so, this friday kind of snuck up on me. i had no idea it was the 13th! but, the one thing that did sneak up on me was my visa. it expires on the 13th. i thought it expired on the 18th, which is when it always expired before. i guess, however, that when i changed my visa status three years ago, they went with the date i did it, because i still had just over a year left on my previous visa. kind of a bummer, actually, because i actually remember the 18th as my expiration day. i guess i'm doing pretty good just to remember what year my visa is expiring in! ha!

i looked at the immigration office information online, but all i could find was the location and phone number (not what i needed to bring with me; not in english anyway). i tried asking my online buddies but i thought that since my visa was expiring tomorrow, i better get my butt down to the immigration office asap. i took my passport and foreign resident card (the 'gajin card') with me, which is exactly what i needed to get my application started. i also need several other papers, but thankfully i could turn in the application and get a stamp in my passport, and send the other papers in asap. whew! but you know what the weirdest part was? when i took my number from the machine, it was 13! i was afraid that was bad luck, but thankfully i got through with very little trouble (the immigration officer was a bit confused since i didn't have all my paperwork, but after several minutes asking around and looking up information, he got my visa renewal application started.) now, i just have to get yoshi to get all those papers together and sent off for me!