2017 Road Tax Season

I am actually too lazy to even write an intro for this, so just see my prior post on this matter. =) It is linked below. 

However, here is the latest flier from OTS for your information, and I am going with them this year as well.

***2016 POST HERE***

OTS 2017 Road Tax

2017 Road Tax Collection Schedule

Getting JCI done on Okinawa! Part 2016...

So it is that time again…the lame JCI, but for my second car. As I wrote this up in detail in a prior post, which is linked here ( Getting JCI done on Okinawa! , I won’t get too much into it. However, I wanted to share the latest info for 2016 and what my costs were this go around…ok then, lets’ go!

So I have a 500-plate 2007 Nissan Cube that is in good shape and I have had zero issues with it for the 2 years I have had it. Knowing this, I decided to wing this JCI again, and just take it down to the JSVRO.  What is the worst that can happen, right?? So my first step was to head over to the USO on Kadena and get a new JCI policy. As they typed that all up for me, they gave me a nice “how-to” while I waited with all the fees listed too, super handy! Here it is below…

JSVRO - JCI - Page 1

JSVRO - JCI - Page 2

Well luckily after I paid the lady there she told me that the JSVRO doesn’t do JCI inspections on Fridays…and it was Friday…dammit! I got up early for nothing it seems. I was trying to knock this out before we rolled into a 4-day weekend, oh well. Fast forward to next Tuesday (Monday was the holiday day off), and I headed over to the JSVRO. I drove there thinking smugly to myself that getting there at 9am I would beat the rush, and be in-and-out in less than an hour like the last time….yea not so much. My advice to you is to NOT do your JCI when everyone ELSE on the island has the time off too! Let’s just say I got there at 9am to a long line that was formed even before I got there and I didn’t get back to my front door until 2pm! Yup a complete waste of a day if you ask me, but it is freaking done now at least. Ok I am done bitching, and on with the story. In reality, the time spent on actually doing the admin stuff and the inspection was pretty quick. It was just all the waiting around that ate up my time. Funny YouTube videos on my iPhone definitely filled most of my time then.

So as far as the inspection went, I did well, except my rear license plate holder was missing a lower mounting bracket screw (no idea) and (surprise surprise!) my headlights needed an alignment. I am beginning to suspect the headlight alignment deal is a sham…I mean the inspection machine definitely showed I failed something since some of the blocks were red that I saw. It was just suspicious when almost everyone before me in the line was at the auto hobby shop for the same thing too…hmmmmm but whatever, at least it was just that and not some major repairs needed. So after I got that fixed, I went back and got the green lights and was good to go. Moral of the story, go early and on a day that NOBODY has off, since all of them are going to ALL have the same idea as you. Don’t waste a day like I did…

Here is a breakdown of my costs this go around….

1. JCI Policy:  13,230 Yen

2. Weight Tax:  15,800 yen

3.  Inspection Fee: $20

4.  Auto Repairs:  $24.60

Total: ~ $323.614

I didn’t include my insurance cost as I renewed it back in August and I am too lazy to see how much it was at the time. But I would count that to the total cost of ownership when you do your JCI as I assume most people’s JCI and Insurance are due at the same time. 

2016 Road Tax Collection Schedule

***2017 UPDATE HERE***

So it is that time of the year again! I was gone most of 2015, so I didn't get a chance to post that schedule, but I am here this time around. I am not going to get on my soap box like last time either, but you can read about it in the 2014 post. 

Anyways, I have used the OTS insurance on Kadena the whole time we have been here with zero issues. They charge a 500 yen fee for their efforts, and since I am lazy, 500 yen is just fine by me. Just understand, you will have to go to Foster to pick up the road tax sticker (super easy) after you get your paperwork from them. I posted OTS's instructions if you want to go through them, and I have also posted the road tax schedule where the Japanese officials visit a base near you to collect your fee/paperwork. Since I hate crowds and waiting, I will go the OTS route. 

OTS Insurance Road Tax Service

Road Tax Collection Schedule

Getting JCI done on Okinawa!

