Filling Out Forms

I don't know why, but filling out government forms are one of the most confusing things one can do ever. Think of a standard question, then think of the most awkward and ambiguous way to ask it and you've written yourself an official government question worthy for any required form.

When we were getting married and going through all the paperwork for Ayumi's green card there was an incredibly long form (or two) required for us to fill out. These papers made no sense at all. The government had a hot line which you could call and ask questions about the form for like three dollars a minute or if you wanted you could pay fifteen dollars for an explanation of any three pages from the application. There were like twenty pages and I think in the end we had paid to have the detailed explanation walk through for the entire process. In addition to the form, they wanted photos of us together, an essay explaining our courtship, billing statements from both of us. They wanted to make sure that Ayumi wasn't going to split as soon as granted permanent residency and make sure it was a legit marriage, not one ordered from a catalogue, etc.

What brings this all to mind is right now I am in the process of filling out my visa application form to enter Japan. There are a few weird questions on this form that I don't quite know how to answer. I'm reading forums and calling embassies but, still don't have a straight answer on many of the questions. To make things worse, this form reads as if it was originally written in Japanese and then translated into English by someone whose English isn't really that good. Here are a few samples of the hangups I'm dealing with.

-Route of present journey: Over the Pacific..? The embassy told me to write AA 169 (American Airlines flight number).
-Post or rank held at present: I am wondering if this is referring to my social status, i.e. student, employee, exotic dancer, etc. Not quite sure what to put.
-Principal former positions: First I read this and was wondering; Which Principle is that? Elementary school, Jr. High, High School..? The school I'll be at in Japan. I don't know, I suppose they were maybe students who maybe had a paper route or worked fast food. They were probably teachers before becoming a principle... On top of that I only had about five inches to write it all. I then looked up the word principal (thinking they had mistaken this spelling with the principle) only to find that the spelling principal has two meanings:
a)someone who is in charge of a school (which I thought the question was referring)
b)most important; MAIN (which makes a little more sense.)

Having distinguished the two, I still don't' know what to put.