A lot of paperwork is involved in shipping goods out of China. Fortunately most of it is taken care of by the moving company. But this time my headache is that they take away my passport for three days to do customs clearance. So during those 3 days I can’t apply for a visa at the Japanese embassy or even do something simple like check into a hotel. None of this would be so bad except that I am on a very tight schedule for leaving the country. Oh well, I suppose part of the experience of living in China is learning how to deal with getting out.