So….I guess I need to do the JCI on my Honda Fit now. I can’t believe it has been two years already, but yea, I guess I need to do the “dreaded” JCI haha.  Well let me tell you it is not actually hard to do, but it is going to cost you some coin to get it done, that is for sure.  I will lay out what I had to do and any pitfalls that can come up during this whole process. All this is current as of August 2015 and with a 500 series Y plate car.

Basically, you get this done at the JSVRO on Foster. It is right across the street from the Commissary on that base, so it is easy to find.  Basically, you go through the Foster gate right off the Hwy 58. See below on the hours and a map.



JSVRO Map - Foster

Here is also some info on what to expect and the process on getting JCI done Foster…



JSVRO - GOJ FEES

JSVRO - JCI Process - Foster

Additionally, you can find more official info here and some more unofficial info at Okinawa Hai (it is dated though, but still correct)…

http://www.mcbbutler.marines.mil/BaseInformation/VehicleRegistration.aspx

http://okinawahai.com/you-dreaded-jci/

Ok, here is what I did...

 1.   I started on a Tuesday morning and basically followed the handout procedure up above. I started early in the morning and I am glad I did, as you will read why later on.

2. Ok, my first stop was at my insurance office in the Kadena USO building by gate 2.  I renewed my insurance early since I was doing this and you can buy the JCI policy there as well.  It sucks that we, SOFA members, has to have both insurance types, but it is what is out here.  I will itemize my costs at the end of this write-up.  Oh, you have to pay YEN cash for the JCI policy, however I can pay dollar/yen/CC for the insurance policy.

3.  My next stop was the JSVRO on Foster and there was no lines/waiting at the time I went in the morning, which is great, since I hate waiting! Inside you will have to pay weight tax in YEN only and make sure you bring all your car paperwork in there with you. They will be stamping papers, paper clipping, and stapling a bunch of stuff together too, so you end up with a packet of paperwork. Once you take care of all that, you will have to go to the Inspection office on the back side of the JSVRO building to pay the inspection fee. I paid in cash, but they may or may not take credit card/YEN. See image below on where it is…

  

JSVRO - Office #6

 4.  Now once you have that take care of, it is time to get your car inspected. You pull into this lane…



JSVRO Lane #5

HOWEVER, this is where things can go awry.  As in, this is the part that can get expensive! Let me break it down for you…I have a “newer” Honda Fit, low miles, great condition, well maintained.  It is not a beater basically or a lemon lot special. So I figured I will throw the dice and just get it JCI’d, well guess what, it didn’t work out for me! Arrghhh!!! Actually, I need to back up a little bit. Remember that weight tax and what not you just paid? Take a look at the little note they attach to the receipt…

 

GOJ Weight Tax - 2015

So what that means is, if you fail your inspection and cannot get whatever fixed by the time they close that day, you are out that money. Yup, you will have to pay that tax AGAIN to JCI your car if you can’t get it to pass that DAY! A little crazy if you ask me, since it isn’t chump change, but now you should start seeing where things can get expensive if you try to wing it, like I did. So back to my story…So yea, I winged it and they failed me on two items! Sorry for being all dramatic about it, but they were really small things, but I was annoyed never the less. I guess if you fail, they will ask you to pull up in lane 3, the lane of shame, and that is where they will break down what failed. I will detail that stuff in a minute, but here is some pictures of the process of them inspecting your car and I will go over what they check…

JSVRO Inspection Bay Signs

JSVRO Inspection Bay - Brake Test

JSVRO Inspection - Headlight Test

JSVRO Inspection Bay - Lift

So what did they ding me on? See below…



JCI Inspection Form

It was basically a cracked rubber boot and a headlight adjustment.  However, use this form as a guide to make sure you car is good to go, before you get there. A lot of stuff on there is simple and easy to fix on your own.  I would be pretty pissed at myself if I failed because of a burned out bulb or something.

