Fun surprises.

Well, it's already October huh? Tomorrow I will be celebrating my 3rd year anniversary of my arrival in Japan. Wow, already 3 years. So in preparation for my continued stay in Japan, I had to brave the bureaucracy, and extend my visa. I wasn't sure what to expect, since the Japanese government has a reputation for being strict, but everything went fairly painlessly. I made my final trip to the immigration office today and got my brand-spankin new visa extension stamp. Horray! My passport is beginning to look a little more used now. Hehe. I still have one more stop to make to be completely finished, but at least I know I'm safe now. No deportation for me. This is a good thing.

But on my way to the immigration office, I saw a fun thing. One of the train stations near my house is having a lot of construction done on it. So lately, it's been a bit annoying using that station, but it's still the most convenient, so I use it anyway. LOL. The reason that all this construction work is being done is because they have chosen to build a new Railway Museum right next to this station. This is like a 6 minute walk from my house! Well, to me this doesn't sound like a big deal, but you have no idea how much Japanese people are into museums. And even more into trains! Wow! This is big stuff here, let me tell you! So, on my way to the train station, I noticed a few strange things. First, on the road on the way there, there was a whole lot of police officers directing traffic. Traffic was blocked from going in one direction completely. At first I thought, oh, there must have been an accident. But as I continued walking, I noticed a very conspicuous lack of, well, accident like things. Very strange. I am now very interested in what's going on. I thought maybe, oh they are doing special construction that requires the street to be blocked off. I reach the intersection, but once again, there is a lack of construction happening that might cause the street to be shut down. But there are still more policemen.

I continue on my way to the station, and notice there are now people lining up on one side of the street. Some are holding Japanese flags. Hmmm... pieces are falling into place now.

Here's a picture of the construction workers lining up.

Anyway, that was about all I had time for before I had to get on the train. I expected it all to be over by the time I got back. I was right, the people standing were gone, but there were still a lot of policemen around.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I found a kind looking policeman (young, kinda cute) and asked him what was going on. He told me that the Crown Prince had come to visit the new museum. WOW. I thought it would be something like that, but I can't imagine a train museum being that important. Anyway, that was the excitement of the day. I got to see the preparations for the coming of the crown prince of Japan. Very cool.

In other news, this was a fun weekend. The band had a live house performance, so I decided that would be my birthday present to myself. I bought a new single, and I was even given a drum stick by Mako and a signed pick from Shissy! They are so nice! I was really happy!