A few weeks ago I described our journey to England from Japan. Door to door, it took over 60 hours in total. However, due to the compulsory 6-day hotel quarantine currently required by Japan for travellers returning from the UK, it took even longer to get home: around 195 hours in total. (8 days).
Christmas Eve
The dreaded email came. Our flights home had been cancelled. Hong Kong had apparently banned flights from London temporarily because so many positive cases were being detected on arrival there. We were unable to change anything online, so the only way to find an alternative flight was to call the hotline. It wasn’t exactly how I had envisaged spending my Christmas Eve. The estimated waiting time was about 50 minutes. I gave up at 90. We had no idea when or how we would be able to get back.
Christmas Day
I decided to try again, hoping they would be less busy on Christmas Day. The estimated wait time was only 20 minutes this time. I figured I would probably need to at least double that. I am glad I persevered. Finally, after almost an hour, I got through.
They booked us onto the next available flight. It was with Finnair and five days later than we had originally booked. I was actually quite pleased, for the route via Helsinki meant less flying time than the route via Hong Kong. The extra days in England would be nice and I would sort out work somehow after I got back.
Day 1
Pre-departure
We left for London Heathrow at 10:30 am, Tuesday 11th January. I was extremely nervous about our PCR tests potentially coming back positive, for I had seen lots of posts online about that happening. In fact, it had also happened to a couple of family members recently, who had tested posted the day before they were due to travel.
The tests cost us almost £300, plus there was the expense of the hotels and travel to London, not to mention the headache of rearranging flights last minute. So we decided to take antigen tests before we left. It was definitely a relief to see the negative results!
London
We drove straight to the Collinson testing centre near Heathrow. Thankfully we had been able to change our original appointments with no problem after our flight changes. We had been given a drop-in appointment, so I wasn’t sure if we would have to wait long or not. As it turned out, it went extremely fast and smoothly.
We told them we were travelling to Japan and they said they would print off the certificates and MOFA form for us. This form is the format that the Japanese government requires for the submission of a negative covid-19 test result. Although it is possible to enter with a valid certificate in a different format, missing even one vital detail, or even slightly different wording can result in entry refusal. Therefore it is advisable to try and get this exact form filled out and signed.
Results and dinner
We received our results by email only 90 minutes later. NEGATIVE. It was such a relief. We could return home! We had to wait a little while for the certificates to be printed, but I had a lovely conversation with the staff while we did. They were so friendly. With all the documents in order, we headed to the hotel restaurant to enjoy our last meal together.
For some inexplicable reason, the cost of a bottle of champagne was the same as the cost of regular sparkling wine, so we thought what the hell. Champagne it was. After my parents retired for the evening, I stayed in the restaurant a little while alone. This might sound weird, but I was really enjoying my final evening soaking up the atmosphere, hearing English in low tones around me, feeling the excited energy of people about to embark on their journeys.
A passing stranger
I saw a lone woman, typing on her computer and for some reason I was curious. So, I moved to the table next to hers and ordered another glass of champagne. I felt nervous to disturb her, but decided what’s the worst that could happen? So I started up a conversation.
It turned out she’d been trying to get a flight home to Australia for days. Her flights kept getting cancelled. She was exhausted and frustrated by it all. We had a lovely conversation though. I am glad I found the courage to chat. These brief encounters with strangers are one of the things I love about travelling. Eventually, she said goodnight and left and as the bar was closing, I went back to my room.
I have wondered several times since if she managed to get a flight the next morning or not. I hope she did.
Day 2
Check-in
For the first time in over 20 years of international travel, I was charged for excess baggage. I guess it’s either lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it. Unlucky we were caught out this time, but lucky that I had never been charged before, I suppose?
I don’t believe it was completely fair, because we were assigned 30kg each and in total our luggage was under 90kg for the three of us. However, it seems Finnair is exceedingly strict on each suitcase not weighing over 23kg. They did suggest we leave the queue and go and repack but in all honesty….. I really couldn’t be arsed. Flying is stressful enough. I just wanted to go and sit and have a coffee. So I just paid the surcharge. What’s another 60 quid on luggage when you’ve already forked out hundreds and hundreds on PCR tests anyway, right?
Later I decided maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Airlines, and the travel industry in general, have been really struggling over these last two years. Maybe my £60 fine will help the airline out just a little?
The first flight
The flight to Helsinki was pretty full. I felt quite nervous about it actually. It was the first time I had been so close to so many people in ages. Testing positive after our return to Japan would be a whole other nightmare to navigate, but by this point, there was no choice but to accept what would be would be.
It was a pleasant flight. I could purchase snacks for the kids, so they were happy. Then when we arrived, it was really snowy, which was fun.
The girls and I headed straight to a little restaurant at the airport and ordered pizzas. It was only a two-hour layover, but it went really fast. Before we knew it, we were heading to the gate for our final flight. All of us said, next time we travel, let’s visit Finland!
The second flight
I really liked Finnair. The cabin crew were extremely attentive and polite and regularly wandered down the aisles with juice and water.
I decided to purchase internet for this flight. It’s actually the first time I have done so and it was a lot of fun being able to message people mid-flight.
Day 3
Osaka KIX airport.
We landed half an hour early – 9:36 to be exact, Thursday 13th January. The entry process was very drawn out. We had to go through so many checkpoints. Our documents were checked multiple times. However, despite the frustration of just wanting to get to a hotel room and rest, it was smooth and efficient. It felt like we had walked miles, but according to my step counter, it was only about 2500 steps. We didn’t wait at any point. There was always a desk open at each checkpoint. We waited barely five mins for the negative PCR results too once we reached the test waiting area.
