How the translation warrior spent the day, or it spent him

The translation warrior is beat. Not by a dozen pages of kanji, not by hours of worthless meetings, not even by last night's beer, but by getting a re-entry permit. The Yokohama Immigration office has moved. Not only is it farther away, but it's either a bus ride from one station or a thirty-minute walk from another. The translation warrior does not like the bus, so that left the walk. By the way, it's the rainy season with muggy afternoons at 90 degrees.

His trip started at Starbucks, surprising no one that knows him. Half of the lights were off and the air inside warm. When he mentioned the dark, he was told that today being July 1, energy conservation measures were starting. This to make up for the decreased energy output caused by Tepco's clever placement of under-designed nuclear power plants in a tsunami zone. Guess they never thought a big earthquake might happen in a place like Japan.

After sufficient charging by caffeine, he tackled the trek, taking the train first to Nagatsuta, changing there for the train to Yokohama and traveling all the way the bloody hell out to a station called Shinsugita, changing there to the Seaside line, and getting off two stops later at Torihama for a total of an hour and fifteen or so minutes.

The subsequent thirty-minute walk took him through the humidity and by a huge marina packed with yachts. He wondered if many left the dock on weekends, or just served as party platforms. Nothing against that. He passed a lot of factories (poor substitutes for all the elegant little boutiques on the way to Immigration's previous location). Ahead, he could even see freighters gliding between buildings.

Immigration procedures comprised filling in his birthday, passport number, nationality, and everything else for the millionth time in his career in Japan, submitting the application, buying a 6,000 yen revenue stamp to pay the fee, waiting, and then getting his passport back with his new re-entry permit good for three years.

Now back the other way.

By the time he got home, dusk had lowered from the clouds, and evening was settling in. One whole day gone. Good thing there's no work right now.