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Japan Opening Up? From April 8, 2022 | Now October 11, 2022 - Normal Tourism.

so what’s all the fuss about Canadians being polite and welcoming and all?!

As a French-Canadian I take offence to any insinuation that all Canadians are polite in any way. This is not the way of French Canada, my friend (and that border arrive person’s name was Deschamps, so he’s one my people LOL) :ROFLMAO:
 
As a French-Canadian I take offence to any insinuation that all Canadians are polite in any way. This is not the way of French Canada, my friend (and that border arrive person’s name was Deschamps, so he’s one my people LOL) :ROFLMAO:
Ah ah!
I don’t remember the border control at Montreal but I vividly remember the racist taxi driver who said there were already too many migrants. He was Indian or Pakistani and certainly 1st generation! :ROFLMAO:
 
Ah ah!
I don’t remember the border control at Montreal but I vividly remember the racist taxi driver who said there were already too many migrants. He was Indian or Pakistani and certainly 1st generation! :ROFLMAO:

Yup, I had a Chinese girlfriend coming with me at the time and the taxi driver was the worst: “osti d’immigrants de calis, y prennent toutes nos jobs de manufacture”. Oh I love my Québec brethren (not a Québécois).
 
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We can allow that. They have to put up with the Maple Leafs - you'd be surly too.
You mean they give you back your passport not only with just one hand , but also with a maple leaf in it? Now that’s rude
 
That is the correct response, the Maple Leafs do not deserve acknowledgement as a hockey team.
I barely acknowledge hockey as a sport to be honest . Although watching supposedly macho man Putin slips on ice like an idiot made my day , for many days
 
As a French-Canadian I take offence to any insinuation that all Canadians are polite in any way. This is not the way of French Canada, my friend (and that border arrive person’s name was Deschamps, so he’s one my people LOL) :ROFLMAO:

West Canadians are definetly not polite towards French Canadian thats for sure hehe
 
French-Canadians tend to not be polite with anyone, in my experience. We are a pretty direct and impatient bunch.
 
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French-Canadians tend to not be polite with anyone, in my experience. We are a pretty direct and impatient bunch.
Ah ah, yes I remember this waitress in a bar , apparently we pissed her off for some reason , and she said with her delicious Québécois accent “oh vous les cousins français vous êtes tellement coincés hein”
(“You French cousins are so uptight”)
 
I thought I would share a couple of things. I visited Japan twice in July with a "relative" visa obtained through the Japanese consulate in Hawaii. I hold a US passport. I needed to apply separately for both visits and had to wait until I returned from my first visit before applying for the second. The process was pretty simple and took 7 days both times. The application form is simple and the Hawaii Japanese Consulate's website made it clear what documentation was needed (less info than what it says on the MOFA website...didn't need to submit an itinerary or a bank statement but you need to submit a pledge saying you aren't coming to be a tourist, which oddly enough doesn't require a signature). I was told that since "visiting a relative" was permissible I could do touristy things with my relative (like visiting the Olympic Stadium). A Covid Test is required, but it does not have to be a PCR test...they accept a rapid antigen test (which is cheaper...the official MOFA form must be filled out and places in Hawaii that do free Covid test will not fill out the form and have heard stories of people being turned away at the airport without the proper form). You need to submit vax records to the MySOS app which was simple (I'm quadrupled vax but there was no place for the 4th vaccination info). No quarantine necessary.

It took about an hour to go through immigration and customs at Narita in early July and only 15 minutes in late July. The process was simplified a bit the second time (I took the same flight on the same day of the week both times). All officials I dealt with were professional and friendly.

My hobby activities were limited because I don't speak much Japanese. Places that were foreigner friendly are no longer so. It seems that fewer restaurants had staff that spoke English. Hotel rates were great. My favorite place in Akasaka charged less than $40 a night...it was $160 four years ago.
 
Ah ah, yes I remember this waitress in a bar , apparently we pissed her off for some reason , and she said with her delicious Québécois accent “oh vous les cousins français vous êtes tellement coincés hein”
(“You French cousins are so uptight”)

Yeah the whole French to French-Canadian relationship is a bit complex and sometimes touchy. I’ve been out of Canada for something like 12 years, so now most of my Francophone friends are European. It took a while to get used to the cultural differences. And with the French laughing at my accent all the time I needed to standardize my pronunciation to a point where I no longer sound Canadian.

