While I’ve flown to Japan every year for the past 5 years, this trip marked itself as unique before I had even left the US. Fifteen minutes before takeoff, a handful of people, mostly youngish Japanese folks, trickled through boarding. Instead of peering through rows filled with passengers to find our seats, we navigated sea of empty seats to find our spot. There must have been as many crew members as there were passengers.
While the emptiness created an aura of safeness against COVID and made for comfortable flight, I kept thinking that that this trip shouldn’t be happening. Flying is one of the most carbon intensive activities a person can do; while this flight likely used less fuel due to the lighter than normal load, the fifteen or so of us passengers were responsible for taking this massive vehicle for 13-hour voyage across the world. This was likely the most carbon intensive trip I’ve ever taken.
While the flight was remarkable for its lack of people, entering Japan was notable for its numerous moments of close contact, albeit masked. Health check forms, pledges to avoid close contact, application downloads, and COVID tests all had to be closely overseen. We passed through one check point station after another, sliding an ever-changing pile of papers under a slit in a plastic sheet for inspection. To have access to health support and monitoring for our upcoming required 14-day-quarantine, we spend at least 10 minutes with a staff member standing over us and peering over our shoulders to guide us through the setup and use of three separate phone applications.
Those coming from designated COVID hotspots, received extra special (and close attention). To get to the government sponsored quarantine facility (a hotel) where we were to spend our first three days in the country, a group of around fifteen of us international travelers had four personal guides to direct us through baggage claim and immigration to the government sponsored shuttle service. Instead of announcements to the group at large, these guides came to check-in and direct us one-on-one, each time breeching social distance guidelines. While many flying were vaccinated and everyone had to have tested negative just a few hours before, it was nonetheless striking that these particularly “dangerous” passengers were receiving so much personal attention. Those three hours of COVID procedures were probably the most speaking with strangers within six feet that I’d experienced since the pandemic began.
Are these protocols actually keeping Japan safe?
One the forms we were given as we passed through quarantine procedures. We had to wave this paper to guards as we walked from one part of the airport to another.