Friday, July 20, 2007

How We made a Day of it.

Today was the day that we went to take care of our visa. We are here on a one year visa and in order to stay another year we needed to extend our visa. We woke up on the bright, and were off to the train station to met our contact from the Board of Education. We got on the train and headed toward the capital of the prefecture, Otsu. The train was rather crowded, as is usually the case traveling in that direction, so we ended up standing. When we were about half way to Otsu, a young man standing near us just simply collapsed. One minute he was standing and the next he was laying on the ground. The elderly gentleman standing next to him gave him a few slaps in the face and made sure he was okay. When the kid tried to stand up the old guy made him sit back down on the floor. It was kinda weird to see everyone else go on with their lives and go about their own business while this was happening. We got to Otsu and went to the immigration office. We got our number and waited a long time to be helped. It really reminded me of going to the Secretary of State, back in Michigan, to renew a drivers license or license plates. You go in and sit on a seat for an hour or two and then go to the counter and turn in the paper work, and then a month later they send you a post card and you get to go back and do it all over again. We were there at the immigration office for a couple of hours, and by the time we were done we decided to go and get some lunch. Not far from downtown Otsu there is a mall that has a Mos Burger. Now I believe that Mos burger is the best fast food hamburger in Japan. If we have the opportunity to eat there we take it. I simply love eating a "Mos Burger". A "Mos Burger" is really just a chili-burger, but they are so delicious. We decided however, rather than take the train one stop up the line that we would walk the 1 kilometer or so that it would be to get there. It was a really nice walk. We were able to walk through some back alleys and places that we normally would not see. We made it to Mos Burger in good order. We ordered our food, Jenny got a fresh burger, I had a Mos Burger, and Logan wanted a hotdog. Once we sat down however we noticed that they had a new sandwich, a curry chicken burger. So I went up to the counter and ordered one of those too. We ate our burgers, they were delicious. The curry chicken sandwich was awesome! It was a fried chicken patty covered in curry gravy. delicious!! We then wandered around the mall for a short time, and found Logan a Thomas the Tank Engine book at the bookstore. We decided that it was time to head home, but a sign caught our eye outside of Starbucks. We just had to try the new frapucino. The new flavor this month is Azuki bean. Yes the same Azuki bean that has been the bane of our existence here. Oh wow! we think, this looks like a cinnamon roll. Nope, Azuki bean. Oh, is this treat filled with chocolate? No, that's Azuki bean. So, we got one. It was really good. Enjoyed it immensely. While we sat outside there was the friendliest little sparrow, just fluttering around. We fed it some cookies that we were munching on and Logan had fun watching it drag the cookie crumbs under a table to eat them. It was a fun day, and by the time that we made it back to Omihachiman it was too late for me to go into work. Oh nuts!! And that is the story of how we made an entire day out of going to the immigration office in Otsu, Japan.

ハンバガ
(hambaga)
hamburger

すずめ
(suzume)
sparrow

1 comment:

Ryan said...

We got our visa today too! Nancy told me she wanted to write up a post, so look for it.