USA Passport Renewal

Updated! [3/26/10--see bottom of post]


Updated again! [4/6/10--see bottom of post]

The good news about passport renewals is that many people can do so through the mail. Get the right-sized photos (currently 2 inches by 2 inches for American passports), fill out the forms online, print everything up, and then head off to the post office.

But that's where it gets a little tricky.

I personally found that he information on the US Embassy of Japan's website was a little misleading and could be simplified in several ways. It seems rather obvious that whoever typed up the guide on this site has not tried to renew their passport through the mail in Japan before. Or at least not recently at any rate.

Here's what I learned about the process.

Even though the website linked to above states that an Expack 500 should be used, I was informed that you are not allowed to send passports using them. I don't know who's correct on this one, but the people at the post office are generally pretty knowledgeable about sending valuable items. Instead I was directed to stick a registered S.A.S.E. envelope inside of a larger registered envelope addressed to the US Embassy in Minato Ward, Tokyo. I assume that the US Embassy in Tokyo plays the middleman on this exchange, but I have yet to receive my new passport in the mail. I'll update this post when I have the new passport in my hands.

Another thing to pay close attention to is who the 'payee' for this transaction is. For those of us living in and around Tokyo, the US Embassy Tokyo is the payee. Their address, if I'm not mistaken, is: 

Unit 9800 Box 114 APO AP 96303-0114 USA.

The above information is necessary when filling out the required paperwork for an international payment and declaration. 

This is confusing because the payee appears to be residing in two countries at the same time. No explanation is given for this on the US Embassy of Japan website. The important thing, however, is that you don't actually send the parcel with your soon-to-expire passport to the payee's address as written above. Or at least that is how I was advised in an e-mail from someone at the embassy.

Instead, you must send your registered parcel to the following address:

American Embassy Passport Unit 1-10-5 Akasaka Minato-ku Tokyo 107-8420

I'm interested to see whether my passports (one new and one old) will be returned to me in the registered envelope I sent, or if the US Embassy will break the rules and use Expack 500. 

Hopefully what I've written here will help someone else who is having a hard time deciphering the information on the US Embassy of Japan website. It would be really helpful if there was a step-by-step guide--one for military personnel and a completely separate one for civilians. And both of those guides should be completely separated from information guiding current American residents who also wish to renew their passports. 

Unfortunately, in some cases, the information overlaps or is presented side-by-side. I guess the bottom line is that you need to read everything on that website carefully. 

Additional notes for American citizens (civilians) residing in Japan:

• an international postal money order is called a kokusai yubin kawase in Japanese.
• there is a 2,000 yen fee for this service.
• the passport renewal fee (US$75) plus the optional quick service fee (US$60) works out to a little over 12,300 yen by today's exchange rate (91.39 yen to the dollar). That's just a bit under 15,000 yen all together. [updated 3/26/10]
• make sure that your photos are taken on a white background.
• don't staple your photos to the application form even though it clearly says to do so.
• write your name very lightly on the back of the photos so that you don't put grooves that show through on the picture side.

Update 3/26/10: My passport application was returned yesterday. The problem was that my postal money order was rejected on account of being for too much money. "Expedited" service is apparently not available for non-US addresses.

This is annoying, to say the least, because this fact is not mentioned anywhere on the embassy's website. Furthermore, you are allowed to select the expedited service option while filling out your documents online, and the $60 fee is tacked onto your bill.

More annoying still is the fact that I had to repay the 2,000 yen processing fee for having a second postal money order issued, this time in the amount of $75 dollars.

The US Embassy in Japan would do well to indicate this important point on its passport renewal instructions page.

Oh, and the two photos I sent were returned to me not in their small envelope, but rather paper-clipped to my application. That left a nice crease down the left side. I'm now predicting that my application gets returned to me next week due to this new problem (I opted to use the same photos again as it costs 700 yen to get new ones).

Update 4/6/10: I just received my new passport in the mail. That was fast--basically a week and a half from the second time I shipped my passport. All told, including the misstep in the first update to this post, the process took less than three weeks. That's still much faster than the four to six commonly cited on the embassy website.

And I can confirm that NOT using an Expack 500 will still get your documents back to you in one piece. Just make sure that you register the S.A.S.E. envelope that you tuck in the original package with your soon-to-expire passport. Also, make sure that you put enough postage on the return envelope to carry the weight of both your old and new passports.

