My Experience As A Post-COVID Tourist

*TL;DR – As a first-time visitor, I thought visiting Japan under the current conditions was still worth it.*

Yes, hello, it is I, one of the [8000 foreign tourists](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220810_02/) Japan’s had since opening for group tours, here to tell you about my trip. Obviously, I am only one person with one experience, one company, and one tour guide, and you may hear things from other folks that don’t line up with my experience.

**The Road To Japan**

My husband and I started looking at tour options on June 10th under the assumption that some companies might not start booking before then. Due to work constraints, we had a predetermined three-week block we were looking at, and a quick day’s search found only one company that offered a long-ish tour during that timespan. The actual dates for the tour we ended up with were July 24-Aug 3.

As soon as we paid for the tour, the company started reaching out immediately about next steps. First step was sending them passport copies – this was for ERFS registration. This was done completely on the company’s end. I submitted the passports to them on a Friday and the ERFS certificates were ready on Monday.

The next step was applying for our visas. This was the most stressful – or at least time-consuming – part of the process. I found two different lists of requirements on the consulate’s website, both of which had at least one item not found on the other. The full list of items we ended up submitting were:

* Passports
* Visa applications (with photos – we just got standard passport photos from Walgreens)
* ERFS certificates
* Flight confirmations for both the arriving and departing flights
* Bank statement
* Proof of being tour members (provided by company)
* Tour itinerary (provided by company)
* Description of COVID measures the tour was taking (provided by company)
* Hotel list (provided by company)
* Guide contact info (provided by company)
* Authorization form for me only (my husband went to the consulate to apply in-person, so this allowed him to apply on my behalf)

Had we mailed in our applications, we would have needed a mail liability form – which states they are not responsible for items lost in the mail – instead of the authorization form.

He applied for our visas on Friday, July 1st and was told to return on Monday, July 11th to pick up the passports with visas. These were ready at that time.

COVID screening was all done via the mySOS app. The app’s screen color indicates progress; after travel information and vaccine records have been reviewed and approved, the red screen turns yellow. After submitting a negative PCR test (within 72 hours of departure of the actual flight that will land in Japan), the screen turns blue.

Also we were required to buy travel insurance, but the government never checked on that, just the tour company.

Processing at Haneda Airport was just the COVID/mySOS checkpoint (which everyone entering Japan has to do) and the immigration stuff that was probably always there.

**Actual Experience In The Country**

(We got off to a weird start with a weather-related missed connection that resulted in us getting to Japan a whole 24 hours after we were supposed to. Thankfully, arriving on a day after the one we’d put on all our forms did not set off any alarms, though we did have to get a second set of PCR tests at a layover airport since our original tests were going to expire.)

Quarantine: No, we were NOT required to quarantine on arrival due to coming from a [blue](https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/covid-19/border\_category.html) country. Folks coming from yellow and red countries may still need to.

Masks: Yes, though not precisely enforced? There was one family in our group who were frequent masks-below-the-nosers and no one spoke to them about it. But otherwise everyone was consistent about wearing them properly and even followed residents’ lead on wearing them outside in 100 degree heat.

Disinfection: We were required to use hand sanitizer each time we got back on the tour bus, and everyone used all the sanitizer stations we ran across while out and about.

Supervision: Not really! At the end of the day’s scheduled stops, the guide dropped us at the hotel and just told us when to meet him in the morning, and whatever we wanted to do until then was up to us. We also had a full free day in Tokyo, as well as small amounts of free time at individual tour stops. Which I imagine is how tours have always worked?

Extensions: It does sound like we could have added on a few free days at the end of the tour; most of our group was headed back to Tokyo for a day or two after the end of the official schedule. So ask your tour company, it can’t hurt!

Otherwise our experience was probably the same as any pre-pandemic tour, with two exceptions:

Number of people: Obviously, we did not run into many other tourists! We saw one or two other obvious groups in Kyoto, but that was about it.

Language: You can tell that most businesses (specifically places like restaurants and non-tourist stores) have not had English-speaking customers in a long while. My husband can read quite a bit of Japanese (all three systems), but has only a very basic speaking ability while I have essentially none, so we had a few rough interactions. To be clear, there was plenty of patience on both sides, it just got complicated sometimes.

**Was It Worth It?**

If I had to do it over again, I would have pushed back the trip a couple months just due to heat, but otherwise, yes, I think the trip was worth it. As a first-time visitor, it was nice to have sort of a sampler of locations; we would have liked more time at several of our stops, but the evenings did allow for that a little bit. Also, we were our tour guide’s first group in two and a half years, and at the end of the tour he cried because he was so happy to be back at his old job. I hope Hide-san continues to get eager visitors to show around!