自得其乐

After a few phone calls and emails with a travel agent in China, it turns out that students are not allowed to apply for Japan visa there at all.

Well, even it does allow me to do so, it would still be of great trouble:

I would have to first fly to Hangzhou (a city near Shanghai) to retrieve my identity card and certificate of registry. This would take a few days or more depending on whether the officers are cooperative enough and whether my grandpa would insist on visiting the Expo at Shanghai before going home (in that case, of course, I must accompany him). Then back in Guangzhou, I would need to request for a temporary residency card and a certificate of financial status, fill up the paperwork, and submit the application with a deposit of 100,000 RMB. After all these are done, I would still need to wait there for another two weeks for the result to come out.

Although I would not mind going through all these trouble if it does lead to a visa, I must say that I really wish that it could be easier.

Nevertheless, after ruling out this possibility, I am finally (mostly) relieved from the hecticness of visa application that has been consuming me for the whole week.

Since it is unlike that the Niibori academy would help a tiny (<< small) potato like me on the visa application, the next thing to do is to sell the ticket away. But frankly speaking, I won't mind paying for the ticket as it is.

Because the most romantic part has already happened: a good friend of mine asked me whether I would like to go Japan together at 1:40am in the morning; despite the fact that I know that it would not be very easy to apply for visa (well, the actual difficulty beats my wildest imagination, I must admit) and I might be throwing 600 dollars down into the drain, I said yes and had put in my best trying to make it work.

Whether the end result is favorable or not does not really matter any more.

After all, it is still early. There will be many more chances in future where we can go abroad together.

Even if we don't, I already have enough precious memories that can last for a lifetime.

Have a nice trip! I will join you all next time. ^_^

(P.S. update on 21st Apr, one thing less to worry about: the air ticket is non-transferable! =P)