Oh, and they returned one of my two passport photos. Not sure why they needed two in the first place...

USA Passport Renewal

Japan Booze Blind: Third type beer

Japan Eats is steadily building up content, and the feedback that we're getting from friends and followers on Twitter and Facebook has been been fantastic!

There are now four JBB videos loaded on the site, and our food show, Tokyo Bites, should make its debut in February. We're definitely very excited about this--especially since the title of the site does not currently match up with the majority of the content that we've produced thus far.

If you have any suggestions for what we should do a future show on, whether it's Japan's interpretation of Korean soups such as sundubu or something as standard as sushi, please feel free to either comment on this site, over at Japan Eats, or on Twitter.

Or you can also e-mail me at pellegrini [at] japaneats [dot] tv.

And while you're at it, please drop by Japan Eats and watch the latest JBB episode which covers three beers produced by brewing-behemoth Kirin. My two guests on the show are Rachael White, food-blogger extraordinaire over at Tokyo Terrace, and Joe Nakamura, an actor that I met while filming last year's Hagetaka.

Japan Booze Blind: Third type beer

Japan Booze Blind on "Japan Eats"

The Beaujolais Nouveau just hit shelves a week ago, and the reaction was pretty muted compared too years past. On the left is a photo from my local supermarket, Seiyu, where all the expensive wine was deserving of in terms of presentation was a big unused cooler with an island made from a red, felt-covered box.

There's a write-up on this phenomenon and how it pertains to Japan here, and since we're talking about alcohol anyway, let me take a moment to pimp a project that I'm working on right now.

"Japan Eats" is a new website that tries to introduce a wider audience to Japan's varied culinary and alcoholic delights. I host a show on the site called Japan Booze Blind in which blind tastings are used as an excuse for drinking alcohol early in the morning.

The site just officially went live today, so please stop by and check it out.

Japan Booze Blind on "Japan Eats"

FitWit Foundation

Some college friends of mine in Atlanta are doing something that I greatly admire. They're trying to improve the community where they live by mentoring and providing healthy lifestyle choices to the youth in the city. They are doing so through a foundation that they created called The FitWit Foundation.

My friends Ben and Josh are spearheading the foundation's efforts, and I know that they also run a separate fitness and tutoring program called FitWit that I believe involves Josh's wife, Erin.

It sounds like things are going well for them in Atlanta, and the best part is that they're truly helping to make a difference.

If you're interested in donating to The FitWit Foundation (registered nonprofit) to help them with their mission to battle childhood obesity rates, please register at Network for Good so that you can do so right now online.

Alternatively, you could write to Ben (ben@fitwit.com) or Josh (josh@fitwit.com) and share your thoughts on what they're doing.

[photo stolen from FitWit's website]

FitWit Foundation

Tokyo Yakult Swallows Blog

Our new blogging project, 燕軍： Tokyo Yakult Swallows, is doing quite well! There appears to be a large body of baseball fans, both in and outside Japan, that is interested in NPB, and the number of visitors to the site each day has continued to climb.

There's already a lot of content on the site (well, considering that it's only been up for a few weeks), so please pop on over and have a look.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows Blog

New Blog

Dave, Garrett and I have a new blogging project that is dedicated to the sap on our time, money and prospects for the future that is the Tokyo Swallows. The site, aptly named Tokyo Yakult Swallows, is up and running as of last night and will hopefully house some decent content within a week.

Much of my boring drivel about baseball will probably migrate over there. Or at least the marginally higher-quality stuff anyway. Some of the junk will likely show up here every once in a while.

New Blog

Japan Economy News in the Japan Times

Japan Economy News' Ken Worsley was interviewed for the Times' blogroll (article in English).

As you've probably figured out by now, Ken is a director at TPR (where I sometimes post) as well.

Japan Economy News in the Japan Times

Antivirus Program Switch (APS)

I'm in the middle of an anitvirus program switch (APS) again. I was with Norton for a long time (which is inexplicably popular), but bravely got over that addiction. Trend Micro's PC-cillin (aka Virus Buster in Japan) was a breath of fresh air in that it didn't conflict with most of the other things on my hard-drive (unlike Norton). The sudden dearth of blue screens of death was not something that I lamented. I stuck with Trend Micro for two years.

