2019: The Year of Being Uncomfortable

Hello, friends! I know I’ve been gone for a while. Starting November of the previous year, I’ve traveled quite a bit for vacation. Planned my first independent overseas trip and it was in a magical place called Japan. After that, I got to visit my hometown, the Philippines, and had the chance to catch up with old friends and connect with new ones. I even got to go to Arizona for the first time to see one of my best friends and see my favorite band perform live. Not to mention, the holidays got the best of me. But I’m here now.

I want to write about the concept of writing vulnerably and my journey with it. This is going to get personal real fast so sit tight, and enjoy this tiny glimpse of my sincerest sentiments and thoughts. To be honest, this is actually going to be a breakthrough for me. If you noticed, for the previous year, the only things that I used to write about on here are informational topics and recommendations or basically anything that would keep me from showing any type of emotionality. For the longest time, I tried to suppress it— emotions, I mean. I got out of touch with my writing for a few years back. I got caught up with graduating and thesis and moving to the US, and frankly, when everything settled down, and I finally found time to try and write again, I then realized that I was scared of vulnerability. At that time, I was dealing with a break-up, and I’m guessing that something about going through that made me shut out my emotions in the fear that it would make me seem weak and fragile. I desperately wanted to show everyone (myself included) that I was strong and that I was fine, so as a result, I kind of went overboard and sacrificed my writing. I would still indulge in spoken word poetry though, listening to it was definitely one of the things that helped me through those times.

The thing about me is, I couldn’t stop thinking about writing. I knew I want to pursue it, still; at the same time though, it also scared me too. And so, I decided to start reading again. Baby steps, I thought. Soon enough, I started journaling privately again. And then, eventually, I finally had the courage to start and commit to this blog. Writing publicly without showing vulnerability helped a lot, of course, because I didn’t feel as exposed somehow. I was playing it safe, and I’m very aware of that. I think that as long as I’m writing, at least I’m getting some kind of practice, right?

Here we are, a year after— a lot of self-discovery and self-love, a couple of travels here and there, and a few tattoos later, I could honestly say that I’ve definitely grown as a person, and I’m proud of that. I’ve learned a lot this previous year. When I was evaluating it at the start of the month though, I felt like I haven’t accomplished a lot. But looking back now, I realized that I was hard on myself. I had focused on self-acceptance, getting to know myself more, and being comfortable with solitude, and that’s not so bad. I feel like it’s an important journey that I’ve been on, and honestly, it’s still one that I’m continuously going to be on; it’s just that this year, I feel like I’m ready to take on so much more new challenges. I read somewhere recently that “Growth is not found in comfort,” so here’s to getting uncomfortable.

All love,
Fried Filipina Feelings

Applying for a Japanese tourist visa as a US Permanent Resident

So you want to travel to Japan. But the thing is, you don’t really know whether you need a visa or not.

The short answer is if you’re a US citizen, and you have a US passport, is that you don’t need to apply for a tourist visa. You’re automatically granted up to 90 days of stay, given that you have a onward/return ticket with your valid passport.

If you’re a US permanent resident or a “green card holder”, and you still have a foreign passport, then it really depends on the country that you currently have citizenship of if you still need to apply for a tourist visa. You could check here if the country where you’re from is listed there. If it is, then you could probably travel to japan “visa free”, but the length of days you’re allowed to stay there still depends on the country so just make sure to check. It differs from 15 days, 30 days, or in most cases, up to 90 days.

If, however, you’re the same as me, and the country where you’re from also isn’t listed on the link above, then unfortunately, we still need to apply for a visa for short-term stays in Japan.

No worries, though. You’re in luck because I already had to go through the pain of doing a ton of research to figure out how to go about this. In my case, I’m a Filipino citizen, and also a US permanent resident, which means I still have a Philippine passport even though I’ve had a green card for about 3 years now.

I was already living in California when me and my friends from the Philippines were planning a trip to Japan. Before this, though, I already had plans to visit them in the Philippines. However, when they told me that there was a “seat sale” and had bought plane tickets to Japan, I knew right away that I wanted to travel with them. And so we decided to meet there.

I eventually figured out that the requirements and the process that they have to go through to get a tourist visa was way different in my case. A good example of this is that they have to go through an accredited travel agency to submit their requirements, while for me, I have to go to the Japanese embassy in my city directly.

It’s a pretty confusing process if you don’t know where to start so here are a few steps that could help you out:

1. Figure out which Japanese Embassy has jurisdiction over where you live, because that’s where you would need to send your requirements to. It varies per state and there’s only a few Japanese Embassies/Consulate Generals across the US so be sure to check it here.
2. Make sure that you know EXACTLY the kind of visa you’re applying for. There are lots of different visas and all of them have respective specific requirements. Here’s a list of the different kinds of visa to help you:
3. Prepare your requirements.  This, I think, is really important and is very crucial for your visa approval. For this blog post, I would only state the requirements needed for a tourist visa if you’re NOT a US or a Chinese citizen. Here’s what you will need:
   • Applicant’s valid passport
   • Completed and signed visa application form
   • 1 passport sized (“2×2”) photo attached to the form. Make sure it’s taken within 6 months!
   • Most recent bank statement. This is to show that you have proof of sufficient funds to cover all the expenses while in Japan. I just simply printed the most recent online bank statement I have of my savings account, and that worked out fine. However, if you are not paying for your trip, a letter from the person/entity covering the cost of your trip is necessary.
   • Flight itinerary/reservation issued by travel agency or airline company. Be sure to have tickets that are the same flight schedules to your travel itinerary that you will submit as well. It’s not advised to purchase tickets until visa is approved, but I still did so anyway and didn’t have any problems. Just be aware of the possibility that you might get rejected, and thus, should be more cautious because the tickets you purchase might go to waste.
   • Documents intending the purpose of your visit
     • Hotel reservations. I personally recommend checking out Agoda because they send out neatly presented reservation documents after you reserve it in their website. You could even choose not to pay yet, so it works out perfectly because you won’t be risking your money if in case you didn’t get approved.
     • Daily schedule of stay. Follow this format. It doesn’t have to be too detailed. It could be as simple as this: 
   • Proof of your immigration status
     • It could be any of the following:
   • Visa or clearance of the country you intend to enter after japan (if applicable)
   • Visa Fee. Check here to see if your country’s exempted from the visa fees. In my case, I was informed by the person at the Japanese Embassy that the Philippines and Japan have a bilateral agreement so I didn’t have to pay for it. If, however, you still need to pay, be sure to bring cash or money order because cards and personal checks aren’t accepted.
4. Submit your requirements to the appropriate Japanese Embassy/Consulate General. You could go directly to their location or you could send it through mail. I did the former. If you are sending it by mail, though, be sure to include a “pre-paid self-addressed return envelope and completed release of liability”. My experience of going to the Embassy and submitting the requirements was really easy and efficient. They gave me a slip the same day to claim my passport after 5 days.

Aaand I got approved! I’m very excited for our upcoming Japan trip. I might write about coming up with a 5 day itinerary because I was kind of in charge of that too. If you have any questions, don’t be afraid to reach out. I’ll be more than happy to help you out as best as I could!

 

Good luck!

– FriedFilipinaFeelings