Sorry for the long wait (Again). I can't believe Taran is over four months old now. He's a big, healthy boy, and he loves to smile and roll over. His big sister Clara is a sweetheart who loves to give him hugs and kisses (though mommy often has to remind her to be more gentle since her hugs can be a bit, well, enthusiastic).
When Taran was about two months old we decided to make an appointment at the consulate to apply for his passport, report of birth abroad, and social security number. The consulate website was very organized and told us basically everything we needed to know and had all the links to the applications on one page for easy access. We printed and filled out the three applications, and then checked the list of necessary ID's, documents, etc. that we needed to bring. We brought our passports, the three applications (passport, report of birth, social security number) with copies of each, a certified copy of our marriage certificate that we had brought with us from the US, along with a copy (if you're not married but want dad's name on the birth certificate the consulate asks you to bring some kind of proof of relationship, like emails or something), a certified copy of the birth certificate (which Braden requested from the local ward office, I think it cost him a couple hundred yen), and a translation of the birth certificate. The consulate website had a simple English template you could fill out with information from the birth certificate. It didn't need to be done professionally and didn't require much Japanese skill at all, since it basically required information you would already know, like the birth date, time, place, parent's names, etc. The website also said to bring a large envelope (the specific type and dimensions are on the site) which we actually forgot. The staff at the consulate seemed used to that oversight though, because they just asked Braden to go to a convenience store next door to buy it and come back. Security seemed used to it to. Braden said that when he approached security to leave the building they were like, "Going to buy an envelope?" They let Braden leave and come back in without waiting in line and we got the envelope to the secretary without much trouble.
But let me back up a little. So our appointment was in the morning, and I was reluctant to wake up super early to catch the shinkansen (Both Clara and I are not morning people) so I booked a hotel near the consulate for the night before. So the day before the appointment we took the shinkansen to Osaka and checked into our hotel. (We live in Nagoya, and although there is a US consulate here, it is very small and no longer provides citizenship services. Darn it all.) The next morning we checked out and walked about ten minutes to the consulate. We waited in a short line in front of the building and had our ID's checked and left our water bottles in a little bin they had by the door (apparently the same no liquid rule when going through airport security applies to the consulate as well). After that we entered the building and had our bags and electronics checked (including cell phones) and walked through a metal detector. Then we showed our IDs again and got badges and were directed to take the elevator up a few flights.
We got off the elevator and entered a small office area with a counter and customer windows. There was a big sign directing people to window three but there was no one on the other side. We waited a few minutes before we started noticing people getting helped a few windows down so we got in line behind them and asked if we were in the right window. We were. (They really should've covered up the other sign. It was a tad confusing.) The secretary was Japanese (actually all the staff and security up to this point seemed Japanese. The security guards didn't speak English very well. The secretary did well enough, though it was a bit hard to understand her through the glass...). She asked for our paperwork and we handed it all over. There was one part of the application of report of birth abroad that we had not filled out completely (it wanted to know all the states we had ever lived in and what months, but I honestly couldn't remember what months I had moved in or out in some instances). The secretary said we had to put something there, so I made as good a guess as I could and finished the application. There was also a section that asked about previous marriages and included a field that said: "If you have never been married, write 'none'", or something to that affect. Well, seeing as how I am currently married (and thus I can't really say I've never been married) I decided that 'no' wasn't the right answer and left that field blank, but then the secretary said that it was referring to marriages before my current one, and told me to write 'none'. A little confusing, but oh well. Then she asked for our envelope, which we had forgotten, but like I wrote above, that was resolved quickly. Lastly, we had to pay. At first I was worried that they wouldn't accept a credit card and I had forgotten to bring cash with us, but as it turned out credit cards were okay. There was a list of prices on the wall, and online too, I think, and at first we thought it would amount to almost $300 for everything (the social security application is free, but the sign said that a report of birth was about $200 and it was another $100 or so for passport) but in the end we were only charged about $200. Maybe they waive the passport fee if you're also getting a report of birth? I actually don't know. I should've asked.
So after that we had to wait. Clara, unfortunately, had a cold. She had a bad runny nose, a slight fever, and was REALLY cranky. We tried as hard as we could to comfort her and entertain her but it was really hard. There was even a bin of toys in the room but Clara didn't want to play with them since there were a couple other kids playing with them and she was feeling shy. After about a half hour of waiting (which feels a lot longer when you've got a cranky toddler. Taran, thankfully, was asleep in his baby carrier) we were called over to another window where an American asked us to raise our right hand and we swore that everything we had written was true (Okay, so technically I guessed on some of the months we moved from one state to another when I was younger, but don't tell on me, k? Haha). The woman who witnessed our oath then checked our papers one last time, looked at Taran to make sure he wasn't a doll and we weren't trying to create a false identity for some future mischief, (At least I think that's what she was doing when she looked at him XD), then she said everything looked good and we should receive Taran's documents in the mail in a few weeks.
By the time we were leaving Clara was crying in earnest and I really wanted to get out of there. As we were getting into the elevator another mom in the office who was getting her kids' passports renewed stopped me and told us that we were doing a great job and that it gets easier. I thought it was a really nice gesture on her part and it really cheered me up after a stressful morning.
So we left the embassy and were getting ready to go to the station to take the shinkansen home when a fellow American walks out, complaining and cursing about his difficulties in renewing something or other, and then he gestured at the long line of Japanese people waiting to get into the consulate to apply for visas and loudly told us that he hoped America would stop letting f***ing immigrants in. I almost pointed out to him that the five of us standing there (the four in my family and him) were currently immigrants in another country, but decided it wasn't worth it. He walked with us a ways to the station, complaining all the while, before finally bidding us farewell to stop at a convenience store. I wasn't sad to see him go. I, for one, think it's great to live in a world where people are able to travel and visit, or even live, in other countries relatively easily (compared to, you know, the days when going to another country meant risking your life on the open seas and probably never seeing your homeland again). I really love Japan, and I love my home country too, and the people that are in both places. It seems like a lot of people these days have a very 'us vs them' attitude when it comes to immigration, and while I do consider myself an American, I consider myself a human being first and foremost. Anywho, sorry for the short political blurb...
We got all of Taran's documents, as promised, with the passport and report of birth coming first and the Social Security card coming a little later. The report of birth form sure is fancy, I gotta say. They reaaally don't wanna make it easy to forge one of those things. Just looking at it is like looking at one of those "Magic Eye" stereogram images that look 3-D if you stare at them long enough.
Well, I'm gonna finish this up for now, since Clara just woke up from her nap. I only have free time on those lucky days when she and Taran nap at the same time, but most of the time I end up taking a nap too! Oh well :P.
