Stupid Things I've Done: Follow Up on Passport that Went Through Washing Machine

Aside from the obvious stupidity involved in the original incident, the stupidity in this story is that I took so long to follow up on it.

If the passport had been declared invalid, I would have needed a new passport, which can only be done in person at the Osaka Embassy and would have required getting a hold of my birth certificate or other proof of citizenship. Then I would have had to get a new visa, which would mean having to get documentation from my work again, and filing out all the appropriate forms at Alien registration office. And then I would have had to get another re-entry permit, to allow me to come home this Winter break and return to Japan.

In short, the whole process would have been a huge headache, and I would want to get started on it as soon as possible so everything was in order by the time I visit home this December.

Fortunately for me though, it doesn’t sound like it’s a problem. I called the Embassy the other day. After the usual process of being transferred around to four or five different people, I finally talked to someone in charge who asked, “What does the passport look like? Did pages get torn out, or does it just look a little wrinkled like mine did when mine went through the washing machine?”

“It just looks a little wrinkled,” I answered.

“And the ink on the visa didn’t get washed away?”

“No, that all dried out perfectly.”

“Well it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “We see a lot of those kind of passports, and as long as you can still read the letters, it’s perfectly fine. At worst the people at the airport will advise you to get a new passport, but they won’t deny you entry into the country.”

So there you go. Hopefully this is sage advice, or else Shoko will be going to Grand Rapids by herself during the holidays, and I’ll have to stay in Japan.

Other Stupidities in Brief

As I’ve mentioned before, the elementary school I’m at now is doing a pilot English program. As part of this program they experiment with doing different parts of the day in English.

The principle wanted to start doing the morning meeting in English. I was asked to write a sample script of what the meeting might look like. I wrote something like this.

“Good morning and welcome to the morning meeting. Before we begin, I’d like to open the floor to any business not on the written agenda. Does anyone have any announcements they would like to bring to our attention? Yes, the chair recognizes Mr. So-and-so….And so on.

Aside from the English teacher, most of the staff can barely manage to say “Good morning” in English, so this was a ridiculous script. There was no way they were going to use it, but I got a kick out of writing it. Then they asked me to re-write the whole thing in easy English.

Link of the Day
I remember once in a high school current events class I was arguing that the US should work more with the UN. A classmate said, "Yes, well, what's the difference between the US and the UN? If countries don't vote the way we want them to, we cut off their funding."

I thought he was just being cynical. Turns out that's really what happens. For the past 3 years the Bush administration has cut of AID to Latin American countries which refuse to shield Americans from the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague. Article here.