Port Authority

It is harder to get into a country if you actually have a legitimate reason. When the person at the passport check asked me to write down my location, I put Tokyo Institute of Technology. They then ushered me into one of those rooms with entirely white walls where they bring people while they check their credentials. I gave them a packet for the Summer Program and waited for 45 min to an hour while they made some calls presumably that I had a legitimate reason to enter the country.

The legitimate reason is the National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI). It allows graduate students to study in Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Australia. I'll be in Japan through the end of August doing astronomy research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo.