We MOVED to JAPAN
On March 28, 2022 my brother and I landed in Narita International Airport in Tokyo Japan. It was a surreal moment that was almost three years in the making. Our journey of life in Japan officially has started.
Like any move it was needless to say stressful. But I will admit that it wasn’t as stressful as I had expected… Although that could have been due to the three year delay between planning and the actual move (Thanks Covid).
On March 27, 2022 we woke up in Hilo, Hawaii and headed to the airport. Our family came with us to help move bags and of course say our final goodbyes.
We hit a few hiccups at the airport as our reservations didn’t match with our passports, not sure how but Hawaiian Airlines was quick to fix it.
They helped us check our bags from Hilo to Narita and of course situated us in a great spot for the dogs (THANK YOU HAWAIIAN).
Landing on Oahu at Honolulu International Airport was another feeling in itself. It was a moment where I realized “wow this is happening”.
Our layover on Oahu was about 2 hours so we got some food, took the dogs to relieve themselves and waited.
About 30 minutes before our flight we headed to the gate and got ready to board. THIS was my fear. Being that flights between Hawaii and Japan had restarted I was afraid the flight was going to be BOOKED and that we’d have so much people to deal with. I had been checking the seat availability before moving and it looked like people kept buying and buying.
But to my surprise and maybe by design the flight was only half full. Leaving AMPLE seats available for us. The flight crew were so nice and allowed us to move around to make ourselves much more comfortable and our dogs.
Like any flight I braced myself for a long boring trek. I don’t mind flying but this flight was a little more hectic as we had our dogs and I couldn’t just get up and walk around.
The flight in total took about 9 hours and 20 Minutes, we did land a little early but that bonus time was ate up by Covid screening.
Once touching down on Japanese soil a HUGE sigh of relief hit me. And a full realization that hey we were finally doing it.
We waited for everyone else to get off the plane before departing ourselves. We didn’t want to deal with people pushing us or the dogs.
The walk from the airplane to the start of Covid-19 screening was LONG. I would say about 1 mile at least.
Unfortunately for us the “Green Line” which we qualified for was not open at the time of our landing. SO we were required to go through the yellow and red lines which required Covid-19 testing.
Because of this it added TWO (2) hours to our airport excursion.
They funneled us through lines, they checked our paperwork for Covid and then headed to testing. We answered questions, gave them information, and took a test.
Theres a large area where you must wait. Reminding me of BINGO as numbers are called over a loudspeaker, once your number was called you could finally head to immigration.
Getting to immigration was easy, about a 1-minute walk. They had us fill out a couple forms and took our pictures and scanned our passports. Fast and honestly easy. This is also where we got our Resident Cards.
Passing through immigration we headed to Animal Quarantine. They dogs needed to get checked. We presented our information; they scanned the dogs’ microchips to make sure they were the right dogs and within about 15 minutes they released us.
During this time Hawaiian Airlines had arranged for us to have someone help gather our bags. I am so amazed with the thought this company put into everything. They person helped us grab bags, push cards, fill out shipping paperwork (we had our bags delivered) and helped me get my USD exchanged for yen. SHE was amazing and did all of this for free.
We got a call from our friend Mayuko who had been waiting for us in the lobby area. Seeing her after years of waiting was another surreal moment. After a couple of quick hugs we headed to her car to start our 4 hour journey home (yes we live far).
Driving through Tokyo and the Greater Tokyo Area was amazing. We got to see the “Big City” and parts of our new home. We laughed talked and discussed the past, present and future.
Pulling into the outskirts of our town was interesting.
At night it was dark, surrounded by forest and reminded me of every isolated scary movie I had ever seen. We all laughed at the look of the area but finally the GPS said 5 minutes away.
Pulling into our home for the first time was exciting. Our caretaker had left the light on for us as he knew we’d be arriving at night. So there was a light glow of a off white light at the top of the stairs.
We had a lockbox put on the door as we didn’t have keys. Unlocking the box for the first time was crazy!
All three of us ran into the house (dogs included) and started to explore.
We put what bags we had with us down in our respective rooms and settled the dogs so that they were comfortable or at least as comfortable as we could make them before heading to dinner.
My brother rarely eats on planes, not sure why but he never does. So by the time we got to the house he was HUNGRY. Mayuko and I had planned to eat at an all you can eat Yakiniku place so we got into her car and headed straight away.
Let me tell you, this was the BEST Yakiniku I had, had in a long time. Perhaps it was because we were starving or maybe it was the fact that we finally made it to Japan. But hands down the best.
With a huge sigh of relief we caught up with one another, talked about random things. Stared into the low glow of LAWSONS across the street haha and talked about if it would be bad for us to head across after to eat chicken (you’ll know how good Chicken here is soon).
Needless to say it was an amazing way to end the first day of our Journey into Japan.
