Do we stay or do we go?
An extremely difficult decision that I have been grappling with for the last few weeks, is whether to go ahead with a trip home to England from Japan or not. With the sudden appearance of yet another variant, do you call its bluff and not give in to the panic and hype perpetuated by the media, or do you play it safe and avoid travelling for yet another year?
Only, when it involves children not having seen their grandparents for three years, it is hard. It’s a long time for a child. They’re missing out on vital time with family members that can never be replaced. Unfortunately, grandparents get older. Right now theirs are healthy, but I lost a close friend in her forties just over a year ago and I’ve lost even younger friends before. Life offers no guarantees.
Weighing up the risks
As far as our health is concerned, I believe the risks are as low as they can be, given the situation. My 11-year-old is unable to get a vaccine yet, due to her age, but everyone around her, including me, is vaccinated. That should also offer her some protection. In addition, she is young and healthy and completely used to wearing a mask at all times outside of the house.
A major concern for anyone travelling out of Japan right now though is, will we be allowed back in? The Japanese government has put some very stringent border controls in place to try and reduce the spread of the omicron variant. It is entirely possible they could close the borders completely while we are outside the country, even to permanent residents. It has happened before.
There are some truly heartbreaking stories of people who have been separated from loved ones for some time, due to reentry permits losing validity while trapped abroad and others unable to acquire a visa in the first place. It’s definitely a concern.
The rollercoaster of constant flight changes
A few weeks ago it started. The first email came in from my airline. They cancelled one of my flights but offered an alternative just two hours later. I remember thinking it was a bit of a nuisance at the time, as it lengthened the time in transit to four hours, but it didn’t seem too devastating. I didn’t realise then, that it was only the beginning.
Since then there have so far been four further changes, three of them major. All flights in and out of my original departure airport were cancelled, meaning we had to completely change our departure city. In the UK it might not be such a huge deal, but Japan is a much larger country. Tokyo is in fact 900km away from us, which is an hour and a half flight, or four and a half hours on a high-speed bullet train. Neither option is particularly cheap either. Add to that the cost of staying in a hotel overnight and meals.
Disaster avoided
An even more significant change though is one I only realised yesterday! Our flight out of Tokyo was also later cancelled, so we were placed on a different flight with a different airline. Only this flight leaves much earlier, meaning a 9.5-hour wait in our transit airport. When the change came through via email, I was mainly focused on the huge time change, yet at the same time also relieved we could still at least go. I failed to notice something vitally important! The departure airport had also been changed!!! There are in fact two major airports serving Tokyo and they are about a 1.5 hr journey apart by bus or train. Basically, if I hadn’t noticed, I would have tried to check-in at the wrong airport on the morning of our flight and then been in for a horrible shock!
Changing covid testing and quarantine rules – the UK
Up until Omicron exploded around the world, the rules were that, if all members of the family over 12 were vaccinated, we didn’t need a PCR test to enter the UK and we could take a cheaper lateral flow test by day 2 after our arrival. Negative results for that would release us from self-quarantine.
One or two days after I bought the three lateral flow tests, everything changed. Now we needed PCR tests, which are considerably more expensive. So I ordered and bought those, thinking maybe I can use the lateral flow tests at a future date, when things have calmed down again.
Days later the next announcement was that now we need pre-departure PCR tests to enter the UK. In fact, by this time, it didn’t make much difference to us, for the country we are transiting through had already changed their rules to require transit passengers to now have negative PCR tests anyway.
Returning to Japan
In order to board a plane to Japan, we all need a negative PCR test. However, there are strict rules on exactly what kind of test is accepted and even on the exact wording on the test certificate. The result is we are limited to purchasing them at one of the more expensive in-person test centres where they will fill out a specific form that will be accepted at Japan’s borders. Yep, even more expense and hassle.
Quarantine
Up until a week or so ago, (since my youngest daughter is unvaccinated), we were required to quarantine for 3 days in a designated quarantine hotel when we entered Japan. Then we’d be able to return to our homes to continue the remaining 11 days of quarantine. This has now changed to 6 days enforced quarantine at a designated hotel. I’ve been reading some startling tales of hotels being full and people being flown from Tokyo to other places in Japan. I really hope this doesn’t happen to us. I am an extremely nervous flier and avoid planes at all costs. In fact, we are taking the train up to Tokyo to get our flights there for this very reason. If they put me on an extra flight, I will not be happy at all.
Mounting stress
Travelling is stressful at the best of times. I’m one of those people who worries about forgetting their passport or the bus breaking down on the way to the airport and missing the plane. Now we are travelling in an era where changes can literally be hourly and half the time even officials don’t seem to know what’s going on. I’ve seen stories of people being sent back to their home countries because they had the wrong word on a PCR test certificate and it freaks me out. I am terrified I will unwittingly end up getting something really important wrong and all the time and money spent will have been for nothing. Not to mention disappointing my children.
It almost happened too! I am still reeling from discovering just yesterday that I had been planning to go to the completely wrong airport!
What else have I possibly missed?
Trust
A good friend gave me some advice recently. Just let it all go. You can’t control any of it. It will be what it will be.
Maybe this is the lesson I need to learn from all of this.
Maybe I do need to let go and just trust that everything will work out, one way or another.
It’s all meant to be
I strongly feel that every experience we have is essential to our life journey. I believe in the magic of fleeting moments where a seemingly unimportant chance encounter can shift your whole life trajectory. Maybe even, during the dreaded long wait at an airport somewhere, we’ll come across an image, a sound, a feeling, or something that leads us to a new idea that then inspires something amazing. Ultimately we could end up eternally grateful that our journey happened exactly the way it did. I know that we’ll make memories with family members that in years to come we’ll look back on with joy and gratitude.
No guarantees
There are no guarantees in life, whatever we do. Maybe we’ll end up trapped in the UK unable to return for months. Or, perhaps travel restrictions will be lowered at the end of the month and we’ll come back to Japan with no issues. Or… we could cancel our trip, stay home and then be struck by the next major earthquake to hit Japan. So, maybe we need to just live in the moment while we can.
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