than to pretend you know everything.

Hopefully in my interview they won't ask too many details

I think that's it for paperwork. The only other BIG thing that you need to deal with for the visa application is MONEY. This has been the cause of many headaches over the last month. You need to have either
£2500 in the bank
or
£1500 + a return ticket

I presume this is to make sure you get the fuck out of the country when your time is up. They need to know you won't resort to selling drugs or prostitution to get the funds to get you home.
So I have one return ticket (dated for 6 months after I arrive but this can be extended as needed upto a year) but I need £1500. Overdrafts don't count so after rent and plane tickets are paid for I'm still lacking the funds. Don't worry though! A friend has lent me the cash until I get paid. Obviously this is not ideal. I should have been saving like mad for this trip but the truth is I only made the decision to go for a year (before I was planning to take a 2-3 week trip) after I split from my boyfriend a month ago.

Hey, nothing heals a broken heart like moving to the other side of the world!

I think thats everything apart from the obviously things like taking your passport and 3 months worth of bank statement. I'm kinda worried as my funds are being deposited tomorrow so obviously won't show up on my bank statements...and they'll see that I just spend all my money on clothes and drink!
I've been told they take your passport for a week or so which means I'm screwed if I get ID'd in London...and I WILL get ID'd. I want to go drinking with my soon to be Tokyo sister, Carly.

This is the first big step on my way to Japan! Can you feel my giddiness!