The saliva test was a challenge after a long-haul flight, but finally, we all managed to produce enough for the test.
After receiving the results, we went through immigration and customs with no queues and no issues. They had several beagles there to sniff our luggage. I have since learned that it might have been to check we weren’t bringing in any forbidden food for the quarantine.
Once through, we were ushered straight onto a bus and driven around the block to the Nikko airport hotel. They don’t tell you where you are being taken and you only find out when you arrive. So, it was a lovely surprise to know we didn’t have a long bus ride ahead of us.
From landing to entering our hotel room, it took about 2.5 hours I think. We were so busy during the arrival process, I hardly noticed the time go by. It was way better than I had dared hope for. I’d been warned to expect it to take around 4 hours on average at Kansai and at Tokyo airports, I’ve seen stories of 12-hour waits and longer!
The quarantine hotel
We were fortunate enough to be assigned a triple room. I was able to request vegetarian meals for me and no fish for my girls, (12, 11). The TV had an HDMI port so I could hook my laptop up to that for Netflix movies. The wifi was mostly pretty fast, which was a huge relief. The window opened a crack so we could get fresh air in. I was very satisfied with our room and glad that they hadn’t tried to separate us.
Days 3~9: Compulsory 6 day quarantine
This will likely change, but at the time of writing this article, all travellers coming to Japan from the UK must spend 6 days in a government-directed place of quarantine. You are tested on arrival and then again on days 3 and 6. If you test negative you will then be released to home quarantine. You may not use public transport, so you have to arrange either a private transfer or a member of your family may come and pick you up. When we arrived the quarantine period was 14 days, meaning that we would be out of quarantine on day 15 after arrival. However, this was changed to 10 days on the 15th January 2022, which meant that our quarantine ended at midnight on the 23rd. (Free from the 24th).;
If you test positive at any point during the initial hotel quarantine, you will be transferred to either a different hotel or a hospital, depending on your symptoms. You will stay there until either testing negative for two days in a row after day 6 or on day 11, when you will be released regardless, as you will be deemed no longer infectious. A worst-case scenario would be testing positive on day 6, being sent to a different hotel, and being released on day 11, resulting in a total of 16 nights.
Life in the hotel
The sunrise over the mountains in the distance was one of the perks of staying in this hotel. We had no control over the heater/cooling system, but the fact that the sun shone directly into the room in the morning and early afternoon, meant that we could open the window all day and it didn’t get cold.
Despite this though, the air was inevitably very dry. My 11-year-old daughter suffered two or three nose bleeds. Luckily we managed to avoid getting it on the sheets and were able to wash her pyjamas, as I had brought some detergent with me.
We all enjoyed the bathtub. We were lucky to have a nice long one, so we could stretch out in it. The water pressure was also excellent, so it filled very fast. I think most days we all had two baths each.
Meals
There was a chair placed outside each room on which they would place the meals three times a day. We were instructed to place our rubbish underneath the chair.
The meals were delivered between 7:30-8:30, 11:30-12:30, and 18:30-19:30. They would deliver all of them to each chair on the floor, and then someone would come along and ring our doorbells to tell us we were allowed to collect our meal. We were told to wear masks to do so.
The meals were very nicely presented and I think they made a wonderful effort to make them appear palatable. Unfortunately, I struggled with the cold sweet sauces that covered the vegetables and by the penultimate day, I was unable to stomach anything any longer.
A stressful wait
The hotel stay itself wasn’t so bad. It was especially nice the first 2-3 days to rest after the journey and try to get over the time change a little. The only problem was the uncertainty. I was really worried about having caught the virus during our trip and testing positive on day 3 or worse on day 6.
On the evening before the testing days, they supplied us with testing kits. We were given a test tube-like container and a funnel. In the morning we had to produce a saliva sample and place it in a plastic cup hanging outside our door by 7 am. Then we had to wait all day for the results, which they told us would be between 2-4 pm.
Days 9~13 Home quarantine
Leaving the hotel
Finally, we reached our last day of hotel quarantine. We received our results at 2:10 pm. Negative!! We could leave the hotel.
It felt so weird stepping outside for the first time in a week.
We were so hungry, but since we still had another four days to go before we could go to a restaurant, we decided to go to a drive-through to get some food, thinking that should be okay.
Next was the eight-hour drive home. We finally arrived at around 10:30 pm. Door to door, it had taken us 195 hours!
Home quarantine
Being home felt amazing. We could eat what we liked, have our own space and at last, I could play my piano. Four days would go quickly and I was grateful it had been shortened from the original eight.
Of course, two days in, I was reminded never to be complacent.
I was woken just after one in the morning by my phone alarm ringing and warning of an imminent earthquake. It was surreal. In my jetlagged state, I struggled to comprehend what it meant. The thing with these alarms though is there really isn’t much you can do. I was in bed, so probably one of the safer places to be. I don’t have a table in my bedroom to clamber under. So it’s just a case of waiting and hoping that it won’t be too bad.
It turned out that we were on the outer edge of the impacted area, around a 4. The house shook and rattled, but nothing fell and we had no damage. At the time though, you just don’t know how bad it will be. There is nothing you can do though, but just give in to whatever happens.
Finally, our quarantine ended yesterday. It ended very unceremoniously. My kids went to school, I cleaned up, and went to the supermarket. I took my daughter to her piano lesson. Life goes on.
It’s so weird to think of everything we went through to both go and return from England. Now it’s over, already my mind has started to downplay it. But, it was exceedingly stressful. I am not sure if I would do it again, to be honest. Yet… I still can’t help dreaming of visiting Finland…
