Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa & Josh!

Japan is finally reopening! For real this time.

It’s been 915 days since the borders slammed shut on April 3, 2020. There’s been countless headfakes about reopening over the past years - the closest and most tangible of them was right before omicron hit. We all know how that turned out. Another 12 months of full closure.

Then there were the few months of soft opening - an attempt to lure tourists in despite strict complicated restrictions, expensive legally required guided tours throughout the entirety of the visit, not to mention the whole rigmarole of visa and medical paperwork that you might think you were heading to the DMV instead of on vacation.

As you could guess, that didn’t bring many tourists. Only 147,000 tourists came in during that entire period (2020 - today). This is compared to 31,880,000 in 2019.

But now, Japan is finally ready to fully reopen on October 11. And we couldn’t be more excited. Both Lisa and I have gotten to visit Japan pre-Youtube life, but we’re super duper excited to be able to visit together for the first time.

We’ve got our tickets booked (as, likely, has every other travel YouTuber), and I’ve been obsessively researching the entry requirements, vaccination requirements, and what it’s like there right now to prepare for our upcoming trip.

So, if you want to head to Japan anytime soon, here’s what you need to know.

Entry Requirements

The entry requirements differ per country, but I’m going to write about what I know, which is the countries in the so-called “Blue” group - a collection of 66 countries that have the loosest entry requirements, of which the USA is a part of.

Let’s start with what’s not there - a visa is no longer required for countries in this group for up to a 90 day stay for tourism purposes.

The vaccination and testing requirements are surprisingly lax for Japan, but still considerably stricter than most of the world right now.

If you’re at least triple vaccinated, and send in proof of that via the MySOS app (more info on that in the next section), you’re welcome in without a test, and without any quarantine. You will have to submit a health declaration upon arrival, and chat with a doctor to confirm that you don’t have any high-risk symptoms before you can pass immigration, but there’s no COVID test required at all.

If you’re not vaccinated, you’ll need to get a negative PCR test result administered by a doctor or allowed testing clinic within 72 hours of departure. You’ll also need to upload these results to MySOS at least 1 day before you fly. People have been reporting online that English test results work just fine, but the turnaround time of getting that paperwork checked has been quite long, so it’s best to upload your results as soon as you get them, just to be safe.

And…that’s it!

How to get in

Here’s how the process is going to go starting from 3 days before you arrive until you pass through immigration and get into Japan.

1. Download the MySOS app, and fill in all the information required. Have your passport handy, as well as your flight information (including your flight departing Japan), and your first hotel stay information.Documents it’s asking for today:

• COVID negative certificate (if unvaccinated)

• Health questionnaire (are you sick now, have you been sick recently, etc)

• COVID Vaccination Certificate (white paper CDC card IS accepted)

2. Wait a few hours-to-days after uploading this to get approved by the Japanese health care system. They will check over all your information, confirm it’s correct, and then let you know if all is well. Remember, it’s not just tourists coming when the country reopens - the largest group will be friends and family visiting loved ones that they haven’t been able to see for over 3 years. That being said, getting your paperwork in early might help—there’s going to be a long line.

Once you get the go ahead, you’ll receive a QR code. Print 2 copies of this, take a screenshot on your phone, and have the app ready. This QR code is gonna get checked a lot. It’s your ticket onto your flight and into Japan. Very, very important. Have backups.

3. Check in for your flight. Have that QR code ready. They’ll probably take one of your copies at the check-in desk (which is why you have 2). Start your trip to Japan!

4. Sometime on your flight, fill out the customs declaration form.

5. Once you arrive, you’ll show your MySOS QR code to the quarantine officers and fill out another medical questionnaire. This is confirming if your symptoms (or lack thereof) have changed in the past few days.

6. Present that questionnaire, and your QR code (yep, again) to an actual doctor that will be at the airport, who will ask you a few questions about your health condition, and confirm that alls well.

Once you’re set, you’ll get this blue paper (signed by the doctor you spoke with) that you can hand to the immigration officials, or quarantine officers before immigration, depending on which airport you fly into. Speaking of that -

7. Now you go through immigration. You’ll then collect your luggage, submit your customs form, and BAM - you’re in Japan!!

Many people have stated that this whole process from landing until collecting baggage has been taking anywhere from 30-60 minutes. (Our guess is that this would be a bit longer once the country is fully open.)

What it’s like when you get there

Like many tourist destinations that we’ve gotten to visit in the last year, we’re expecting many restaurants, hotels, and stores to be closed or starting to open up slowly, at least for the first few months. Reports have been very positive so far, but there are some notable tourist attractions that are, unfortunately still closed. Many of them may be forever. Here’s the most recent list I could find -

Link to Reddit post here

From what I’m reading, wearing a mask outdoors is not strictly required in Japan, but most people are still wearing theirs anytime they’re outside of their house. Masks are basically ubiquitous on public transportation, in restaurants, and at shopping malls.

There are still strict laws around wearing a mask inside of hotels - one major one is the currently-in-place-but-probably-disappearing-soon law that gives hotels the ability to kick anyone out of their hotel if they’re not abiding by the hotels’ own mask rules.

Well before the pandemic, wearing a mask in public, especially during flu season (the next few months) was a very normal practice, so don’t be surprised if you’re asked to put a mask on. It’s perfectly normal there, even expected, especially if you have a bit of a cough or sneeze - COVID or not.

As always, we try to follow the “when-in-Rome strategy.” If you see a bunch of people around you with masks on, wear yours. We’re all guests lucky enough to visit their country, and different people have different comfort levels about wearing or not wearing masks. I try to always remind myself “If I went over to someone’s house, and they asked me to wipe my feet before I came in, I’d do that, right?”

When to go

Heading to Japan right after it reopens may or may not be the right call for a lot of people. Many of the processes will be new, and demand will be very high, so you could experience not only complications with getting in, but also a lot of the shock from locals who are unaccustomed to seeing tourists again.

I’ve traveled to Japan in just about every season, and my absolute favorite is February and March, without a doubt. The weather is just starting to get a bit warm, but you still get to experience that incredible cozy side of Japan. The prices are still low because it’s shoulder season - right after the ski season, but before cherry blossom season. It’s the perfect time to see all the things you want to see, and do all the things you want to do, but not break the bank doing it.We can’t wait to head to Japan, and be able to show you the full experience and process from start to finish, but for now, I hope that this gives you a clear idea of what to expect when you fly there. It’s really great to see Japan fully open again for tourists like us, but also for family and friends who have not been able to reunite with their loved ones!

Today

We’re on an Alaskan inside passage cruise on the way to Hawaii. More on that very, very soon.

The (Near) Future

Japan!

Videos This Week

The thing that saved our trip.

Wow. My face. I’m sorry.

Our new series that we’re super excited about :) the quest to the northern most city on planet earth. It’s gonna be awesome.

See you next Sunday…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs last year, you’ll likely be interested in our Skillshare course on Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles. It’s been really taking off lately, but we still have a few uses of this link left for those of you who want to see the class for free. It comes with a free month of Skillshare, which is more than enough to watch our class and any of the other great courses on there!

Check it out here: https://skl.sh/lisaandjosh02221

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