Jo and I were en route to the Immigration Bureau in Shinagawa today when a rather strapping young man tapped my shoulder at the convenience kiosk.

He whipped out his wallet from his pocket and I immediately thought he was going to sell me something.

Turned out it was a gold-plated police crest and he was a plainclothes policeman who wanted to see my alien registration card.

I have heard so many stories of other people being stopped by the police and asked for their id, but I figured that my face was Asian enough to blend into the crowd. Never before in my one year stay have I ever been approached, and how ironic that I was actually on my way to extend my work visa.

Must have been the fact that I was wearing a camisole (a hint of cleavage, bared arms, the audacity!) with big sunnies and chewing my gum with a buey song look on my face, but I felt secretly proud to be noticed as an alien.

Anyways.

After waiting in line for 2 hours in the office, I hopped on the Keihin-Tohuku line down to Ueno to meet Mellie on her break and we had lunch, went to the park and took a bunch of silly photos.