Well luckily, or more like “conveniently”, there is a AAFES service station just behind the inspection area, and they do first come, first served service. I am sure that is out of necessity of being so close to the JSVRO and then having frantic soccer moms freaking out that they failed their inspection, and they will be damned if they can’t get their mini-van JCI’d…TODAY! How are they going to get their 7 kids to plays/practice/ the BX?!?! Haha Anyways, I was lucky it was simple stuff and cheap to fix, and they even got it done within an hour actually. But here are my thoughts on this part so far…

I know there are plenty of local car shops that offer JCI pre-inspections and what not.  I think those services prey on people’s fear of the JCI, but that is just me. So do you need to use those services? If you have a beater, you might want too. Shop around of course, but if you have decent ride and well maintained, I imagine you will be alright; basically don’t waste your money. Put it this way, if you wing your JCI inspection and they find stuff, well just fix that stuff, and you should be good. You will be out that same money (or more) doing a pre-inspection as well, since they “should” identify that same stuff, and of course they will offer to fix it; How convenient…But you open yourself to being sold stuff you don’t need, just to be “sure” you will pass the JCI. It think that is a racket, but that is just me again. So all this being said, I believe this part is what puts the “DREAD” in the dreaded JCI. We all heard the stories, “It cost me $1000+ just to JCI my car, what a nightmare!” I put money on that they did the JCI pre-inspection somewhere, and got oversold on service/parts. Yea they passed their JCI, but did it need to cost them $1000+ when it was all said and done!? Nope if you ask me! I can only hope they didn’t waste that money on a shitty car to boot, because if it was going to cost me that much to JCI any car I had, I will be looking for a different car and junk the old one.  Ok rant done, moving on…

5. OK round two…I went back to the inspection lane after they fixed my car at the AAFES service station, however it was their lunch time! Yes, they have lunch time, see the handout up above for the hours. Well, I just waited in the lane by the inspection bay, so I would be first in line when they got back.  When they did get back, they basically just checked what was failed from before and moved me through. After the inspection, I was told to pull into the lane of glory, actually lane 4, and they give you your JCI sticker then. You are not done though! Once you pass you have to go back in the JSVRO to update your paperwork/records. Bring everything in there and you drivers license and IDs. I mean they check everything, so like if you have an expired license, they will get you there. Just saying…my wife’s license expired the very week I did this, and they were giving me crap about it. But that is another write up for next time….

6. In summary, I winged it, and made it through relatively painlessly. The key to all this is good planning and giving yourself time to get this done. Fix the stuff you can first on your car before going of course, but be prepared to fork out cash if you car is “suspect”. Oh, don’t do this last minute! I am sure you can see why now…Well here is my detail cost for all this, however you mileage may vary…

a.  Insurance Renewal = ¥23,730 or about $192

b. JCI Policy = ¥13,230 or about $107

c. Weight Tax, etc. = ¥11,600 or about $94

d. Inspection Fee = $20

e. AAFES Service Station Cost (not everyone of course) = $51

GRAND TOTAL = $464 for a 500 series Y plate / Honda Fit

Not cheap in my opinion just to “drive” this car on the island, but it is Japan, it is what it is. Hopefully you enjoyed this write-up and good luck on your JCI adventures!

Info On Your GOJ Inspection/Road Tax Stickers

***UPDATE: You can also get more details on this topic at my other post here and here***

Disclaimer: If you got your finances in order, skip to paragraph 2 to begin reading about the stickers. All other cases, please pull up a chair to my soap box rant…=)

Now that we have been here a year already (man that went fast!), I had to fork some dough over on our cars’ annual insurance. It was about $536 for both…I will let that sink in for a minute….5…3…6…hundred dollars! Now, depending on your financial philosophy/outlook, that is either a great deal (about $46/month) or you are going to be struggling this month to make ends meet because you “forgot” about this annual requirement. Luckily I have money aside for these expenses, but I am sure others do not, especially our younger airmen/families living on a budget as it is. I have mentioned in prior posts about how expensive it is to drive out here, and that is why I stand on my soap box again to harp on this insurance cost to illustrate to everyone to save money for theses type of expense while you are out here in Okinawa. I have dealt with fellow Airmen getting their cars impounded over expired insurance/not current JCI/Road tax, and then they have to deal with those extra fees and headaches too, all without a car now! And for most when you got down to the root causes of the issue, it was because they couldn’t pay those “out of know where” expenses, and they were trying to ride it out to their “next pay check”. It would have been a non-issue if they saved a little every month, “knowing” they will have to pay insurance again a year later (surprise!). And don’t forget about saving for the annual road tax or biannual JCI too! Like I said it is expensive to drive out here, it just isn’t apparent after you buy your first “everything included in the loan” car out here, since 365/730 days later seems “so far away”. Ok soap box rant finished. So what does this have to do with stickers?! Continue on to the next paragraph.

As I renewed my insurance recently, I started wondering when my GOJ Inspection was due and what not. I wondered because I had to recently deal with one of my Airman getting their car impounded over an expired vehicle GOJ inspection/weight tax (I will explain what this is later) and the resulting confusion to what that is specifically. Well I did some digging on that issue and got clarification finally, but I also got some info on those stickers that are on every cars’ windshield here in Okinawa. I took pictures of the ones on one of my cars….

GOJ Inspection and Road Tax Sticker

Ok, so the large round shaped one is the Road Tax and this color is the current (2014) one. Next year the color will change of course. The smaller box shaped is your GOJ Inspection sticker. This one is telling me that my GOJ Inspection is up August of 2015. I know there is different yellow sticker/yellow plates (Mini Cars) floating around, but I only see them on the really tiny cars around here. Since I don't have one of those cars, I can't really say anything about them. Well Here is some info about the year references that they use here in Japan. It is based off the how long the current Japanese emperor's reign has been going on. The current Emperor Akihito has been in the seat since 1988ish, so just add the numbers to that, and you will get the year reference we are used too. So my JCI 8-27 = Aug 2015 and the Road Tax 26 = 2014. These should be the only stickers you should have on your windshield, however some of you may have one that looks like this too.



Garage/Dealer Service Sticker



Now this one (could be any color) is a garage/dealership sticker that serves no purpose for anything official. It is more of a gimmick to get you to come back to their shops for an "inspection" at the halfway point of your GOJ Inspection window. But I will admit that this sticker made me nervous at first because it is saying I have an "inspection" due next month! However, the Auto Hobby shop on Kadena gave me the low down on this sticker and it is safe to remove if you don't want it on your windshield. Just remember it serves NO official Japanese government purpose and it is just a gimmick used by the local garages/dealerships around here. I scrapped my off with a razor and used GooGone to clean off the residue that was left. The Auto Hobby shop went on to further state that you won't "pass" your GOJ inspection with it on your windshield anyways. I don't know how true that is, but my is gone regardless.

Well, that is about it on the stickers, but I want to go back to my story about my Airman getting his car impounded for an expired GOJ inspection/weight tax. This all started with this Airman getting in a very minor traffic accident and in the process of the police doing their thing, they found out he had the expired inspections mentioned above. Well he didn't actually know that at that time, nor did the MPs tell him exactly what it was either when they towed his car away either. It took some investigation on our part to figure out what was expired and how to fix it. Well, long story short, these GOJ inspections/weight tax stuff is "usually" done at the same time you do your JCI, but my Airman's case was different. He bought his car privately and for some reason his JCI and these other inspections were done at different times. There is no sticker that tells you when the JCI is due, but it is on the JCI paperwork. Also, the GOJ Inspection date should be on your car title. I scanned one of my car's title below...

Japanese Car Title



Now, I circled the relevant blocks and what you should look for. The green circle is the date you bought the car and what year your car is. So for example, 25-8-8 = 2013-Aug-08, is when I bought the car, and 15-9 = 2003-Sep is the year/month of my car. The orange circle is not relevant in this matter, so please disregard. But the red circle is where the GOJ inspection due date is. So take a moment to look at your title, and make your GOJ inspection isn't coming up soon or even past due! They do random paperwork checks at all the gates, and they will tow your car if anything is past due.

Well I managed to snag the printout on the whole GOJ inspection/Weight Tax thing from the JSVRO on Foster and it is below. It tells you how to get it all done, and guess what, it isn't cheap! Surprise Surprise! So now you know why you hear "JCI" time is so expensive, it because the Weight Tax can be up to $200, depending on how heavy your car is. I did some quick math on what it is going to cost me to "own" two cars here in Okinawa next year when I have to do JCI. It is going run me about $1100+ for JCI, Road Tax, GOJ Inspection, Weight Tax, Insurance, and I hope that is it! It actually comes out to about $92 a month, so that isn't bad at all, but that is if I start saving now of course! =)

