Pocari Sweat

Here is a lovely scrap page I made for my Honeymoon album.  J-baby & I spent two AWESOME weeks in Tokyo Japan & I made sure to take pictures of EVERYTHING we ate & drank.
Pocari Sweat is a gross drink J-baby heard of from a friend & we had to try it.  It's a popular sports drink which i found to be so sickingly sweet and yet convienent to find....
For the page I used my gypsy to make the words & thought a collage of my hubby drinking the nasty stuff was perfect.  :)

Honeymoon update!

Lordy, I almost forgot!  After finally receiving my long form birth certificate from Texas, I sent it speedy mail to the passport office.  They finally sent me my beautiful new passport, and I'm so happy!  Weird how they sent the passport card and proof I had submitted in separate envelopes.  Oh well.

Passport DENIED!!!

Ok, so it wasn't exactly denied, just delayed a little.  See, I submitted my passport application with my birth certificate, only to find out that the certificate they require is the LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE.  As in, the same stupid piece of paper the Republicans required of President Obama.  Yes, very funny- I can hear my fiance laughing at me.  The whole situation is funny to him-not me.  So the U.S. Department of State sends me a letter telling me why they are denying me my passport, and how to get the problem resolved.  Which is to get a certified copy of the long form, or the original from Texas- which is wear I was born.  On some little military base.  That I can NEVER remember the name of!  GRRRRR

So my first thought is, "Cool!  I can do this online!"  WRONG!  For some stupid reason, my home internet won't log onto their site, AND the lady I called gave me a little attitude.  She gave me another site to do it from, but for some reason, they couldn't verify my identity (WHY THE HELL NOT?!)  I'm over it.  So I print out the form, fill it out, PAY $22 to get a certified legal copy of my long form thing, and mail it off to the Texas birth records people.  Overnight FEDEX.  Because it's THAT SERIOUS.  I will be waiting on pins and needles til it is sent back, because I need to give the U.S. Department the new certificate before the 90 days is up, or it will be completely denied, and I won't get my passport, and I won't be able to go to Japan!!!

The lesson from my little rant:  MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE WHEN APPLYING FOR A PASSPORT!!!!

Suica Card vs Japan Rail Pass

For those of my non-existent readers that don't know, my future hubby and I are planning a honeymoon to Japan!  Specifically, Tokyo- which has started an endless hunt for information.  Turns out you need a rail pass, unless you rent a car (and there is now way in hell I'm driving in Japan), or Walk.  We will do plenty of walking, but we still need this rail pass.  And guess how many types of passes there are?  Several, but I'm too lazy to mention the unimportant ones.
The two that concern any visitor are the Japan Rail Pass, which will let you go about anywhere, & HAS TO BE PURCHASED BEFORE ENTERING THE COUNTRY.  (See how important that piece of info is?)  And the second card is the Suica!  Which allows you to travel most any train line within Tokyo-mostly via the JR East.  This little pre-paid wonder can be purchased right off the plane.
Why the seemingly random post on this?  Because I've been confused on when to buy the Suica card since the start if my planning!  My travel agent insists that we need to purchase a Japan Rail Pass beforehand, & my dumb butt assumed it was the same as the suica card I've learned about via Youtube.  Lovely.  So in case someone stumbles across this blog in search if info on travelling to Japan, I've done my part to help.  So there.