It has been raining in Tokyo for a few days, and this weekend was a little longer than usual because of a national holiday on Mon. However, I just had two days off. I used one day off for my vacation earlier. I had Fri and Sat off, which is a sort of new thing for me, because Thu and Fri were my day off before. It is nice to have one weekend off, so I can see my friends who have a regular Mon-Fri job.
On Friday, I went to Tokyo British Clinic to have medical check up for my visa. My insurance/ any insurance doesn’t cover it and I had to take immunization shots which were expensive. I spent 49,000 yen total which is about $420. I’ve had measles, mumps, and rubella shots… scary…. I went to a nice macrobiotic cafe in Ebisu and had a sweet as a treat. I slept a lot on the day.
On sat I cleaned my room, cooked a lot, and read Catch 22 which I really enjoy reading on train everyday. It was a calm weekend and a lot of rain.
Since I started reading Catch 22, I see it everywhere, and I can’t help thinking about visa application process. As Harper mentioned this in his blog, the application forms on PDF were updated and, I had a different version from his. He was supposed to submit all of the tax information in the past 3 years, but at the interview, we were told that the only latest was needed. A huge difference between Catch 22 and our experience is that we weren’t tricked completely, and our request was accepted. phew… I should compile the visa application process and what we did and what happened and write them in my entry some time. There are always some small things, even though we thought we prepared everything perfectly.
For example, at the clinic, I brought my immunization record, which my grad school keeps and I had Harper get for me, but a nurse asked me to show my Japanese health record with my birth information. I had to have my parents send it to the clinic by fax while I was taking the med exam. I wish they had told me that I needed the health record when I made an appointment.
Regardless of all of the efforts from my family, the nurse told me that I still need to get immunization shots. ahhhh…. well, I don’t have to worry about getting measles and those yucky diseases at least good 10 years, so that’s good. I had those diseases when I was baby though. I guess it has been more than 10 years since then. They could have checked my blood if I was still immune to those, but it would cost over $100, and I might have to take those shots if the result was negative. I chose not to waste $100 and had shots. ouch.. I will pick up the result this Friday and make an appointment for the last interview. I am almost there..yes..almost…
Luckily, my work has been good, and I have been able to get off work on time. I hope it stayed like this.
ok..it’s time to take a bath and relax..
