We are all set with our Chinese passports, but even before we leave for this trip, we have a story to tell.
On Monday, October 19th we headed out towards the Chinese Embassy in Sapporo, but for safety's sake called ahead to confirm what we needed to bring. Shiz was told that we needed to bring nothing and that I only needed to bring residency confirmation from City Hall. We both assumed that they tacitly included passports in the list of Things to Bring. Shiz, being a smart woman, proposed that we get some pictures just in case, so we picked some up on the way.
The Embassy gaurd was pretty nice and congenial, but once we got inside we found all lights off in a dim, post-colonial style building with two huge vases of flowers with one root in the grave. That alone was laughable enough, ubt the receptionist took that cake. It must have been everybody's day off, because he was very confused, could not speak a word of English or Japanese, and in a gym teacher's track suit! "Surely not......" we though, but it surely was. So after gestures and lots of pointing (from him, we at least tried speaking) we figured out what room to go to and what to write down.
Once we met the officer, it jsut got sketchier. He took our passports and photos, my residency letter, then asked Shiz for hers, which of course she didn't have as they didn't tell her that she needed it. He was shocked, we were shocked, Track Suit Guy might have been shocked had he understood what had happened. When Shiz said that she didn't have it, he nervously replied "We'll figure something out." Ahhh, the reassurance that afforded us. With little other choice, we leeft it up to him, paid our $180 processing fee (Japanese: $30 US citizens: $150), handed over our passports, and left to come back on Thursday. Needless to say, we were not very comforted by our Monday experience.
Luckily, the lady on Thursday was nice, professional, and could speak Japanese well. We walked in, got our passports, made sure everything checked out, then headed out before they tried anything. So, we are all ready for China!
On Monday, October 19th we headed out towards the Chinese Embassy in Sapporo, but for safety's sake called ahead to confirm what we needed to bring. Shiz was told that we needed to bring nothing and that I only needed to bring residency confirmation from City Hall. We both assumed that they tacitly included passports in the list of Things to Bring. Shiz, being a smart woman, proposed that we get some pictures just in case, so we picked some up on the way.
The Embassy gaurd was pretty nice and congenial, but once we got inside we found all lights off in a dim, post-colonial style building with two huge vases of flowers with one root in the grave. That alone was laughable enough, ubt the receptionist took that cake. It must have been everybody's day off, because he was very confused, could not speak a word of English or Japanese, and in a gym teacher's track suit! "Surely not......" we though, but it surely was. So after gestures and lots of pointing (from him, we at least tried speaking) we figured out what room to go to and what to write down.
Once we met the officer, it jsut got sketchier. He took our passports and photos, my residency letter, then asked Shiz for hers, which of course she didn't have as they didn't tell her that she needed it. He was shocked, we were shocked, Track Suit Guy might have been shocked had he understood what had happened. When Shiz said that she didn't have it, he nervously replied "We'll figure something out." Ahhh, the reassurance that afforded us. With little other choice, we leeft it up to him, paid our $180 processing fee (Japanese: $30 US citizens: $150), handed over our passports, and left to come back on Thursday. Needless to say, we were not very comforted by our Monday experience.
Luckily, the lady on Thursday was nice, professional, and could speak Japanese well. We walked in, got our passports, made sure everything checked out, then headed out before they tried anything. So, we are all ready for China!