While I had planned to go to Seoul for Obon to visit Soee, those plans unfortunately fell through. Her work is insanely busy right now, and she doesn't expect it to drop off until the end of August, so there was no way she would have time to see me. We'll have other chances, though. In the meantime, I thought I should take a few minutes to talk about what I had to do to get my re-entry permit.
To get a permit, I had to go to the nearest immigration office, which is in Koriyama. I could have taken a train, which would have been faster but also more expensive, but I decided to take a highway bus instead. After watching someone else do it, I bought a round-trip ticket for ¥2800 with the very simple phrase "Koriyama made" (to Koriyama.) The bus arrived around 10:30 AM, and after an hour and a half journey, I arrived at Koriyama station right around noon. I knew that the immigration office was closed for lunch from 12 – 1 PM, but I still had to take a bus to City Hall and find my way to immigration, so I had plenty of time.
Buses in Japan are interesting, and almost the exact opposite of San Francisco buses. Instead of getting on in the front and paying a flat fare, you get on in the back and take a ticket. Each stop you go costs a certain amount of money, so when you get off at your stop you put your ticket into a machine that calculates your total fare. One small problem is that the machines don't give change any smaller than ¥50. My trip from Koriyama station to City Hall cost ¥220, and the least I could pay was ¥250. Fortunately, the driver had ¥10 coupons that he gave me as change.
Once I got to City Hall, I wandered around for a little while trying to find immigration. I finally got up the nerve to ask someone where the immigration office was ("Immigration wa doko desu ka?") and got a very helpful map. Apparently the immigration office was not in City Hall, but about 5 minutes walk up the road. On my way there, I stopped in a convenience store to buy the ¥6000 revenue stamp I needed. The clerk didn't understand my broken Japanese at first, but she got the picture after I showed her the permit application. I got a laugh out of her with "sukoshi Nihongo" (little Japanese,) and she replied with "sukoshi Eigo" (little English.)
I found the immigration office a few minutes later, just before 1 PM. I had a few mistakes on my form, and the clerk didn't speak an appreciable amount of English, but he was able to give good enough examples that I was able to make the corrections. The whole process took about 10 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise. On my way back to the bus stop, I stopped at a convenience store inside City Hall and picked up some intriguing-looking soap. It was made of rice bran, and had a variety of smells that included peach, avocado and chocolate. They were surprisingly expensive – I spent about ¥5000 on four bars of soap – but I got the impression that they were a local artisanal craft, and the clerk seemed really pleased that I was interested in them.
I got back to Koriyama station around 1:30 PM and finally got some lunch. As usual, I ordered by pointing at a picture, though this time I misunderstood the picture. I thought I was getting a bowl of hot ramen, but what I got was closer to a cold, salady version of ramen. It wasn't bad, though, and was kind of welcome given that the temperature outside was in the 30s/80s. After lunch, I bought a box of sweets as omiyage (traveling gifts) for the office and found my way to the return highway bus stop. I got back to Iwaki around 4:30 PM, and after doing a little grocery shopping returned to my apartment about 5 PM, exhausted but satisfied.
I wish I could have had more time to explore Koriyama, but the whole trip took long enough as is and I didn't honestly know where else to go. It was also very expensive: over ¥10,000 just for transportation and the permit. Fortunately, the permit itself is good until my visa expires, so hopefully I can make use of it another time. This little adventure also taught me how to use the bus system, which I expect to make good use of now that I'm staying in Iwaki for Obon.
