Every foreigner living in Japan has to occasionally touch base with their embassy, perhaps to renew your passport, or to get some other form of identification. Fortunately for Canucks, our embassy in Tokyo is an impressive looking piece of architecture, softening the blow of taking time out of your day to do administrative chores.

Upon arrival, you get asked by a couple of security guards regarding the purpose of your visit. Then, things get a bit strange, because you find out that in order to get in, you need to take a huge escalator to the 4th floor, where an expansive outdoor stone garden instills you with a sense of scale that is fitting of our great country.

Inside the lobby is a seating area.

The other parts of the embassy are more sensitive and did not allow photography. But for what it’s worth, the employees get their work done quickly and efficiently…which…is more than what you can ask for back home ;p