When Japan reopened its borders on 11 October, it was arguably the most hotly-anticipated border reopening. Thanks to a flexible schedule and some fortunate circumstances, I managed to make a short trip there a few days after the reopening. I had shared my thoughts after that trip on what it’s like to visit Japan post-reopening. In that earlier post, I had mentioned that the tourist experience is much the same, and actually more pleasant for the time being given less crowds.
One month on, what’s the Japan travel experience like? In mid-November, I made another visit to Japan. This was a proper, longer holiday to Tokyo and the Hakone area. While my October trip was rather spontaneous, this latest trip had been pre-planned quite far in advance, with my hotels booked since June.
Now that I’m back home in Singapore, and with the benefit of experiencing a reopened Japan one month apart, I thought I’d share my impressions one month post-reopening. I’ll also talk about how this experience contrasted to a month before.
1. The arrival process at Haneda was bad
When I had arrived at Osaka Kansai back in October, everything was well-organised and the airport had tons of staff on hand to verify the MySOS QR code, and also at immigration. The scene was totally different at Haneda. Granted, SQ636 arrives near the tail end of the early morning arrival bank, with most arrivals from Asia on JAL and ANA arriving before SQ636. I have flown SQ636 many times pre-pandemic, but I had never had a Haneda arrival experience like this trip.
Firstly, unlike Kansai which has a large centralised area for verification of Covid-related documents or MySOS/Visit Japan Web (VJW) QR code, Haneda basically just has a few staff hanging around the top of the aerobridge and along the walkway to immigration. I appreciate that Haneda architecturally isn’t designed to corral passengers into a large processing area pre-immigration. However, the end result is a horde of confused and unprepared passengers forming long queues to flash their QR codes at the staff. Since I was experienced with the arrival process, I had loaded up my VJW QR codes on my phone the moment I had a data connection while taxiing in. Still, it’s a challenge to navigate round other passengers fumbling for the phones or desperately trying to connect to the airport WiFi.
The situation at immigration was even more ridiculous. Clearing immigration took 1h15min. Never in all my pre-pandemic trips to Japan has immigration taken that long. In contrast, my arrival in Kansai in October I was able to get from plane to limousine bus in less than 30min. It felt to me that the immigration section at Haneda either were ill-prepared or just didn’t give a crap. Despite being the peak arrival timing, I never saw more than 10 immigration counters open. Kansai had easily double that number available in October. I seriously hope Haneda and the immigration section there will take steps to improve this soon, because the amount of foreign arrivals is just going to increase from this.
On a separate but related note, I do recommend having a completed paper customs declaration form on hand. While the Japanese authorities are encouraging arrivals to use the electronic immigration and custom declaration forms, having a paper customs form might be useful. Because many arrivals are using the e-customs declaration, it’s causing long queues at the kiosk, especially since most travellers are unfamiliar with it. I have heard stories of long queues for the kiosk. Hence, in some circumstances having a paper form and going through the normal customs counters may be faster. For immigration, either the paper or e-disembarkation card are fine since everyone goes through the same process and immigration counters.
2. Foreign visitors are well and truly back
If the 1h15min immigration queue wasn’t an obvious enough sign, the rest of the trip made it clear foreign visitors were starting to head back to Japan in large numbers. I had stayed at the Conrad Tokyo back in October, and it was my choice of accommodation in Tokyo once again on this trip. The hotel itself was generally good again this time round, but overall vibe around the place was quite different. Lifts were full, there was a line at breakfast and there was almost always a crowd at the front desk. The mix of guests seemed to have changed slightly as well, as I observed more business-type of guests this time around.
I had a couple of meals at fairly well-known, highly-rated restaurants on this trip. At both restaurants, I was seated at the counter, and nearly all the other customers at the counter were foreigners as well. In October and on this trip, I paid a visit to Tsukiji Market. Admittedly it was weekday and rather early, but it was almost devoid of people. On this recent trip, we went on Saturday and the alleys were absolutely full of people.
That said, the volume of tourists is still well below pre-pandemic level, especially since Mainland Chinese are still heavily restricted on leaving the country. For example, I visited the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Tokyo for the second time on this trip. My last visit there was pre-pandemic in June 2019. On this occasion, while it was still somewhat crowded, it was easy to get a seat, and it was even possible to get a seat at the open-air terrace overlooking the Meguro River.
For sure, the days of empty tourist attractions are definitely past though. With the year-end holidays now upon us, I’d expect a massive influx of foreign visitors this month.
3. There’s loads of domestic tourists as well
On this trip, I visited both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. I also spent a couple of days in the Hakone region, visiting usual tourists areas such as Hakone-Yumoto for onsen, Owakudani and Lake Ashi. Both Disney parks, and the Hakone region, were very crowded. While there were a decent number of foreign tourists, I observed that the vast majority of the crowds were locals, even on weekdays. Pre-pandemic, I’d normally expect to see foreigners make up a disproportionate volume of the crowd at such attractions, however this isn’t the case yet. Therefore while foreigners are definitely coming back, the locals are still taking the opportunity to travel domestically thanks to the various subsidy programmes put in place by the Japanese government.
Thankfully, the locals are generally organised, patient and respectful as would be expected of the culture, so the queueing/waiting experience at attractions, and also restaurants, is reasonably pleasant. No dealing with too many unruly, excessively boisterous foreigners.
4. It looks like there’s a hospitality staff shortage
It should be no surprise, since many countries are also suffering from the same problem. While doing research on restaurants and while in Japan, I noticed many restaurants, including well-known and well-regarded ones, openly state that they’re hiring. At the Conrad Tokyo, I also observed that the line for breakfast was partially because there simply wasn’t enough staff to serve, and clear the tables. On a few mornings, we had to queue to get into the restaurant, only to see several unoccupied tables still filled with used dishes.
Following my previous visit, I wrote about how airport transportation could be a problem because many airport limousine bus companies nationwide have not yet reinstated routes that were suspended during the pandemic. That’s still the case, and there’s no signs of the situation changing. For anyone not stay within convenient train reach of the airport, it could be a challenge with multiple train changes or an expensive taxi. At the airport, duty free stores still haven’t resumed normal operating hours. Haneda has several flights that depart in the late night, such as SQ635 which I was on, yet the duty free stores were all closed by 10pm.
It’s clear some parts of the hospitality industry are still struggling for staff. With the sudden large influx of visitors, combined with a staff shortage, I fear the Japan travel experience is going to suffer in the short-term. While I didn’t have any issues with service at the Conrad Tokyo other than some wait at breakfast, I’m not sure every hotel will be so well-staffed and organised to cope with the tourism influx.
Conclusion
Japan is getting a lot more crowded as foreign tourists return to one of their favourite destinations. While my experience in mid-November was still pretty enjoyable once I was clear of immigration, the growing crowds could put a strain on tourism resources. Still, as long as the volumes haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, I’d say it’s a good time to head there to visit popular attractions or restaurants, which should still be a little less crowded than pre-pandemic. Just don’t be too surprised if there’s still long queues and long waiting times.
Personally, I’m glad I managed to get in a good 9 days or so in Japan before the peak holiday rush. My next visit will be during Cherry Blossom season next year. My air tickets and hotel bookings have long been sorted for that trip, so I was able secure those at great rates. I expect that the crowd will pretty much pre-pandemic level given it’s the first Sakura season Japan is open since pandemic, so I’d recommend firming your itinerary (including restaurant reservations) as early as possible.
Anyone travelled to Japan recently or planning to head there soon? Share your experience in the comments!
