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What is your citizenship worth?

I was thankfully reunited with my passport today after having to relinquish it for a visa application for China. While perusing the interwebs, I found this interesting article about ex-pats converting to ex’s.

For U.S. citizens, cutting ties with their native land is a drastic and irrevocable step. But as Overseas American Week, a lobbying effort by expatriate-advocacy groups, convenes in Washington this week, it’s one that an increasing number of American expats are willing to take. According to government records, 502 expatriates renounced U.S. citizenship or permanent residency in the fourth quarter of 2009 — more than double the number of expatriations in all of 2008. And these figures don’t include the hundreds — some experts say thousands — of applications languishing in various U.S. consulates and embassies around the world, waiting to be processed. While a small number of Americans hand in their passports each year for political reasons, the new surge in permanent expatriations is mainly because of taxes.

– Time Magazine, HELENA BACHMANN / GENEVA

I’m certainly not close to giving up my US passport, especially since I would be without a country if I did that. I’m lucky that I don’t have to worry about my taxes as part of my ex-pat package. But if I was in a country for 10 or 20 years, and had gone “local hire” and planned to retire in that country, what would I do?

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Sakura 2010

Sakura for 2010 has come and gone. Well, I assume it is gone since I’m not actually in Japan at this time. When I left last week, the wind and the rain were taking their toll on the trees.

I was able to enjoy sakura a little bit this year, although I think the peak time was probably when I was in between traveling to and from the UK just prior to traveling to the US. On a side note, I will say that I am very relieved that I got out of the UK before Eyjafjallajokull erupted. (Say Eyjafjallajokull fast three times, come on, I DARE you!). So, although I missed the peak, I did get some early viewing in and some night viewing.

Sakura 2010

Luckily, Yahoo! Japan has an entire guide to cherry blossoms on their website, so you can see EXACTLY what the conditions are throughout the country. There are also other websites dedicated to watching the progress of the blossoms, such as this one for Nagoya.

Tomo and I went to Tsuramai Park early in the season for our own little 花見 (はなみ – hanami – cherry blossom viewing party). As always, you can count on festival foods – the really unhealthy stuff. We had からあげ (karaage – fried chicken), 焼そば (yakisoba – fried soba noodles), and were tempted by たこ焼き (takoyaki – squid in a dough ball). And, of course, beer. Public consumption of alcohol is stilled allowed in Japan. I wonder when that will end?

A week later I went out on my own on a lonely Saturday night to 山崎川 (やまざきがわ – Yamazakigawa). I knew that Yamazakigawa had illumination and I thought that the path started near Aratamabashi, but when I found the river and started walking the correct direction (courtesy of my trusty iPhone GPS) I was underwhelmed. There were lots of cherry trees but very low level lighting. It was cold as well, and I was bundled up. I kept walking though, knowing that there should be something more dramatic. Eventually I found a mob of people and overly illuminated cherry trees. Clearly I was there.

Sakura is a great time of year in Japan, signaling the beginning of springtime. Once I returned from the UK, spring was busting out all over. I’m sure that when I get back just before Golden Week, Spring will have sprung completely.

Enjoying Tsuramai (or Tsurama) Park.

Sakura 2010 - Tsurama Park

Sakura 2010 - Tsurama Park

Sakura 2010 - Tsurama Park

 

The underwhelming night view along Yamazakigawa…

Sakura 2010 - Yamazakigawa

 

… that fortunately got better further down the path.

Sakura 2010 - Yamazakigawa

Sakura 2010 - Yamazakigawa

Sakura 2010 - Yamazakigawa

 

As I was meandering through the streets trying to find my way to a different subway station, saved again by my iPhone GPS, I stumbled across some interesting architecture including this overgrown gerbil habitat. Interesting.

Habitrail for Humanity

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2th Anniverth

To my single reader, I apologize for my lack of postings. The past few weeks have been very busy. I had family visiting, then a busy time at work, a business trip to the UK, two days back in the office, and now an annual home leave to the US. Weekends were spent showing people around, recovering, or preparing for the next trip. So my posting has taken a hit. I have things queued in my head though, so hopefully now that I have some quiet time in the US I’ll get those written.

Happy Anniversary!

As the title sort of indicates, I celebrated the end of my second year in Japan on April 2. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. Will I last to a third? Right now, I’m scheduled to go home towards the end of this year but the situation is always dynamic. I know that sometime I will have to go back, but I’m not ready to leave Japan. I suspect the blog will start talking about the repatriation process in the near future. Since this blog is ostensibly about the ex-pat experience, I think repatriation should be a part of it as well.

