Alita Schratwieser comments

Geoff,

No one in their right mind who moved to Japan not just to be "that gaijin" goes to roppingi... ever.

Your info is incorrect. Wendy's has 2 shops. The first one was opened in Roppongi (and is unfortunately both a Wendy's / Lotteria... eww at the second)

And dunno why the hate for McDonald's. Still delicious to me.

If anyone waited til now to do it, you are an idiot. We have had 3 years to get these very convenient cards that no longer require reentry visas or having your visa in your passport. Everything is on the card. Most of us had common sense and got them changed over as soon as they were initiated.

I pity those of you that HAVE to use Shinagawa as anyone in another prefectural jurisdiction can go to ones that are much less crowded and have staff that are only patient if you have the correct paperwork (which is a positive thing as it means lines aren't held up by the staff helping you do the documents.) Move outside of the Tokyo district. I recommend Kanagawa as Kawasaki Shinyurigaoka office is awesome and it took 20 minutes when I renewed visa 3 years ago just as it was initiated and was getting me and my husband our new cards . Same when he went to switch over to dependent visa after graduating college.

Well though it's costly I'll stick to the two major airlines when flying to Okinawa because they are super comfortable and there are no extra charges / hassle.

kibousha

Thanks for providing evidence that the same mutations were already occurring, was an interesting read.

Filed taxes my first year here as soon as I was eligible for the exemption and have not done so since. Got something from IRS sent to Japan my second year saying they wanted more verification than I gave and just ignored it. Have not filed taxes with US since and don't plan to as I live here in Japan. I do my Japanese taxes every February, I do not see the need to explain my income earned outside the country in nothing related to the USA to the USA.

Probie, thank you. That was one of the things I wanted to point out. The No Nukes signs are so annoying. I'm not pro or anti, but as someone living in Tokyo I know they are necessary for now.

All these people saying "Well, we did fine last year"... yeah when 40+ reactors were still online and the entire country (especially Kanto) was in extreme energy save mentality. The same mentality is not going to work a year later. Now, I'm conserving power but only at the threat of the rates going up (thank goodness they haven't yet) and the fact that I have a very old energy hog of an air conditioner.

Why is no one running many of you ask, because many of us (both gaijin like me and Japanese) aren't paranoid and afraid of radiation. Cancer is something that is unavoidable regardless of how much of a bubble you live in nowadays. Those of us who didn't fly away in the Kanto and Tohoku area have been doing just fine drinking the tap water and eating the local foods for the last few months.