I’m a Programmer – It’s Official

If you were fresh out of school and moving to Japan for 10 years, what would you hope to achieve? No doubt you’d want to travel the country, learn about the culture and indulge in such oddities as Pachinko, Print Club, karaoke boxes and authentic sushi restaurants. But 10 years? You’d probably be keen to learn new skills and advance your career somehow. Actually, I’m not so sure anyone makes […]

God, I’m So Illiterate!

I’ve just come back from immigration where I went to hand in a double application for both spouse visa renewal and permanent residency. Everything seemed to be in order, but at the end I was asked to fill in a form that gave my permission for immigration to make copies of some documents. I may have been in Japan for over a decade, but my Japanese skills are sadly lacking. […]

Ramsay Ramblings 2009-08-02

Renewing my visa After being told it was too late to apply for permanent residency a few months ago, I recently tried to apply for a renewal of my spouse visa. Typical of me, I didn’t take half the documentation I needed so was sent home with instructions to gather the rest. Surprisingly, this time I was told to submit both my spouse and permanent residency applications together so I’m […]