Everything felt new again; this was our first time traveling since the pandemic. Our last trip was in January 2020, yes, during the early stages of the pandemic. When we flew back then, the current travel health advisory was that the virus wasn’t transmissible through human-to-human contact; oh boy, that wasn’t the case at all. *smh*

So yeah, 3 years have passed, and during lockdowns, I was all left wondering when we could fly again. But then slowly, things just got better. My sister, a seasoned traveler, hadn’t been to Japan, while we were dreaming about coming back! When we learned about Japan opening their borders, my sister—somewhat in jest—invited me to travel to Japan; she didn’t expect I would say yes in a heartbeat! And that was where it all started! We only had more than a month to iron things out; some fam members joined the group at the last minute, so working on the details was semi-chaotic to some extent: visas, booking plane tickets, travel insurance, accommodation, vaccine certificates, and attraction tixs! Of course, all those IO stories that I’ve been reading lately fueled the anxiety, but we ended up not bringing documents anymore except for the essentials because our intentions as travelers are clear (and our travel history pretty much attests to that!)

Because of COVID-19, some new measures were added, and when we arrived at the airport, I was all sorts of nervous. Like I said earlier, everything felt new yet still familiar. Our flight from Manila to Osaka got delayed for half an hour, iirc, but gosh, when I entered the plane, I was so happy—told myself, I’m flying for real! It was a different emotion compared to my first ever out of country trip!

And when I landed, gosh, my feelings were surreal, I was actually back in Japan! I was so giddy, and even now, 3 weeks later, I still haven’t processed and documented everything. But I have all the time now that I’m back to my old routine! More of my Japan 2.0 docu in the next few posts; stay tuned!