Preparations
Today, I spent the afternoon with Yumi going over a plan of attack for my month in Japan. Where to go, what to see, etc.
She is really busy packing up her stuff and just noticing a discrepancy on her ticket information that will cause her to fly back on July 27, not August 27th. So, she is trying to contact the people that helped issue the ticket. No one is answering any fones.
(LATER)
I don't know if this is a common occurence in the US or anywhere else, but I have heard this happening more times than it should to people here in China.... Why is it that when a travel agency or someone who deals in travel fares makes a mistake on a ticket the customer needs to pay for it. I have heard on many seperate occasions that the travel agency issued a ticket with the wrong date on it and then when it is brought to their attention they make the customer pay the difference of fixing it or not helping them out. And its not just airfare either. Its passports as well. Yumi's teaching colleague was trying to get her VISA renewed. She went thru her school like she was supposed to and she told them that her last name has changed to her husbands. The school waited until the last minute, as they usually do, and yet, after multiple reminders, they still printed the wrong name on the VISA. And when Mayu told them they refused to pay for the mistake and she was forced to pay for her new VISA on her own. And when she did take it to the government people to get it fixed, they made another mistake and wouldn't fix it. She had to pay again to have it redone. WTF is wrong with this picture!? I have never heard of stuff like this happening anywhere else. Please let me know if people have this many visa / airfare issues elsewhere and I will remember not to go there.
We went to dinner at the Northwestern place that the french folk went to last nite after Antoine's party. It was just another Zhao Zi Guan (Dumpling House). It was good. They had a special on the femur leg bone of a lamb. Yummy. We also had an interesting desert that I have never had before. They take slices of sweet potatoes and deep fry them and place them on a plate. Then, they melt lots of sugar in a pan or pot and poor it over the sweet potatoes. We needed to dip the potatoes into cold water before we ate them so the hot sugar didn't sear our mouths. It was interesting, sorta good, and very unhealthy.
Goodnite.