We’re on day 12 of a 14 day trip here in Japan. It’s been awesome, but our luck has run out. My wife has tested positive for covid (our kid and I are still testing negative). It’s super frustrating because we’ve been so careful for years and dodged it until now. I’ve been hunting for information on what to do in Japan as a tourist, but a lot of it seems to be out of date. This sub has been so helpful with planning our vacation with tips and recommendations, and I’d much rather be posting a trip report, but such is life. Maybe this will be helpful to some other unlucky person in the future.
The relevant details:
* We’re scheduled to fly out in just 2 days on the evening of the 9th
* We’re currently staying in an expensive hotel in Tokyo (we splurged for our last 3 nights), all together in one room
* We’ve got travel insurance (through our Chase Sapphire Reserve card) and purchased supplemental travel medical insurance (SafeTrip UHC)
What do we do? We’re trying to get a paxlovid prescription as soon as possible. We’re not sure what the quarantine procedures are? Are we stuck in Japan until we test negative? How do hotels handle these things? We’re currently getting passed around from one phone call to another to try to figure things out, but would love any advice from anyone that’s navigated this recently. In other words, tasukete!
10 comments
posting with more anonymous account for sec-ops since this includes some personal info
I’d ask on the discord and see if anyone can provide info
Just out of curiosity…why did you guys even get tested when testing is not mandatory?
Is it a big issue anymore? Are you vaccinated? Unless you are so sick you need medical attention, I don’t know why you can’t wear n95s everywhere and make your way home.
Contact you travel insurance for information on what hey can do. They should have details on what the requirements are right now, and I would hope if isolation is required prior to travel, that they include cover for those costs and would need to start making arrangements for that.
While I travelled recently, it changes quite quickly and I only travelled with insurance to cover isolation in hotels and travel changes etc resulting from Covid.
I read the Covid policy for finnair in Japanese. It says they will let you on the flight if you satisfy the following. I am guessing this is basically the same with the other airliners.
1) You have not had a fever or any other symptoms within the last 48 hours.
2) More than 5 days has passed since initially exhibiting the symptoms.
3) You required no hospitalization.
4) You have quarantined yourself since showing the initial symptoms.
5) You agree to keeping your mask on during the flight.
Just flew back and forth from Japan and the states, and there were no testing/COVID requirements. You show up at the airport and leave.
Best case, you leave on time and hope for the best.
Worse case, you stay, if you’re able to change flights and all, and have the time, until everyone test negative, then leave.
Can’t say much about the insurance situation. Likely if you go to a hospital or anything, you’ll have to pay up front for any treatment you receive, even with the insurance. You’ll file a claim with them later and be reimbursed for your expenses.
The US Embassy website has a list of English speaking hospitals, and I believe clinics, there in Tokyo if you need that.
You didn’t mention what your home country is, but I’m assuming you’re trying to return to the us
I visited Costa Rica recently in May of 2023. 2 days before the end of my trip I very suddenly came down with a respiratory infection with flu/covid symptoms.
I called my travel insurance to find out what my policy covered and ask about what they could reimburse me for if I needed to quarantine
They were basically like “yeah there’s no quarantine or testing requirements to get into the US anymore, you’re allowed to fly with covid now.”
I did get tested the following morning and i was covid negative but I was definitely sick and infectious with *something*.
I double masked for the next 2 days, isolated as much as I could, and I went home.
I believe you need to contact your airline to see if they can reschedule you on a later flight. A colleague coming from the US got covid while he was here (Japan) and was able to push his flight by a week or so. He was then testing negative.
Keep us posted if you can.
Update: The US Embassy gave us some numbers, we called several of them but one of them (03-5285-8181 “Medical Info Service for Tokyo”) found a clinic that speaks English, and maybe got us an appointment there? It’s unclear if we’re just walking in or it’s an actual appointment. But we’ll get an antigen test this afternoon and hopefully paxlovid prescription. Then we’ll figure out the rest.
We’re in Tokyo, so this is probably specific to the area, but in case anyone needs them here are the numbers we went through:
* Multilingual covid-19 info for International visitors – 03-6258-1227
* International Medical Info Center (English) – 03-5285-8088
* **(This is the one that got us an appointment)** Medical Info Service for Tokyo (other is nationwide) – 03-5285-8181
* Miyata clinic (where we’re going to get tested) – 03-5937-0668
Pro-tip: Pulse-oximeters can be found at Bic Camera, but you can’t buy one if you aren’t a resident since they’re medical devices. I’m kicking myself for not bringing mine from home. But my Apple Watch seems to be working well enough.
I’m also having trouble finding at-home rapid tests in the drug stores I’ve stopped in. Anyone know where to get them? Again the info on the internet is out of date and mentions picking up free ones from stations.