On Mar 10, 2:53 am, "dame_zum...@yahoo.com" <dame_zum...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> On Mar 9, 12:54 pm, chuckers <chucker...@gmail.com> wrote:
>  > Mine was 3-5 sentences.
>
> Hmmmmm... If I'd've known that would be sufficient, I might've tried
> it. But I got the impression that "a dissertation the size of War and
> Peace written in 漢文" would be essential, and I've failed dismally at
> writing essays even in English....
>
> Oh well. That's academic now.

One of the main reasons I graduated from Uni was so that I wouldn't
have to write essays anymore.

There just wasn't a whole lot of things I could think of to write for
my "essay" to the Japanese government.
For all I know, they looked at it and said "that is a bit brief and
normally we'd round file this but he seems
to be paying a lot of taxes.  Would be a shame for the government to
lose that income.  Rubber stamp him
and let's go to lunch."

In actual fact, I was unemployed for about a month when my self
address postcard showed up at my door.
Care was taken NOT to mention that fact when I went back out to
immigration.  Stayed unemployed for another
4 months or so after that but made sure I was paying my nenkin and tax
bill.  Health insurance was covered
by an extension from my previous employer's health plan and that was
kept up to date as well.