But Trend Micro was a bit of a resource hog. Not nearly as bad as Norton, but it still slowed my computer down to the point that it was difficult to have more than one other window open while I was doing a scan. Plus there was no perceivable way for me to switch to an English-based version of the software because I had originally downloaded the software over the Internet and I'm located in Tokyo (so I was only allowed to have a Japanese version of the software). I could have just lied and said that I was in America, but I believe that the fewer hassles the better when dealing with credit cards, so I opted to be truthful. Oops.

One other thing that annoyed me about Trend Micro is that it's not easy to delete it from your computer. They make it unnecessarily difficult to get rid of it. They require you to type in a password when you go through the control panel's add/delete program function (Windows). I've kept all of my correspondence with Trend Micro, and after a long-winded search I didn't find any mention of a password...in other words, I wasn't able to uninstall the very program that I paid money to purchase. That didn't make me happy. I expect this type of underhanded tactic from SONY; I don't appreciate it coming from companies that seem to be otherwise rooted in reality. Long story short--I may not go back to Trend Micro in the future even though I was relatively happy with the product.

Now I'm testing out NOD32 Antivirus which is doing pretty well so far. They provide a free trial download, so I'm currently working through that. The one problem that I've noticed so far is that iTunes is now acting all funky. I purchased an album from iTunes after the APS, and after allowing me to listen to the first two tracks, my computer lost the rest of the tracks. OK. Reboot, try again. My computer finds them and allows me to listen to one of the tracks that had previously disappeared, but then loses the rest of them again. When I say lose, I mean that a search of both hard-drives turns up empty. We'll see how that goes.

Other than that, NOD32 seems to be a bit lighter than the other programs I've tried in the past. Of course, my hard-drive is pretty well maxed out, so any antivirus program is going to have its work cut out trying to plow through such a huge number of files. But NOD32 seems to do its job without sucking up an unreasonable amount of computer resources.

Hopefully everything will work out with the iTunes conflict (I'm not discounting the possibility that remnants of Trend Micro are responsible for the bug), and I will become a paying NOD32 customer at the end of the month.

Antivirus Program Switch (APS)

Sites I Like

Here are a few websites/blogs that I have been paying a lot of attention to recently.

I usually only plug charities that I like, as well as Japan-related sites such as TPR and JEN, but I thought I'd add a bit of variety this time and highlight a couple other sites that don't fall within those genres.

You probably already know that I'm very fond of Korea, and I spend a lot of time
reading through posts over at The Marmot's Hole. The whole spectrum of life in Korea gets covered over there, so it's definitely worth a visit every now and again.

Re-Entry Japan is a new addition to the blogroll and is a site that shines a spotlight on the new practice of treating long-term residents in Japan like criminals (fingerprinting). Wait, please remind me once again why I'm paying taxes?

65-years-old and still storming around Mt. Everest. That's my friend Mr. Ota who lives just down the Seibu line from here. He has posted a treasure-trove of beautiful photos from his travels, and I'm sure that the collection will grow and grow because he has more trips in the works. The site is primarily in Japanese, but it's quite easy to navigate just by clicking. I'm not nearly as rugged as he is, but looking at those photos makes me want to head to Nepal. Tomorrow!

And this site is just plain fun (thanks for the heads up, RFD!).

Nothing I say is ever original, so now you know where I steal stuff from. Enjoy!

Sites I Like

Big Bucks for Freelance Audio Transcription

I occasionally peruse the job ads. Just to see what kind of opportunities money is out there. I don't know about you, but I often find myself wondering about any differences that may exist between the published hours, responsibilities, wage, benefits, etc. and reality.

While cruising through Gaijinpot.com this morning, looking for interesting tidbits on nothing in particular, I noticed a job ad for audio transcription. After clicking the link, I found that the company in question, Urban Connections, a "language solutions" firm in Tokyo, was hoping to add more freelancers to its network of audio transcribers.

An audio transcriber, just to be clear, is anyone who puts what is being said on paper. What is being said can involve everything from the minutes of a meeting to an interview to governmental press conferences, and the typing might be done live (on site) or while listening to a recording of the proceedings.