But we love you Frenchies… des fois, pas tout le temps :ROFLMAO:.
 
Yeah the whole French to French-Canadian relationship is a bit complex and sometimes touchy. I’ve been out of Canada for something like 12 years, so now most of my Francophone friends are European. It took a while to get used to the cultural differences. And with the French laughing at my accent all the time I needed to standardize my pronunciation to a point where I no longer sound Canadian.

But we love you Frenchies… des fois, pas tout le temps :ROFLMAO:.

truth is we love your accent , even if we make fun of it . Don’t lose it !
A Quebecois could shout at me the worst insults, I would still find it cute and beg for more
 
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they accept a rapid antigen test

They don't accept a rapid qualitative antigen test (such as BinaxNow), but accept a rapid nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) such as NEAR (Abbott ID Now) and LAMP.
 
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Quantitative antigen tests are not administered in the US. A lab needs to be equipped with Fujirebio's Lumipulse, which is only in use in Japan (at the airport arrivals) as far as I know.

I entered Japan twice in July with Quantitative antigen test results administered in Hawaii.
 
I entered Japan twice in July with Quantitative antigen test results administered in Hawaii.

That's good for you. A web search can confirm it's being done there.

However, quantitaitve antigen tests are lab-based (not so rapid), rare outside Japan, and easy to be confused with qualitative antigen tests (which is usually advertised as a "rapid antigen test"). For now, it's better avoid anything antigen if other options are available.

That said, I think that the pre-departure test requirment will be cancelled probably next month.
 
FWIW, most of the Japanese tourists visiting Oahu and needing that negative test to come home are just using the Nomi Health free PCR facility--same place I used when I tested positive a couple months ago. Book an appointment, testing takes a few minutes and you get the results by email. I just had some friends from Japan visit and I made reservations for them to test 48hrs before departing. No problems at all, smooth sailing.

I do agree that it's almost pointless now to do pre-departure tests. If you're going to catch it, it'll most likely be on the plane ride back to Japan.
 
However, quantitaitve antigen tests are lab-based (not so rapid), rare outside Japan, and easy to be confused with qualitative antigen tests (which is usually advertised as a "rapid antigen test"). For now, it's better avoid anything antigen if other options are available.
.

Test results were ready in 10 minutes.
 
FWIW, most of the Japanese tourists visiting Oahu and needing that negative test to come home are just using the Nomi Health free PCR facility--same place I used when I tested positive a couple months ago. Book an appointment, testing takes a few minutes and you get the results by email. I just had some friends from Japan visit and I made reservations for them to test 48hrs before departing. No problems at all, smooth sailing.
.

I heard from people who were turned away at the HNL airport with the Nomi Health results (perhaps things have changed recently). Nomi will not fill out the MOFA form and MySos wouldn't accept the Nomi email as proof of a negative test. I got my tests at Niu Health and there were a lot of Japanese Nationals there.
 
You read comments on Japan Today? Take a shower with boiling water and burn all your clothes.

It's your fault I actually bothered reading the comments then. Couldn't resist. Interesting mix of angry American snowflake types and then angry anti-vaxxers, howling in protest that they're not allowed back in yet.

If the Japanese government is going to standardize the vaccination requirement, it should really considering increasing the number to 4 shots. I mean, by the time general international tourism is allowed again, restrictions or none, it's probably going to be well into 2023. I had my third/booster shot last September, almost exactly 11 months ago. I took the liberty of lying to the nearby pharmacy and getting another "booster" shot about five months ago, which is probably why I had a largely asymptomatic experience when I caught COVID two months later. And now the U.S. government is saying that the modified Omicron-targeting booster shots will be rolling out in late September or early October, so I'll be lining up for that one, too. By and large, most experts agree that the immune protection provided by vaccines only lasts between three and six months. If the Japanese government is going to resume international tourism sometime in early 2023 and wants Western foreigners to have any semblance of vaccine protection and ensure they don't burden the healthcare system if they get sick in Japan, the government should raise the requirement to 4 shots (or at least require the Omicron booster).

Plus I would very much enjoy hearing the enraged anti-vaxxers throwing fits and vowing to never visit Japan again. It's a win-win.