日本国総領事館 Consulate of Japan

Hello everyone! So today I finally made it down to the Japanese Consulate in Los Angeles in order to apply for my visa. I started the day thinking it would be one easy ride down to LA from Palmdale to quickly drop off my application, and then a quick ride back. I was wrong.

To begin, I had planned to leave Palmdale very early in the morning in order to beat traffic, and perhaps a crowd at the consulate itself. I assured myself there would be no one in Southern California that would be at the Consulate, for some strange reason (probably stupidity). Thus, I planned to spend only minutes in the Consulate itself. In short I thought the entire excursion would take about two hours max. Now here's where I was wrong...

The morning started with my mother getting into a car accident, in our own neighborhood none-the-less. She made a left-turn in front of an oncoming car and you could imagine what happened. While the damage was quite bad, no one was hurt. I couldn't ask for more. :) In such a circumstance I would usually forget about any plans I had made, but the importance of getting this visa before time runs out was more important then a fender bender, so I started on a search for a vehicle. My parents truck decided just the other day that it wasn't going to work, so the only option left was to use my brothers car. My mother stayed at home, negotiating with the insurance company, and my dad and I set of for LA.

After about an hour of driving we had arrived at our destination, the Consulate of Japan in Los Angeles...

Upon entrance, I headed straight for the elevator before being stopped by a burly security guard who told me to check in at the desk. From there it was up 17 floors in an incredibly fast elevator, and then a left into a full waiting room. It was full of service windows, all for a different purpose, all with a title in Kanji. It took time for me to decipher each title before finding the one that said 「査証」 or visa. I sat down to started my wait, before ten minutes went by and I realized I was supposed to have grabbed a number. I grabbed 37, they were serving 32. There was a women trying to obtain visas for her entire family, literally. The directions on the application are very simple "Must Submit in Person," for whatever reason she thought she was exempt. It appears there can be provisions made if a family member is disabled or the like, and she was trying to work the system for more than eight people. After waiting and hearing others complain, and meeting another UC student from UCI (Laura?) who is also going to MGU, the girl finally left. Apparently she was turned away by the window attendant. From there he raced through the next four people, and then called my number. It took less than five minutes. He reviewed my application and accepted it on the spot. He gave me a receipt and my visa will be available for pick-up tomorrow! Down the elevator, to the building plaza for a snack (steamed buns and tea) and back on the road.　

By now of course, it was no longer morning, it was in fact almost 4:00pm. Guess what driving is like in the afternoon, in Los Angeles, on a week day. That's right, like Hell. There was heavy traffic on the way back, but I got my visa, and now I'm at Japan's doorstep (and they'll let me in).

Japanese Consulate, 17th Floor of the California Plaza building (pictured above)

早く戻ってくれる、

Come back soon,
Cary