Anyway, Urban Connections is looking for freelance transcribers who would have the option of working at home, and the published wage is 8,000 - 10,000 yen per hour (US$70+/hr) of audio transcription. They ask that applicants have some free transcription software, an internet connection, Skype (which is also free), and a transcriber's foot pedal (which can be purchased for between fifty one hundred dollars).

Wow! That's a lot of cash for typing. So I dug a little deeper.

I googled "Urban Connections, transcription" and was led directly to the company website. Sure enough, they do a lot of conference organization, translation, interpretation, and transcription. And they're looking for interns, by the way.

The first two sites returned in the Google search were part of the company's site. Number three, however, linked to a Metropolis interview with Urban Connections founder Larry Greenberg.

Summary of the interview:

"We rarely outsource transcription work for people to do at home."

"We pay by the hour, which starts at JY2500 for a qualified person."

And what about a highly-skilled transcriber who brings
more value to the job?

"A 70-word-per-minute typist who is very knowledgeable about current
events, for example, could expect JY3000 per hour."

Oops.

It looks like this is one of those rare cases where both the job ad (ie. false advertising) and the reality (ie. about one third the published wage for experienced transcribers) have been made public at the same time.

Either someone at Urban Connections is trying to bait a bunch of people into applying so that they can search for the proverbial diamond in the rough, or some staffer really goofed on the wage over at Gaijinpot.com when they posted the ad.

Big Bucks for Freelance Audio Transcription

Giving to Education

You probably already noticed, but there is a big thermometer planted in the upper-righthand corner of this site. It's a link to the Donors Choose site where people can donate to a wide array of teacher-initiated projects.

The concept is simple and brilliant. Teachers write up proposals for projects that they would like to do in their classrooms and then post them on Donors Choose. Some teachers want to buy projectors to help make their classes more interactive, while other teachers are just looking for better calculators for their math classes. There are also plenty of schools looking for outside funding for their libraries. Then people like you can peruse the proposals and donate specifically to the project(s) that you think deserve support.

It is possible to search for projects that come from schools in very high poverty areas; one could also elect to send their money to hurricane battered school districts. The choice is yours.

I have assembled a short list (also known as a challenge on Donors Choose) of some of the projects that I think are worth supporting, and the list can be accessed by clicking on the thermometer at the top of the page or by clicking here.

Many school districts are woefully underfunded, and this is one way to reach the teachers who are truly trying to do more for their students.

Giving to Education

I Blog Like a Boy

This "Gender Genie" over at bookblog analyzes text and decides whether the writer is male or female.

I Blog Like a Boy

Template Update

Not much has changed since I elected to update to an easier-to-use version of my blog template.

The one major change is that you can now find a list of labels on the right side of the blog if you scroll down far enough. It should be noted, however, that the labels are not in any way exhaustive, comprehensive, or truly indicative of what is contained therein. I'm slowly updating each individual post so that clear categories will be set up. I hope to reduce the number of labels in the future, but there are too many posts to be able to do that quickly.

Other than that everything is pretty much the same. I'm kind of sick of the color of this blog, but the other options offered weren't a whole lot better.

Template Update

Memoirs of a Geisha Review (by Roger Chriss)

I tend to spend a lot of time flipping through blogs that have something to do with language, Japan, or Korea, and Mr. Chriss' blog has all three.

He does a quick review of Memoirs of a Geisha (Wed. Jan. 11th, 2006), which he seemed to think was OK, but probably wouldn't pay to see again.

I normally don't have a problem with people's reasons for liking or not liking something, but this comment caught me off guard:

Another nit: Sayuri is played by Ziyi Zhang (from Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon) and Gong Li (of Farewell my Concubine fame) plays her nemesis. Neither
of these women look remotely Japanese. The other characters are played by a
hodgepodge of Asians, including some Japanese (a complete list can be had here)...P.S.: For people who think I'm being a snob or playing expert, I lived in Japan for years in the 80s, and spend my days translating Japanese stuff into English. (Note: italics are mine)

Hmmm. I wonder how well he would do on this test at the All Look Same? website.

Memoirs of a Geisha Review (by Roger Chriss)

Tort Reform (stopping crazy lawsuits)

This web site (click here) tackles some common urban legends. It's an interesting read. It's also worth clicking through to the details on the well-known McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit.

Tort Reform (stopping crazy lawsuits)

Typing Speed Test

To test your typing speed click on Power Typing.

