Japan didn’t really open until mid 2023.

I took four international trips in 2022. This is what it looked like at the Kansai International Airport in April and July 2022. Totally empty. But at least I had plenty of space on the bus to the airport! Since the international terminal was still closed in Osaka, I couldn’t leave the country from there but instead had to walk downstairs to the domestic terminal and fly locally up to Tokyo. Then I could leave Japan from there. The international terminal in Tokyo looked pretty much the same, btw. Domestic in Tokyo was full, though. You know, because science.

Also, returning to Japan during this time was a nightmare. Most of Tokyo’s Haneda International Terminal was closed. It was eerie. It took 5 hours from landing to getting out of the airport with all the COVID processing going on. Heck it took an hour just to get out of the damn plane itself! So much for Japanese efficiency and their scary bright red “Green Pass” app, eh? Everything was broken. So much science going on, my goodness.

In April 2022 in the terminal there were white tents, people walking around in space suits, yellow signs, roped off areas, and plexiglass panels all over the place. Even the lighted areas seemed intentionally dimmed with only a few bulbs burning overhead. It’s almost as if they set the scene that way on purpose just for effect. Scary virus! Everyone was tightly masked with many sporting full face shields over their N95s. It wasn’t as insane a few months later in July so I decided to test the mask thing and took mine off. Turns out they couldn’t force the mask. One airport official gently reminded me about my missing mask and I sharply waved my hand in front of my nose and walked away. That means no. July was faster, too. They got their processing down to about 2 hours but the terminal was still largely closed.

Anyway, Japan didn’t really open until mid 2023. That’s also when they cancelled the never ending “waves” of “cases” that crashed ashore and swept the country for years. We were on wave 7 or 8 at the time and then, poof, everything just went to zero. Overnight. Such an epic victory for science.