One Hour to One Half Day, Hafa Adai!

Yesterday, I was once again reminded why I am not in love with this island. Not yet, that is, let's stay positive.

Woke up early, emailed work that I will be coming in late, like 1 or 2 hours late.

Mission: Drop my visa application at the Japan Consulate office.

7:50 AM: Went to the biggest copy/printing shop in the island, Copy Express. They can do pretty much anything, photocopying, print ads, plotting, framing, etc. Name it.

Though that day, that lucky day, all their photo-printing machines were broken, at least that was what the guy told me. With more than 20 big ass printing machines there, not one can print a passport photo. Yeah, right!

8:00 AM: I noticed I forgot my application forms at home anyway. Drove back home.

8:45 AM: Went to the other branch of Copy Express. This time they said "Oh, we don't print any photos here anymore. Only in the other branch." Regardless if they have all those huge "Photo printing services" and "Fujifilm" posters there. I asked the lady to at least print my print-ready-photo-all-sized into any glossy paper she had there. She did.

$2.00 as file access fee. Yeah, they charge you $2.00 for opening your file. How the hell can they print your file unless they open it?! $5.00 charge if you email it to them!
$1.50 for each page.

Where else can you get a "file access charge?"
Made me remember when I bought a movie ticket online a couple of months ago, I got charged
$3.00-per-ticket convenience fee. O ha?! Most of the time you get a discount for buying online, right? Paperless, no man power, and all that. Not here. :P

9:40: AM: Finally reached the Japanese Consulate. They accepted my blurry passport photo, only problem is: they need a flight itinerary before they process your visa. Gotta reserve our ticket first.

10:20 AM: Went to a Continental Airlines ticketing office. All tickets for our trip are fully booked. We told them we just tried online a couple of minutes ago and the flights were still available. Travel agent told us that's how it is so we better just try online.

11:00 AM: Went to Netopia to book our ticket online. Will waste too much time if we go back home just for the internet.
$0.20 for a page or printing. $2.25 for internet use. Not bad.

11:20 AM: Now back at the Japanese Consulate. Dropped off my papers.

11:30 AM: Had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant.

12-ish: Home.
Was able to go back to work 1:00 PM. Half day! Hafa Adai!

P.S.
Hafa Adai ~ Mabuhay ~ Aloha

P.P.S.
This is where we are:

Photo courtesy of: http://www.pata.no