Pioneering in Japan

We made it! We survived not only our trip back to the land of the free and the home of the brave, but also the world's longest Saturday . We left the house there in Fuchu, Tokyo at noon on Saturday. We walked, caught a bus, took a train, caught another bus, then boarded a plane at 7pm, on Saturday. So we flew for 10-12 hours to Los Angeles, arriving at noon (get this) on Saturday. Wait... This was an episode of Scooby Doo!  Pastor Mike Ashcraft and his wife picked us up and took us to In-N-Out Burger (yes, out of all of the possibilities, that's what we picked. Funny what you miss...). They showed us around Santa Monica, we went by their house a couple of times, had some excellent coffee, we saw their school, they took us to Santa Monica pier (leave to to a missionary to know how to really show missionaries a great time!), ALL this, and it's still Saturday ... So they drop us off at LAX and we make it to our gate with time to spare. Tick tock, time to board, but there

The meeting with the lawyer went really well. He said that the paperwork looks very  good, and seems to think we're a shoe-in for the visa. He said we're probably looking at receiving " long-term residency " (I'm not sure how long long-term is, but I guess we'll see!)   He also explained that it would grant us permission to live here, and freedom to do... basically,  whatever ! Unlike a teaching visa, where you can only teach, or a working visa dependent upon a particular company, or even a missionary visa restricted to purely religious activities - our visa/residency will permit us to live here and do pretty much anything anyone else can do (Wow!). So our lawyer said to "plan on coming back to Japan around February 20th". It could be a little later (or even a little sooner), depending on how quickly Immigration processes our C of E. Once they DHL it to us, we would then take it to the nearest Japanese Consulate in the US, and t

After we were first announced to Japan, I began scouring the net for information about visas, immigration, residency, etc. On one hand, the news was good - Japan  has  a missionary visa, the application process is relatively straight forward, and the government doesn't charge exorbitant fees for their visas ( Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Panama... )  The only complication had to do with obtaining something called a  Certificate of Eligibility . If you're going to work for some corporation in Japan, that corporation would basically take care of applying for your  Certificate of Eligibility  (henceforth referred to as a "C of E" and not to be confused with the  Church of England ).  The Holy Grail A "C of E" affirms that they have hired you, that you are qualified for that position, and that should  anything  happen, they will take care of it (sounds like  "the Mafia takes care of its own"  doesn't it?). So if you're a businessman,  the Japan