On Sunday I got my new, Japanese passport. There is something really exciting about getting a new passport, I'm not quite sure what. It was made with great haste, as my last one was only valid until October 4th, and I needed one valid at least for another 6 months to enter Hong Kong. I thought I looked like a convicted criminal when I had my picture taken for it, but once printed on the passport itself I don't look that bad. Just a bit on the tired side, but that's what I get for taking a passport ID photo at the end of a long work day. The best part of it is that the new passport is valid for 10 years--until 2016! I can't even fathom where in the world I would be then, with whom, and what I would be doing!
This new passport has this hard plastic page inside it, which apparently contains an "IC chip." The computer chip contains my identification information, complete with my ID photo, date of birth, nationality, etc. It says that because of the chip I can't get the passport wet, and if I do happen to break the chip I have to get my passport replaced, and pay for it. I kind of thought that was unfair, because it's not really our fault if the chip is fragile. I'm going to be carrying my passport under my shirt when I go to Peru, what the hell's going to happen to the IC chip if I sweat like a pig (which I will) on the Machu Picchu hike?? Brutal.
But in any case, it's pretty exciting. The first place I get to go with this new passport is Hong Kong!! My last passport had stamps from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canada, U.S., Rome, and Japan. This one will have tonnes more--Hong Kong to begin with, and several countries in South America from next summer, and then the U.S., followed by London...or so I hope.
Sidenote: the current music director at the international school we're visiting was the music director at the Canadian international school the UBC Wind Symphony visited back in December 2005/January 2006. It will be nice to visit Hong Kong again, and reminisce about the good (and bad) times. I will try to post pictures and whatnot while we are there.
Monday, September 18, 2006
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1 comment:
If I were you, I'd keep the passport in a ziplock bag if getting hot and sweaty with it. Still, I can't see how they can enforce a working IC chip... what would happen if it did die? At the airport they scan it, and it won't read. So then they have to revert to entering all the data by hand. Would they void the passport right there? That seems a little extreme...
For a while the US was saying they would only allow new IC-chip embedded passports to enter the US starting in 2006 or so, but then nobody took them seriously.
Yo by the way, it's good to see you're still alive and kicking!
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