"John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:73fde4f0.0306151053.3e2cdc1@posting.google.com...
> "Ed" <gwbush@whitehouse.gov> wrote in message
news:<bchc91$diq$1@cobalt01.janis.or.jp>...
> > "John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:73fde4f0.0306130451.522d5b8e@posting.google.com...
> > > mlamphier@hotmail.com (m. lamphier) wrote in message
> >  news:<53fc9e0a.0306122037.4e81ce87@posting.google.com>...
> > > > I am currently in Japan on a 90-day tourist/business visa (granted
to
> > > > US citizens) while working at the Japan branch of my company. I left
> > > > Japan for a one-week vacation in April and came back for another 90
> > > > days. Now my work may keep me in Japan a little longer than the
> > > > originally planned second 90-day period. I could do another trip to
> > > > Korea, etc. but I am just wondering if anyone has experince with
just
> > > > going down to the immigration office and getting the standard 90-day
> > > > tourist/business visa extended for another month or two, i.e.
without
> > > > leaving the country.
> > > >
> > > Though I trust Declan on this, I'll add my useless two cents and
> > > suggest you contact the embassy/consulate and ask them. Seems like
> > > there ought to be a way. But, then, when I first moved to Japan I
> > > thought there ought to be a way for Japanese companies to make a
> > > washing machine that didn't require relocating the laundry to another
> > > basket for spinning.
> >
> > Is that what that other basket is for? I always thought it was like a
> > washer/dryer combo that didn't work for shit.
>
> Actually, I could get my clothes pretty dry in that thing. I hated
> hanging my stuff on the balcony; seemed odd that I'd spend the time to
> get the clothes clean and then hang them up in the polluted, smoggy
> air to dry.

There's no real pollution problem where I live. The problem is that I live
inbetween an apricot orchard, a grape vineyard and a peach orchard. Those
damned farmers come out about once a week in those pesticide spray cars that
look like giant jet propelled go-karts and spray their crops using the
stratosphere setting. They sit in those things wearing chemical suits (or
maybe just rain suits and masks) and the spray shoots up thity feet in the
air where the wind blows it right at my house.

My wife still insists that a clothes dryer isn't in the works because they
use too much electricity. Never mind the fact that I can't dry clothes
during the rainy season, or that the wind constantly blows my clothesline
down, or that the pesticides constantly sprayed in the area make hanging the
clothes outside a lesson in futility. We have to save electricity!