GOJ inspection/Weight Tax Info

GOJ inspection/Weight Tax Info

Kadena AB Commissary Guest Pass

Always wondered how to get those fabled Commissary Guest Passes for your visiting friends and family members? Well look no further! I have the instructions on how to do it right here. It is pretty straight forward and it is just a matter of creating a memorandum in the format and with the information they want. See Questions 3 & 4 for that information. If your sponsor is a military member, they shouldn't have any problem putting it all together. You will also need to submit a copy of the passport of the person(s) you are trying to get access for, specifically just the page with their photo/name. After you collect that, you can drop it off at Bldg. 99 or submit it via email. I always have submitted them via the email option, and I have got them back signed super fast. In fact my last one was back to me in 4 hours flat! Your guests don't have to be American or anything either, basically if the Base will give them a visitor pass, you should be able to get them a commissary pass as well. However, I believe the pass is only good for the Commissary on Kadena, so for the other military base's commissaries, you will have to find out those relevant processes out as well. Oh yea, I would also call the DSN number listed below to get the most update info on who actually signs the letter, so you don't have to worry about it getting kicked back because it have the wrong Commander/Director name on it. Enjoy!

Kadena AB Commissary Guest Pass Page 1

Kadena AB Commissary Guest Pass Page 2

Kadena AB Commissary Guest Pass Page 3

2014 Road Tax Collection Schedule

***2016 UPDATE HERE***

It is that time of the year I guess to pay your road tax! This is an annual requirement and the payment timeframe is April 1^st through May 31^st. You can pay at your car insurance providers’ offices or at the local Japanese offices that handle such things. Or you can wait for all the relevant officials to come to the military base close to you and get everything done in one shot. However, I heard Kadena’s Road tax days are complete chaos and the lines are long, so I am going to do everything on my own. From what I found out, I will just go to my car insurance provider’s office at the USO on Kadena, pay the tax, then take everything to Foster to get the sticker. I heard there will be a wait for the sticker at Foster, but you will be waiting in your car, not standing around for hours like you would be during Kadena’s Road tax days. I will post an update to this process once I do it next week.

Also, I wanted to point out something about the road tax you have to pay, that I think most island newbie’s won’t know about when they buy their cars. You can tell about how much your annual road tax will be by seeing what plate is on the car. Reference the road tax hand-out below to find how much tax is due, by plate number. For example, I have a 500 and a 300 (under 4500cc) plated cars, so my total cost will be ¥26500 or about $265! If you have two 300 plated cars, you can see it is now starting to get expensive. So I put this information out for those families that are on a limited income, and didn’t know about the road tax fee structures when they first bought their cars. This can be quite financial shock to some and they may be wishing they knew this before. Combine the annual road taxes, your annual car insurance cost, the bi-annual JCI cost, and it is readily apparent that it is really expensive to drive here in Japan. Heaven forbid you took the 18 month financing option for your car on top of all that too! I suspect the lemon lot gets a little fuller after the road tax season, especially when families consider the costs involved, and find it isn’t worth it driving the bigger and/or the “fast and furious” type cars they may have.

2014 Road Tax Collection Schedule

Okinawa Zoo & Wonder Museum

Are you looking for a good place to kill at least a half-day with your youngsters? Then the Okinawa Zoo & Museum is where you want to go! It is literally about 10 minutes (depending on traffic), out Gate 2 from Kadena AB. This place is totally geared for children, with some kid rides, wide open areas for them to run around, and plenty of kid friendly food. Now that the weather is starting to get nice, we decided to check it out one afternoon, and we felt like it was time well spent, even our 1yr enjoyed it. She actually enjoyed it so much I think, she was out like a light before we even got to close to Gate 2 back on Kadena AB!

Well here are some of the practical stuff…the place is more a less stroller friendly, however I seriously suggest you bring one regardless. There is no place you can’t get to with a stroller, and they do have elevators strategically placed to get by stair access points. I do want to note that this place is actually pretty big, with plenty of HILLS to transverse throughout the park. You will get a pretty good workout carting your kids around, that is for sure! Admission is cheap and much of the food and trinkets are cheap as well. There are plenty of activities that are geared for kids, like a petting zoo, fish feeding areas, and just plain wide-open spaces for them to run around in circles. Even though this time of the year is probably just the beginning of the visiting season for this place, there were a lot of kids there, so I can only imagine it will get more busy from here on out. I did notice they had stations for kids throughout the park, which looked like they had fun games and information for them, but it was all in Japanese though.

