unforth | Proceeding apace

Well, I've decided, one way or another I'm going to go to Japan. I may not be able to swing the whole year - I've spent most of the week sorting through the morass that is Visa law - but I'm gonna try.

In between work, I've read an entire book, picked up two more to read (from Amazon, so I have to wait for them to arrive :( ) read a whole lot about visas, gotten some advice on visas from the very helpful

kurayami_hime, sent away (and payed a ton!) for my very own shiny passport (no, I didn't have a passport, I only ever had one as a kid and it's been expired for about 6 years), did a little poking around for jobs, priced plane tickets, and picked a probably departure date - 8/20 - the day after Gencon ends - on the assumption that my sleep schedule will already be a mess coming out of Gencon, so maybe it'll help slightly with the jet lag. I've started thinking about people who might be able to sponsor me, depending on how the sponsorship laws work - I don't know anyone in Japan personally, but I know some people who know people, and I'm getting ready to pull strings once I know how it actually works, hopefully one of the other books will tell me that (I'm not that worried about it yet, because I can't start the visa process without my passport, which won't arrive for about two weeks). I gave notice at the lab (end of June) and generally have been busy. And I've worked almost 30 hours in three days besides.
It's funny how I kind of like being busy, and feel sort of aimless when I'm not. Still, I could stand to be slightly less busy; I haven't even started my costume for Sunday yet other than procuring materials! Oh noes! :)