A Brief Moment of Panic

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought a one-way ticket from Manchester to Tokyo for the 27th of August, as I didn't know exactly when I'd be returning to Blighty.  I decided that I'd see how my plans work out once I'm there, and then choose a date on which to leave.  After reading on the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office website that any entrants to Japan must have a valid passport and an onward/return ticket, I decided to give the Japanese Embassy in London a ring, as quite a few people from the University of Leeds have got single tickets, rather than return ones.

After being transferred to a person, rather than a machine, to talk to, I was initially startled by a greeting of  もしもし (yes, I was startled to be spoken to in Japanese when phoning the Japanese Embassy).  After a second or two (or three) of awkward silence and a mumbling of "英語で話してもいいですか" on my part, we were good to go!

I explained my one-way ticket situation to the lady, who then said that she wasn't sure, but that I probably wouldn't be able to enter Japan on a one-way ticket.  She then went on to tell me that she was from the cultural department of the embassy, hence the uncertainty, and that she would transfer me to someone from the diplomatic side, who would be able to inform me for sure.

As the phone went quiet, I was nervous, but remained hopeful that she would be mistaken.  Someone from the diplomatic side then picked up the phone (greeting me with a 'hello' this time), before telling me in no uncertain terms that "they won't let you into the country".  

I was very worried at this point!  I would have to get another ticket, or change my ticket, and I don't really have enough in the bank at the moment to do that.  After getting him to repeat the fact that I wouldn't be let in about twelve times out of disbelief, I then gasped "even with a student visa?!", to which he responded, "oh, yeah that'd be fine on a single."  It turns out his colleague hadn't explained that I was going as a student, so he just thought I was going as a tourist for a couple of weeks or something. 

As tourists staying for up to three months don't need a visa or guarantor to visit Japan, they instead need a return ticket.  Fair enough really.  Turning up in a country with no real reason to be there except for 'sight-seeing', and no ticket to leave the country, does smell a little bit like illegal immigration.  I think the UK has something similar in place, too.

Anyway, that's today's drama over with, and hopefully I won't have any other problems before I go to Japan!  Or whilst I'm in Japan, for that matter.

James