I travelled in and out of Japan three times in 2020, using both Haneda and Narita airports in Tokyo.
In February I was given a pamphlet at all the airports I passed through telling me to “be careful”. Most shops and restaurants at both airports were closed and they felt eerie and abandoned. Customers looked like weirdos and oddballs. Americans looked nervous and ill at ease, very awkward. They always flocked to the fast food places, ignoring local fare.
In March I was in North America when my flight (scheduled for two weeks later) to Japan was cancelled abruptly so I decided immediately to go to the airport to book a flight for that day, since who knew whether all international flights would be banned and for how long. Why did I go to the airport? No one was responding to phone calls and email messages and the Internet system of the airline was not functioning. I booked a flight for later that day and left. Didn’t pay extra or get a discount. The plane was about 90% empty.
In May I travelled again to North America - Canada and the US. Someone at customs in Vancouver (a Chinese-Canadian immigration officer) yelled at me when I expressed a casual attitude about quarantine procedures. I finally promised that I would stay alone in someone’s basement and have my food brought to me.
In 2021 I travelled to Tokyo and spent 15 nights in a hotel of my choosing and at my expense in quarantine. I travelled from NRT to my Tokyo hotel by taxi which cost me about over 300 dollars. (I couldn’t use trains or busses because the airport posted guards everywhere.) The taxi was a limo type and my ride was really public transportation but me and the taxi company pretended that it was “private” transportation. I didn’t ask for a receipt and didn’t give my name to the driver.
In Tokyo for fifteen days I was monitored on an app that notified the gub’ment if I strayed from a designated area. I was called every day and had to video myself to prove where I was. My hotel had a washer dryer in the room, as well as a stove and cooking items. There were some other quarantined individuals in the hotel. They were .....ing and complaining all the time. I made the best of it.
Originally Posted by
Andrew Kim
Recent on the ground report from Narita over the weekend. I had a 3 1/2 hour transit before boarding a Singapore flight to LAX. First, my mid afternoon 2/3 full-Asiana coming into NRT was mostly full of Japanese nationals (makes sense) and transit passengers (only around a dozen of us) were allowed to deplane first. Going through security was a breeze and only took 5-7 minutes. Afterwards I found myself in T1 which was extremely crowded with other transit passengers (numerous flights were departing between 4-6 pm).
T1 conditions:
1. Air conditioning extremely weak that day to the point of barely noticeable. Although it felt cooler than the outside, the whole place simultaneously had a stuffy feel to it, especially with so many bodies around you.
2. Many shops and restaurants still closed, and even open ones close early by 5 pm. Duty free shops, a few convenience stores, Ippudo ramen (popular chain), and some random traditional Japanese handicrafts souvenir shops were all that were open. Food section duty free and Ippudo were extremely popular with long lines (since these people can't enter Japan they were taking full advantage loading up on macha cake rolls, mochi, candy, and the like.) and no room to navigate within the aisles. Barely any customers at the cosmetics, alcohol, and tobacco sections though.
3. I don't know why but it seemed easily like a 1/4 of the transit passengers were visibly and audibly sick. Near constant coughing, sniffling, and people blowing their noses. Maskless kids coughing up a lung angling their necks out like some artillery cannon, I felt so disgusted. My sympathies to the poor employees that have to work inside this place.
Fifty minutes before scheduled departure my SQ flight from Singapore pulled up to the gate. Around 10 min passed with no one deplaning. Then I watched as a nearly full flight deplaned and was taken to clear security, only to show up immediately back at the same gate for reboarding. I don't know if that's a blessing or curse. After their 7 hours in the air maybe it felt good to stretch their legs, but they had to do all that only to get immediately back in line to reboard the same plane, no time to shop. Although departure was 1/2 hour late, reboarding was very speedy and we caught up in the air, even landing at LAX 10 mins earlier.
This wasn't plan A on my itinerary but was part of a replacement flight as my original JAL flight into Haneda was cancelled last month.