Typing Speed Test

No More Blue Screens of Death! Norton's vs. Trend Micro

I'm happy to report that I found the source of the instability that my poor desktop was suffering from. It was Norton's Anti-Virus. My system routinely crashed if I let it idle long enough. I tried a number of tricks advised by some of the generous tech people who can be located in various forums on the net. Nothing worked.

Then my subscription to NAV ran out. Nice nice! I uninstalled Norton's, and voila! No more blue screens!

I'm now running Trend Micro's PC-cillin. No complaints so far. One of the big bonuses, aside from system stability, is that it doesn't use up nearly as many resources when doing a scan as NAV did. Norton's was slow!

No More Blue Screens of Death! Norton's vs. Trend Micro

AdSense by Google

I have to apologize. I just activated the AdSense thing that Google offers. What can I say? I was curious.

This is basically an experiment. Much like with all of research I've done on MLM's and Affiliate programs (making money while working from home), nobody really cuts to the chase and lets you know if this thing is the real deal, or just a big ball of poop. I plan to be that guy. Not the poopy guy. No. Just the guy who lets you know whether or not it works.

So if it doesn't, I'll delete it. Actually, the only way I won't delete it is if it is able to single-handedly conquer my student loan payments. Sometimes I can't even do that.

AdSense by Google

Foundation Human Nature USA

I found a great non-profit organization that is doing wonderful things. With all the nonsense that is going on in the world, it's nice that some people are focusing their energy on helping the people who have been forgotten.

Foundation Human Nature USA (http://fhnusa.org/) has set out to try to help the small, overlooked communities in Ecuador and Ghana. They focus on health, environmental, education, and economic issues, and they have some very motivated volunteers working for them. I followed along in complete awe as a group of amazing people travelled to Ecuador to help erect a new clinic, and teach the local population about some of the health issues that they were facing. That last sentence doesn't even begin to explain all of the things that they did while they were there.

There are many of us who are very excited about this group of people, and what they are trying to do! I have been donating money to their cause online for over a year now, and I would encourage others to do the same. I usually donate with my debit card through a website called Network for Good (http://www.networkforgood.org/). I think they take 3% of the donation as a transaction fee, but it's worth it.

Network for Good has a large library of causes that are worthy of donations, and they make the process quite simple. You can easily look for a non-profit/volunteer organization that is doing things that matter to you, and then start giving whenever you're ready! As far as I'm concerned, the small group of inspired people at Foundation Human Nature USA (http://fhnusa.org/) deserve all the support they can get! Please join me in helping them reach more communities in the future.

Foundation Human Nature USA

Beware of Reunion.com!

I spent about 15 minutes trying to track down the name of an old friend from when I lived in Spain. I was easily able to find his address and phone number, but no email address. Didn't hotmail used to have a service where they would let you mail other hotmail members through a search function? They would allow you to send an email, but they didn't allow you to see the person's email address until that person decided to write back to you. I can't find that service now--just the MSN white pages...

Anyway, I clicked on a link that said it would help me find my friend's email address. That link directed me to reunion.com. In bright red letters reunion.com informed me that they would reveal all of their information on my friend if I registered as a non-paying member of their site. Harmless enough, right? Well, on the very next page they informed me that my registration went through successfully, but that, alas, they had no information on my friend. In my book, they lied to me.

So, to quickly rescue my email address from additional spam, I raced to my inbox, and found my confirmation email. Instead of confirming my account, I went back to their website and asked them to delete my account. I might add that it isn't nearly as straightforward as it should be to delete one's account. At least not as easy as it is to delete your blog on blogger.com.

After going through the necessary motions to delete my account, I received this email from reunion.com:

We received your request to be removed from the Reunion.com database. This is assigned Help Request number..............................
The account associated with email address {mailto:{blahblahblah}@hotmail.com is now queued for deletion.
Please allow 10 business days for processing of the removal request. (bold lettering mine)

If you have billing or other issues please go to http://help.reunion.com/selfhelp/
and create a separate ticket with the appropriate category.

Regards;
Customer ServiceReunion.com, Inc.


I'm pissed that they plan to take 10 days to delete an account that took me less than 10 seconds to create! Let me see, how many organizations can you sell someone's email address to in 10 days?

I wonder how many other people have been lied to by reunion.com.

Beware of Reunion.com!