Oh visas...

 Woaaaah new layout say what say whaaaaat?

I don't know if I'm totally crazy, the Japanese are ridiculously thorough and concise, or I've just been anxious, but visas take FOREVER. Not sure how it works for other countries, but for Japan, I had to send in an application to apply for an application for a visa in April. Didn't make sense? It shouldn't. Because it's CRAZINESS. Basically, I sent an application to Japan asking for a Certificate of Eligibility saying that I wasn't a crazy psychopath, and that I'd be safe to be let in. I'm sure the people at the Japanese Consulate in Chicago were terrified when a 5' 3", 17-year-old girl walked in and asked for a visa. I digress. So I sent that application in April... just got it back on Monday (2 days ago, in case you didn't feel like thinking for too long). Unlike myself, my mother is not a procrastinator whatsoever (unless it has to do with making a phone call), and as such, she made sure that before I got the COE back I would have my visa application prepared so that we could apply for one right away. 

That happened today. Woohoooo, we sure don't waste time, right? Alright, it was too late to go on Monday, and yesterday I had already made plans and really, what difference would 1 day make? So after some traffic, including a man on a motorcycle blasting his soul music for all to hear (in all honesty, I thought it was hilarious), my mother, brother and myself made it to the Consulate. We ended up parking in this super fancy parking garage (most likely because it was directly underneath Neiman Marcus...) in which I felt extremely out of place. Out of place in a parking garage? What? Yes. Being surround by Mercedes and Lexuses (?) and mustangs and god knows what other $90,000+ cars can be a bit intimidating when you arrive in a Toyota Rav4. 

Anyway, (clearly I was fascinated by the elegance of the place) we made it upstairs and were ushered into a cramped little room, walls littered with Japanese news, precautions to be taken whilst in the room, etc. The security guard that let us in (yes, it was locked) scanned us for... weapons I'm assuming. As I mentioned earlier, I'm very intimidating. He also offered us hand sanitizer... however I'm not sure if offered is the right word; he kind of just gave it to us before we were even ready so I'm assuming it was mandatory. On to the little window with the word 'visa' on it. I started giving the man my papers, and then remembered that I had to ask about a few things that I didn't fill out in case I did it wrong. Let's just say when I went to write down what I needed to, I did it in the wrong blank and did the whole thing over again. Staleface. At first, the guy waited for me to finish, but then when he saw my epic failure he left to do other things. Finally! I finished the papers! A new person came to take those, checked them over and told me that the visa would be ready on Monday! :D 

Wow that took me a while... Sorry for the book. The scary thing is, I could have made this post a LOT longer. But I won't torture you all.

Stay tuned! Only 14 more days!!
-Ellie