Okay, so within the same month I've had the opportunity to go through
immigration procedures at both Narita and Chubu Centrair. The verdict? While the
degrading procedure of fingerprinting and mug-shooting is unsurprisingly about
the same at both locations, the way they handle the line of people waiting to
get through is radically different. Both have similar problems, but Centrair so
thoroughly disgusted me that it essentially erased any good feelings I may have
had about that airport.

Narita
------
In my years of travel I have noticed that whenever I'm re-entering Japan the
line of foreigners has been substantially longer than that of the
Japanese/permanent residents (when they were allowed through the same line).
Thus I can assume that the number of temporary visitors usually outnumbers
re-entrants and lifers, sometimes by a ratio of 5 to 1.

Since last November the policy suddenly changed for the drastically worse,
forcing airports to lump all non-Japanese together in the same immigration line
regardless of their status. This is even more strict than the United States --
the original instigator of all this anti-terrorism bullshit -- where my wife
could go through the US CITIZENS line with me; the fingerprint/camera thingie is
present at all stations.

At Narita, there was at least an attempt by the inspectors to separate
re-entrants from the rest of the temporary visitors in order to streamline the
process; I was able to get through this line in three minutes. At the time, the
ratio was at least 10 to 1 in favor of the tourists. Since there were also
hundreds of Japanese going through their own line at the time, I was able to
otherwise deal with not being allowed to accompany my wife.

Chubu Centrair
--------------
I don't know the last time I got so pissed off at an airport.

On a Sunday afternoon in the low season, traffic is evidently rather light at
the immigration gates, but the Chubu inspectors decided to divide their 20 lanes
perfectly in half -- Japanese on one side, and "other" on the other -- and herd
the foreigners into *one* snaking line to the gates rather than allowing them to
line up behind all gates equally.

When my flight (which was 90% Americans) landed, the "foreign passport/re-entry"
gates promptly filled up to overflowing. There were soon over 100 people in a
single line. I looked through the people waiting -- almost all of them had a
disembarkation card for temporary visitors. There might have been, oh, three
re-entrants in line. I was one of them, at the very back.

I was traveling with my boss. All the Japanese gates were open, and five were
manned. He didn't even have to wait; he went right through like shit through a
goose. Soon, the 15 or 20 Japanese had gone, and the Japanese gates sat empty.
The foreigners line continued to grow.

I waited in line for fifteen solid minutes.

It wasn't until I had gotten to the very head of the line and stared
malevolently at the bored-looking Japanese gate inspectors that they finally
decided to expand the gates -- by THREE. I was ushered into one of them by some
old fart who could barely pronounce "12" in English.

This was formerly one of the Japanese gates. This was when I realized that all
the gates had the fingerprinter/camera setups. 

I couldn't keep my mouth shut. "[in Japanese] Couldn't you guys have let me go
through this line in the first place?" I asked. I got no answer.

Thoughts
--------
What kind of morons would force 100 people to wade through a single line and
wait 15 minutes before sacrificing the precious (but totally fucking empty)
Japanese gates to let them through?

What kind of morons would force me -- a permanent resident -- to wait in the
same line as 100 tourists, while manning five gates to attend to the 20 or so
Japanese (a procedure that consists of hammering their passport with a stamp)?
Couldn't they have also attended to me, since they already have the
fingerprinting machines at every gate?

At the risk of sounding like a snob, god dammit, I live here, and have lived
here for fifteen years. Japan is the only country I've ever entered where
residents were forced to wait in line with temporary visitors. It didn't used to
be this way.

Narita at least had the good sense to realize that some of us aren't just here
to buy electronics and take pictures, and give us our own gate, albeit
segregated from our Japanese family members. But Chubu was fucking ridiculous.
Where are you planning to stay in Japan, sir? In my fucking house. What is your
purpose in Japan, sir? To go the fuck home and take a shower and sleep in my own
bed so I can go to work the next day and pay Japanese taxes and contribute to
the Japanese GDP.

Sure, I wasn't hauled into a back room and given a colonoscopy via crowbar or
waterboarded while interrogated by angry men with no necks. So I have no right
to whine and bitch. Fine. But I'm doing it anyway.


-- 
The 2-Belo [the2beloATmsdDOTbiglobeDOTneDOTjp]
Emperor, Meow (Retired, on generous military pension)
afk-mn WebCenter: http://www.godhatesjanks.org/webcenter/
auk: Hammer of Thor by Special Decree 1999
(Upgraded to Diamond in 2005)
aavf3: mhm21x20

"Today tragedy struck a very small town. The town's 
only parking lot caught fire and burned to the ground.
The police chief had this to say: 'It was either one 
psychopath, full of hate... or a group of five psychopaths 
with 20 percent of the hate for each.'" -- John F. Stepp