As far as the zoo goes, I think all the animal cages have the English names of the animals on them, but everything else will be in Japanese. Like most other “zoos” that we have visited here on the island, the animal cages are not 5-star by any means, but they looked clean and give good vantage points to see most of the animals. We didn't go by the museum, since we figured our 1yr wouldn't get much out of it anyways.

Well getting there is super easy, you can Google “Okinawa zoo” and Google maps should get you there. I also grabbed the English handouts, which has the address and the pricing on it for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Okinawa Zoo & Museum English Flier 

Okinawa Zoo & Museum English Map 

Okinawa Zoo & Museum Japanese

International Driving Permit/License - Okinawa

International Driving Permit 

 So I needed an international driving permit (IDP) for my trip to South Korea pronto. I am normally on top of getting everything I need to travel way ahead of time, but this slipped mine mind completely! Normally you would have to mail your IDP application back to the States, and then wait for it to get back, but I didn’t have that much time. It would take a month going that route, mailing back and forth, and I figured there had to be a way to get one here on the island. Well come to find out, there is! You got to take a trip down by the ASHIBINAA Outlet Mall area, more specially, just down the street past the mall. No joke, the place you have to go is right there, way easy to find, right behind the Nissan dealership. Anywho, if you still have time to mail the IDP application back to the states, you can order an IDP from  two places ONLY. The AATA and AAA are the only authorized IDP issuers in the States, so don’t fall for the scams that are floating out there. Here the links…

AATA

AAA

Alright, here is the address to the place and a picture of what the building looks like…

Address:  3-22 Toyosaki, Tomigusuku-shi, Okinawa-ken

Google Map Link:  http://goo.gl/maps/XQY6b

3-22 Toyosaki, Tomigusuku-shi, Okinawa-ken

Here is info off the internet about what to bring to the place. My Japanese friend printed it up and translated the key parts for me. I do want to note that you can do this at some office near Gate 5, but it takes weeks to get back, and I don’t know exactly where it is. I think they basically take all your paperwork and then send it to the main IDP office anyways. Better off driving there yourself….

IDP Information

IDP Information

The main things to note…

1. SOFA license has to be good for over a year.

2. Bring Passport. I don’t know why they need it, but they want to see it.

3. Picture. I used the photo booth right there in the front of the Kadena BX. I would get pictures as close to the size you need for the IDP. Don’t stress too much about it though, you can get pictures done there at the IDP office.

4. Yen

5. Mind the hours, they are closed during lunch.

Well, I was smart and went after their lunch hour and there was barely anyone there. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes, but your mileage may vary. I even got there super fast from Kadena, took the express way all the way down, and no traffic! Friday, was a good day… =) Anyways, They make it right there while you wait. When you go into the building, you should see a sign like the one pictured below …

Near the Front Door of IDP Office

If not, they speak English in there, so you should be fine asking someone. I had to go to counter 10 when I went. And you will find the English language application form there. Here is what you do. Grab the form first, fill it out at the fill out station, then go to the middle counters to pay the fee, and THEN you can take everything to them to start your IDP. Overall, it was way simple and easy to do. I was nice enough to grab the English language application for ya’ll viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

IDP Application English 

U.S. Consulate General Naha, Okinawa Japan

I was in the legal office on Kadena AB the other day and they had hand-outs for a lot of government offices around the island. Offices for marriage certs and birth certs, stuff of that nature. I grabbed the Consulate map, because I figure that would be the most popular one of the bunch. So here it is and bam! I just saved you a trip to the legal office!

