Today marks what is hopefully the end of a long, complicated, horribly confusing period of trying to renew my work visa/residency here in Japan.
The last time I renewed my visa was 5 years ago. Since then, I’ve changed jobs, which complicates things somewhat, and they changed the requirements for extending one’s residency, which apparently doubles the paperwork and triples the related headaches.
Getting everything together in the first place required a lot of run-around. New forms to fill out, new documents to procure. After weeks of preparation, I finally went to submit everything on April 8th, and that turned into an ordeal of a day all on its own (see related blog post here).
The real kick in the pants, though, was the requirement for an additional five documents. These had to be procured and submitted not later than April 20th. I just about shit myself with frustration, but kept on pushing, and today (April 15th) I think I got the rest of it all worked out.
I think. I’ll know one way or another based on whether my next communication with the immigration office is one telling me I did something wrong or one telling me to come pick up my new residence card.
Either way, though, I feel an enormous weight off. The stress that had been fueling me in recent weeks (while also making my sleep quality crap) has all but entirely evaporated in the last few hours since putting the envelope containing the remaining documents in the mail.
I start the day’s teaching in an hour, and will have to be deliberately very active, because I am crashing. Fatigue is flooding into the space left by that dissipated stress energy. Didn’t even want to write anything today, but I’d rather not let the day get past me undocumented.
Tonight, sleep will come quickly and draw me down deep into that thick molasses darkness of overdue rest.
