かんかい

Well, it is actually quite difficult to just wander the streets and find robots. But they do pop up more often then they would in Canada or the UK (or maybe I am just looking for every ad or poster or whatnot that has a robot on it)? But that's okay, wandering the streets is fine. But apart from eating sushi and watching Harajuku girls, a lot of my time is spent corresponding, completing various paperwork, and so on...

I find the impression in anthropology is often that you sort of land in a country, enter on some kind of vague visa, and then just disappear off in the bush. While I suppose you can talk facilely about the "urban jungle" of Tokyo, I'm not sure this line of reasoning works so well in Japan. Its actually kind of crazy---I'm not sure what other countries have this practice, but in Japan they photograph and fingerprint every foreigner as they enter the country. Of course, going through borders is always a problem and I know I have about the least of it as anyone, with profiling and all. But still I feel constantly frustrated by all the paper-pushing. It took about 7 months or more for the big institution of my laboratory and the big institution of my university to agree to terms for me to go to such lab, take the risk all on myself, and hand around/work for them. After finally having that resolved, there are still ongoing issues with the visa, which requires me to get signed documents saying how much money I have sent so they can go to the immigration office and send me a visa, which I am supposed to be outside of Japan to actually use (luckily they agreed I could do it at the Tokyo office instead of having to leave and re-enter). Now I'm also spending my time pinballing around to find an academic affiliation.

Anyway, on the issue of money. The other funny thing is that anthropologists are always worried about having too much more power and too much more money than those they work with. Which I guess is a valid personal concern. But let me tell you, I think in the scheme of things, its not so bad! One person told me that when he first came to Japan to do his PhD they decided he didn't have enough money and he could not enter. He said it was like a disaster, though luckily he could have his parents sign something. These issues are not unlike the UK, which I suppose is fitting seeing as how the UK and Japan are probably the bureaucrat capitals of the world.

So it is very Kafka-esque.
One person tells you to speak to another person who forwards you along to another person...
Funding foundations want proof of your visa before they will disburse your funds that you require in order to obtain your visa...

And so who can I even think of in anthropology who has written about this? That's right, our cohort's favourite, David Graeber ;)