U.S. Consulate General Naha, Okinawa Japan

Dependent travel out/in of Okinawa

***UPDATED*** 3-Feb-16

So…if your dependents want to fly out on a commercial flight out of Japan, their better have their SOFA entry/re-entry stamps in their passports before they try to go! We learned this the hard way when they tried get checked in for their flight. But some background first…when we landed on Kadena AB via the Patriot Express, my Korean wife and our little girl got SOFA entry stamps put in their passports right there in the terminal. Cool, press on. Well fast forward a month later, and the wife is off to Korea via JinAir (way cheap by the way!) to show off our little girl to her family, since they haven’t seen her in person yet. In preparation of this trip, I knew they needed their passports and I figured they got their “stamp” when we got here, so they should be good to go. Wrong! They need more stamps in there, in particular the SOFA re-entry stamp. This allows them to come and go from Japan without having to get a visa every time and what not. BUT I didn’t even think to ask someone about any of that, because well…I thought I had it all figured out for their travel! I even read the fine print on her plane ticket purchase, which stated that the credit card used to purchase the ticket online, MUST be presented at check-in(she doesn’t normally carry that card on her). I got you JinAir! But nice try though, because this flight is going to go super smooth because I “prepare” more than most people do, so HA! So as we make our way to the Naha airport, we hit a ton of traffic, and that extra buffer of time I gave us basically was wasted on Hwy 58. Luckily, my “preparedness” basically kept them from missing their flight completely, and was not used to enjoy a relaxed send off like I planned. So we get to the check-in counter of JinAir and I give them their passports and even that credit card before they even asked, and they were impressed (not really)! But then I noticed the clerk fumbling through their passports, like she was looking for something and not finding it. Well I figure she is having an issue finding the “stamp” that is clearly in there, and I point it out to her. Then she tells me that is not the right stamp and I clearly stated that it is indeed the stamp she is looking for, because there are no others in there that we got when we got here. This of course is around the time we were approaching 30 mins from the flight actually leaving, the baby was starting to get fussy because we haven’t moved around for some time, and the wife was starting to give me the look that said, “I am getting on that plane no matter what!” Well, one of the supervisor comes by and presents us a book with a image of what the stamp is supposed to look like, and low and behold, it doesn’t look like anything they got in their passports. And now we are all just staring at each other as the clock is just ticking along, but the other numerous travelers on that flight are checking in easy breezy all around us; well they must have their stamps then! Well, it is super rare for me to be caught in these types of situations, so I started asking what are we going to do. We can’t just stand here staring at each other! So they asked me if I had copies of my PCS orders on me, and if I did, we could get through immigration here and on the flight. Well of course I do, I have stacks of copies, but back in my house on Kadena AB! Now we are back to staring at each other. And then it hit me, I remembered I had emailed them to my sponsor before I got on island and they should be in my email sent folder. So I searched my email folders through my Iphone (god this phone is a life saver!) and, bingo! I found them! I told the clerk that and she told me I needed them on paper, not on a digital screen. Ok, we are in an Airport, there must be some computers I could use to print something up. Wrong! There is NOTHING like that in Naha airport, never mind that Japan is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world to boot! So back to staring at each other…and then hope! The JinAir supervisor was kind enough to let me email the orders to him and he would print them up in his office and give them to me. Success! We did that, got checked in, and off they ran through security to immigration. Hardly the send off I was planning, but they managed to get on that plane and off to Korea by the skin of their teeth!

Lessons learned…

1. Get your dependents passports stamped with the SOFA entry/re-entry stamps BEFORE they leave commercial out of Japan. For us, when they get back I will take their passports to the passenger terminal here on Kadena AB and they will get their stamps. They just need a copy of your orders and military ID and that’s it. The stamp is good for the length of your tour, so once they get it, they can come and go all they want.

2. Military travelers don’t have this problem. We fly on our orders or leave forms and military IDs when we travel in/out of Japan, so that is way easy. I even saw this while we were going though our issue at the check-in counter, with plenty of young military guys on leave flying over to Korea to have some fun.

Finally, I have to give props to JinAir for making it happen. I know my wife would have been PISSED (at me of course) if she missed that flight, since her family made plans for her to be there that day. I also do want to state that my writing tone of these events may come off as way snarky, but I was completely cool, calm, and courteous the whole time, and I am sure that made them more willing to help us out. Plus I think having an adorable baby making all the ladies there swoon had something to do with it as well.

Here is link to more info on the SOFA entry/re-entry process and where you can get it at different bases on the island. I also have the link to JinAir, since they are way cheap for flying to Korea and other Asian destinations.

Exit_Reentry_Stamps_201407.pdf

JinAir