At this point I am 24 months into a 19 month assignment and happy to be in Japan. I’ve got to figure out how to get the work / life balance correct so I can make sure I get the most of the experience. That will be a challenge. I have plans to go to Ishigaki in Okinawa for the first time in May, and I’ll be going to Shanghai in June for the World Expo so I have some cool things to look forward to before the start of the rainy season.

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Making Nagoya fatter

I have family visiting, so I’ve been able to take some time off. I’m visiting places I rarely see outside of the weekend or evening hours. It is kind of interesting. Hey, people in black suits, what are you doing in Bic Camera at 2:30 pm? GET TO WORK!

Today, my brother and I joined all the junior high school kids who are on vacation and wandered about. I think we’ve pooped out my mother so she stayed behind and read. We’ve had a pretty busy time since they got here so a little down time for a woman who was almost a teenager as WWII ended was probably OK.

Since the weather was nice, we decided to walk from my apartment to Nagoya Station, so I entered the station from street level instead of from the subway. As soon as I arrived, I saw a long line. There was a baumkuchen shop that had opened up previously that used to have quite the line. Things had settled down. But then I noticed a sign that said, “Krispy Kreme” in Japanese. Oh no, not again.

Which way for the Krispy Kreme line?
 

Unfortunately, this wasn’t my first Krispy Kreme in Japan experience.

Lining up in 2007

Here’s the crowd in May, 2007, in Shinjuku in Tokyo.
 

Unfortunately, my fears were realized and a new Krispy Kreme has sprouted up, this time at Nagoya Station. The lines in Tokyo were at least an hour and a half when it first opened. I suspect that the wait in Nagoya is the same.

Lining up in 2010
 

Steve and I were lamenting the fattening of Japan, and the bad influence of western diet. Then we went to the ramen shop in the train station where we noticed huge tins of refined lard. Hmmmm.

Ramen. Yum
 

The refined lard makes the heat stay in the ramen. And quoting a friend quoting from “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Fat is the medium by which flavor travels. Fat is what makes food taste good. This is why a wise and loving God gave us fat in the first place.”

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Doubly boneheaded

I typically us a train credit pass to get around Nagoya. It works on both the Meitetsu train lines and the Nagoya subway lines. That’s good for me because those are the lines I use the most. I could get a monthly pass, but there isn’t great value to those, they are expensive, and I think I am prone to losing that kind of thing.

I buy a card for 5000 yen that has 5600 in credit. Hey, that’s over 10% free. The problem of course is that the amount you have on the card at the end never equals an amount that you actually need for the next train ride. You know how much you have by the display as you pass through the wicket and by the fine printing on the back of your card. (As an interesting side note, you can insert the card in any orientation, it will come up correctly stamped. Cool, huh?)

Nagoya subway / train pass

Today I had 100 yen left on my card. My total commute is 490 yen, which 290 yen on the Meitetsu train and 200 yen on the subway. At the ticket machines, you can put your old card in and that acts as money. Then you “top off” the machine to the amount you need, get a regular ticket, and drop your now liquidated pass into the little recycle box. Tonight I was very distracted – it was another 12+ hours at the office, I had a phone call, and I was tired. When I got to the ticket machine and inserted my card and cash, I chose a 490 yen ticket. That’s great, that’s the total of my trip, but that is the total of BOTH tickets. Drat.

At every exit is a “Fare Adjustment Machine” where you can update your ticket if you ended up riding the train further than the cost of your regular ticket. I thought I’d try the reverse of that – try for a refund since I overpaid. Guess what? It doesn’t work that way. So I put my 490 yen ticket for my 290 yen fare into the wicket and hoped that maybe it would pop out the other end. Nope. Oh well. Out 200 yen.

When I got to my subway entrance, I needed to buy a new pass. So I inserted my 10,000 yen note (over $100) and push the buttons but got button happy and push the wrong combination and ended up buying a 290 yen ticket. DRAT!!!! I wanted a 5000 yen pass. So now I was another 90 yen overpaid. I finally got my pass, and finally got home, after paying 780 yen for a 490 yen fare!

Meitetsu train at Jingumae

 

To cap off the evening, I was able to pass a guy talking on the telephone, smoking a cigarette, and urinating into the planter in front of Lawson on my main thoroughfare as I was walking home from the subway station after work. Now that is class!