Arrival
December 2021
I arrived in Japan amidst the pandemic of the novel coronavirus that had appeared in late 2019. My trip had been delayed for over a year as a result, but in late November I was finally able to travel from my hometown city of Edmonton, Canada, across the world to Sunrise Land. It was the longest flight I had ever taken; 10 hours from Vancouver to Tokyo, but that was just the beginning.
At the airport, we went through numerous queues, had all our papers checked and checked again, and took another test to ensure we didn't have the virus. After nearly 5 hours spent at the airport, we were loaded onto buses and taken to our quarantine hotel. There, we sat through another half our of someone talking, telling us all manner of rules and other things we needed to know during our stay, including some things we needed to sign up for that very night before bed. By the time I finally got to my room, I had been awake for over 24 hours, and was loaded with more papers than I knew what to do with. After frantically rifling through them all and messaging other participants to figure out all the things I had to do that night, I finally lay down in bed and got some rest.
It didn't take long for me to adjust to the local time zone, and after a few days of being tired I was back to my normal self. At first, quarantine was not too bad. I had a nice view of the city, was given three meals a day, and had various orientation and training materials and videos to work through. But as the days went on, I began to grow weary of it. The meals were cold and typically consisted of a variety meats, potatoes, and a few vegetables. Some were western-style meals, such as hamburgers or fried chicken, while others were more Japanese-style, with rice and meats. The meals, we determined, were provided by a third-party caterer, and did not reflect the normal food provided at the four-star hotel we were staying at. Some of the other people ordered room service, which was good quality but incredibly expensive, costing the equivalent of about 40-50 Canadian dollars for one meal. I refrained from making any such purchases, but did pick up a few snacks from the special shop that had been set up for us.
By the eighth day, as the meals began to be repeated, I was beginning to tire of the cold wieners and meatloaf we were being served. Being in quarantine, it turns out, was more like being in prison. Or maybe even worse. Sure, they probably don't have nice private showers and toilets with heated seats in prison, but most prisoners are at least given fresh air, and time to mingle with others. We had no such luxuries.
Thankfully, because I had been vaccinated before traveling, I was permitted to quarantine for only 10 days rather than the full 14. so on December 9th I left the hotel and took one more flight to my final destination.