damian 0 Posted May 8, 2004 Author Share Posted May 8, 2004 I plan to have my visa voided at the local Japanese Embassy in London. Link to post Share on other sites
HoTRoD 2 Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 At which time those big iron gates will come crashing down and alarm bells going off until you cough up Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 11, 2004 Author Share Posted May 11, 2004 I never said I wasn't going to pay it. My primary concern was being retained in Japan at the last moment by the type of Japanese person I dislike the most. Japan was a great place to experience to the degree that I chose to experience it. Tokyo is certainly very cool and interesting, but to visit, not to live. Shibuya is like going to a children's amusement park combined with a zoo all with a young adult theme. Interesting but hardly the best the world has to offer. Move on, more to see than that pimple haven. In short, Japan was great but I was there too long and in the end I wanted to get away so much that the thought of being caught there made my stomach turn. Even a week after leaving I still get strange elated sensations of "thank god, I am free". Towards the last 6 months of my time in Japan I started to sense that I was always under suspicion, being watched. I felt uneasy. Even my garbage was monitored (as is yours). I felt a terrible lack of individual privacy and I also started to pick up on undertones of cruelty and confusion in the general Japanese mind. It was all quite jumbled and sporadic, but overall I felt vaguely as though something just wasn't right in Japan and I did not feel comfortable being there. I was happy to leave. Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 but ya still not going to coff up a ya gov? London/Tokyo all the same to me mate. No WAVES! Link to post Share on other sites
Worm 0 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Quote: Even my garbage was monitored (as is yours). Thats a curious comment - care to elaborate on that? Link to post Share on other sites
white-void 0 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 db is just bitter that he has left a land that has 4 seasons. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 12, 2004 Author Share Posted May 12, 2004 Not a word of a lie, one of the first discussions I had at my first lunch with new Tokyo co-workers was about the fact that Japan has 4 seasons. Worm - if my garbage even remotely looked like it was mixed (bunables/unburnable) then the garbo would cut the bag open and inspect the contents. If he did not approve then he would then leave a big purple note stuck to the bag. This was an exagerated issue as I lived in a stand alone house and each household would put their garbage out in font of their property. I imagine that in an apartment block your garbage would be mixed in with other tenants'. I tried to get it right but after work one only has a few precious hours in which to run ones life and the last thing on my mind was garbage management. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 Quote: Not a word of a lie, one of the first discussions I had at my first lunch with new Tokyo co-workers was about the fact that Japan has 4 seasons. Sounds like you're regretting leaving already One wonders, if you did actually know about the 4 seasons thing, why you wanted to leave in the first place. It sounds illogical. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 12, 2004 Author Share Posted May 12, 2004 Quote: Originally posted by d=(^o^)=b: I plan to have my visa voided at the local Japanese Embassy in London. Well that didn't go quite as planned. Plan B. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 They wouldn't let ya? What's plan B? I know what you mean about leaving. Part of it is just the Being Done with a place and the appetent pleasure/excitement at going to the next place. But a big part of leaving Japan is being back in a place where the culture and lifestyle are your native ones or close to them...a place where you can read every publication without a dictionary, where you can give customer service reps a dose of the clean truth when you've been done, where you can handle your relationships with everyone from homeless to Hollywood in your own tongue. And part of it is escaping a fairly regimented, closed and rigid society that can be frustrating for foreigners in so many ways. After I quit my job in Tokyo in 2002, I hung around for a few months and it really sucked. I'd never had so much free time since school days, but there was precious little to do and nobody to do it with. Walking around the streets in casual clothes on weekdays, when everyone else was in a suit even in 38-degree weather, made me feel like I was some kind of loser and outcast. I could go to a cafe and have a $5 coffee and sit there like an idiot. I could go back to my room and look at the Internet. Some weekends I could surf with my buddies...after a 3-hr. drive. Then I remember getting back to Walled Lake, MI. In a matter of days I had a big Ford Expedition, a mountain bike with endless miles of forest trails to ride, and family and friends all up and down the road. I remember lying on the carpet in a house all my own, staring out the window at the lush green trees, woods and pond in the back...all mine. I remember walking out my front door onto the shore of Walled Lake...my sis pulling up in a brand-new X-Star to pull us on the wakeboard and wakeskate...coolers of iced beer and booze all over the place...the liquor store even had a dock from which you could buy this stuff. Cutting the lawn, washing the car, going to the grocery store where nobody jammed past me in a tiny aisle elbowing my kidneys...I never had to walk behind smokers holding my breath, no old ladies pestered me on Sunday afternoons to pay TV taxes, nobody complained about how I put out my garbage, I didn't have to register with anyone and inform the local cops that I was living there, I called gas, water, electricity and phone service on Sunday night a 2 am and they were all open...I went to the bank at 6 pm on Saturday and they were open... It was all so easy and free. I just got back to Tokyo in March, and I could feel the doors slam shut. My commute involves 7 minutes on the train, and 28 minutes of lining up and waiting. I have to wait to go thru the wicket at my station, line up to shuffle down the stairs to the train, get jammed in and stepped on and crushed on the train, have to line up to shuffle up the stairs to the station, line up to get out of the wickets, walk in tiny chopping footsteps at a painfully slow pace to my building where, surprise, you actually have to line up and wait about 2-3 minutes to get on an elevator. Yes, they are backed up into the hallway. No cooler there either, you are dripping wet with sweat and exhausted before you even sit down at your desk...and you haven't even done a god damned thing yet!! Just one tiny part of the whole frustrating puzzle of living here. Not a bad country, not a bad town, but really, to make a life in Tokyo? Sheesh. I'm not saying these are the thins that are wrong with Japan and Tokyo. I'm just saying these are some things that were wrong with ME BEING IN Japan and Tokyo. Big difference. Deebs, enjoy it! You got out!! Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 12, 2004 Author Share Posted May 12, 2004 Well said and welcome back!! >>I'm not saying these are the thins that are wrong with Japan and Tokyo. I'm just saying these are some things that were wrong with ME BEING IN Japan and Tokyo. Big difference. That is also the way I see it. When I was at the J embassy today I did enjoy seeing an instant clutch of cute Japanese girls. Like most western countries, the average girl in London is not cute, so it was nice to see the average Japanese girl. As many point out, this is a high point about life in Japan. Pity I didn’t indulge in my Tokyo days (I lived a very ‘respectful’ life and unlike most foreign men, didn’t consume a different girl every week). I have short lived moments now where I kick myself for this . Not really. Had I played around I would never have made the one fantastic Japanese female friend that I did. Her support and friendship was worth the endless flow of cute girls that every other foreign guy enjoys in Japan. This info might help to explain the faux-bitterness that I am showing Sirens adventures in J-girl wonder land Plan B is get it cancelled by sending it to my employers visa legal rep in Tokyo and having him make the appropriate representations to the authorities. Plan C is have it cancelled by sending in my alien rego card (this automatically voids the visa, but there is no physical stamp to evidence it in my passport) Plan D is either wait 12 months for it to expire naturally or make a quick visit to Japan to screw 20 girls in 24 hours and also get my visa cancelled on the way out. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 Quote: unlike most foreign men Not "most", db, honest. Hows London then? Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderbird2 0 Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 db - why couldn't you get that done? Link to post Share on other sites
brit-gob 9 Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 hey badmigraine - if you may.... why did you come back to the prizun?? Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 I hate mailing off my passport anywhere. Even if you ignore the risk of loss or theft, I hate to be without it. Not that I may suddenly need it. It just bugs me to send it off anywhere. Compulsive stress. I guess you're "required" to appoint a "tax representative" before you leave Japan. That person, by signing the form, effectively becomes responsible for your tax payments if you don't make them. I hope your visa rep doesn't say sorry, but we earn our living by following the law and getting cooperation from J bureaucrats so as rule-followers we report to you the fact that before we can ask the J immigration office to cancel your visa on your behalf, you have to appoint a tax rep and send proof... As for sending in your Alien Card, that sounds a palatable. Make sure you take photocopies of everything you send, and use a form of delivery that allows proof of delivery/signer (FedEx has this option). Finally, why wouldn't the J Embassy in London cancel your visa? Seems a fairly straightforward request that wouldn't deserve refusal. Was it the tax representative thing? Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted May 13, 2004 Share Posted May 13, 2004 brit-gob, it was the compromise of all compromises. Herewith follows the sad story. My Japanese wife is pregnant, and prefers to have the baby in her own language and hospital culture. Her English is not great, so I can understand and honor this request to return to Japan for childbirth. We would have liked to do this in her hometown in Okayama...if not just for the pleasure of finally being within striking distance of a glass of red with Ocean, who lives across the great Seto bridge in Shikoku, but also to be with my wife's family in a pleasanter part of Japan than I've ever lived in. Would have been dreamy to spend a couple years there. Also, this type of support and honoring of the pregnant wife's wishes raised me greatly in the estimation of my peers, not to mention all women on the planet. However, between you and me, the real kicker was on the 2nd day of my internet search for Japan jobs from the comfort of my lakeside Michigan abode. Over the wires the electronic message came...my old employer offering to take me back at triple my former salary. "Yay, what manner of fowl alights in that guilded cage..." -the end- Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 13, 2004 Author Share Posted May 13, 2004 Quote: Originally posted by Thunderbird2: db - why couldn't you get that done? Not sure why they couldn't cancel it. I thought that they issue visas so they should be able to cancel them as well. I was told nothing more than "that is not the system", by a middle aged Japanese guy after he consulted with an older and crustier Japanese guy sitting at a drab desk with no computer. These guys were surrounded by a few cute looking OL types. It really was a sad little slice of Japanese office culture in London. When I left I couldn't help but feel for the enthusiastic and hopeful looking western guys sitting in the waiting room who were applying for visas. They probably think they are off to the land of mystic ancient culture. Although one of them looked like he was quite proud of his anime movie collection. He had pimples. The guarantor/tax representative concept was the dumbest thing I had ever heard. Even the Japanese guys who spoke to the ward office on my behalf were shocked at the unrealistic concept. I also agree that putting a passport in the postal system is an uncomfortable act. I would prefer not to do it. I got drunk last night. I would rather get raped in a prison shower block than have this hangover. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 So you're saying the hangovers are the same, whatever country one's in? Link to post Share on other sites
mogski 0 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 If you are not wanting to pay the taxes now that you are out of the country might I suggest that you falsify your return address when you send you card back. Link to post Share on other sites
mina2 6 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 I wonder where all this fits in with not paying bills from 5 years ago and ducking ropes, starting a war, etc etc Link to post Share on other sites
danz 0 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 I need to get in on some of this info... so what happens if I don't do anything when I leave here?? like keep my gaijin-card, keep my visa status, etc... where do I get forms for my pension rebate?? who can be my tax representative?? can I still get a tax refund for taxes I have paid in 2004? of course, like db, I need to do all this without any mention of my ward taxes and how about just not paying my keitai bills?? hehe...just tell me how to maximize my scam danz Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 ward taxes are not that huge unless you are earning big bikkies. I only paid about 4man on 2mill of "declared " income Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted May 22, 2004 Share Posted May 22, 2004 db - did you get any further on this at all?? Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 22, 2004 Author Share Posted May 22, 2004 nope, I am waiting for my returned rego acrd to be processed and my viasa cancelled. After that I will attempt to claim my pension and hopefully avoid a tangle with the ward tax issue. Link to post Share on other sites
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