Please watch until the end to understand the full context. Too many people jumping to conclusions without watching the whole thing because they don’t understand ironic video titles.
Well you can’t really blame them. A lot of people just read the video title and think they already know enough and never actually watch the video to know that they were Thunder Cross Split Attacked.
@@Lishamisha22 as someone who has visited Japan before covid and it was kinda school exchange, kinda tour guided and because I was older I could do things myself. Whilst it was amazing, I would’ve preferred to not had to run around for an hour to see as much as possible and taken time to explore and see things at my own pace. I highly just recommend waiting, it’ll be cheaper and more fun for yourself.
This change means nothing for 99% of people wanting to go to Japan. It's nonsensical, it achieves nothing in terms of control, it doesn't change anything for travellers apart from the presence of a chaperone, and it still means paying exhorbitant rates for accommodation and their own pound of flesh for having to go through a travel agent, and leaves the traveller with zero flexibility. Pass.
@@jakeconnelly2441 Portuguese here, lot of traffic this time of the year from all the tourists, wanted to warn you before you had some problems. I live in Algarve, hot spot for tourists because of the beaches. Have fun in Porto though!
I lived in Japan for 8 years. After 3 years of pandemic in which I was stuck in Japan, I moved back to my home country for family reasons, but my husband (he is Japanese) had to stay back to work for one more year. They cancelled my residence card when I left Japan, but I was ok because I thought “they will let tourists in eventually, right?”…. No, of course. Now I have to ask for a visa to see my husband and my Japanese family during the new year celebrations and my husband has to send me the document that states that I’m his wife… For me entering Japan through a travel agency is POINTLESS and I still need to ask for a special visa…this is crazy. Japan never thinks about these special situations…and it’s really annoying having to get all these documents for the visa and having to go to the embassy in person. Japan is known for requiring documents for everything, and people are very inflexible: if it’s not written on paper they don’t know what to do or how to get a solution. Another thing is that my country doesn’t allow women to take on the husband’s surname, so even if I said “ehi, my husband is Japanese!”, nobody would believe me…I wonder if when we’ll have kids I will need to go around with a document that states that I’m their mother…
CDC and WHO guidelines have changed. The most recent guidelines basically point out, that everything Japan is doing, is largely unnecessary. Covid fear is not a valid excuse to destroy your economy. If Japan doesn't fix their economic issues fast, they will likely face an incredibly harsh couple of years given the state of the global market, particularly Chinas impending market collapse. I like Japan, and I don't want it to be a third world country.
The “who” advice should be taken with a grain of salt given how incompetent they were during the start of this pandemic. But agreed with the latter. Could be positive effect to where they loosen their foreign ownership and i could buy retirement property in japan for good value! But thats just wishful thinking lol
@@hankmoody9965 I also feel people shouldn’t rely/listen too much to the CDC/Who because they’re both politically corrupt and are known to not be very trustworthy...
The CDC only relates to the US anyway, and they are basically just giving up, since people weren't following prior guidelines anyway. And neither organization's guidance directly contradicts what Japan is doing. The WHO release was a technical manual for evaluating epidemiological, health system and socioeconomic contexts, to ensure they are proportionate to the public health risk. There are a lot of reasons why Japan is more at risk than many other countries from international travel. The larger elderly population, the dense population. Further, the overwhelming majority of travel profit in the country is domestic (it was ~80%). Allowing international travel maybe be largely insufficient to help the economy, as they are struggling for far more reasons. The position you and Joey both take are simplistic and not really addressing the dangers of COVID, even though it may be correct to relax restrictions. We are likely facing another spike this fall, and letting in a bunch of international travelers is objectively going to cause a non-trivial number of deaths. If anything, other countries taking the strategy of Japan before and for longer might have avoided a lot of the issues we are now having with COVID.
We should respect their decision, at the end, japanese will learn again that is necessary the west and trade. If is a consequence to become a third world country let it be, like most middle east with their retarded politics. Atleast many know we live in a world, not a sole country with focus in nation, religion or prejudices.
Out of sheer spite I'll just visit South Korea, Taiwan, and S.E. Asia before I ever visit Japan. They've made their position on foreigners clear. We're not welcome so we won't come. I suspect other foreigners interested in Japan will be doing the same.
@@Solarstormflare just have to wait until they stop clowning ...but no one is getting any younger... Don't get me wrong, love Japan... One of my favourite places and will go back but they are shooting themselves in the foot.
Cheers Joey, appreciate the update. I looked at guided tours and they're extremely expensive, not to mention restrictive. Can't wait until Japan opens fully again 🇯🇵
I like how you post a video of Japan letting foreigners into the country while Aki post a video saying that Japan won’t let foreigners in the country 🤣
So basically Japan wants to have a guarantee from tourists that they will actually be travelling around and spending lots of money instead of hostel hopping and using their money wisely. Because lets be honest, travel agencies don't really offer the cheapest travel options to their clients and prebooking some things in Japan can be so price inflated.
Not to be rude, but we ain't that responsible with our money. Just a couple months back, we needed to be injected because we refused to take care of our own body. All of the sudden , not only thats taken care of, but also our financial troubles? There are steps to this game. I am sorry for not having the best examples, but responsible? That we are not !
I usually book my vacations through a travel agency (Hotels, flights) and give them the rough location where I want to stay. For example a week on Tokyo, a week in Kyoto, a week in Osaka was my 2nd visit. My day to day schedule is still very much up to me. The line that ruins the article is 'The agencies that arrange tours are expected to manage their clients' schedules'. The reason I use a travel agency is because it leaves me a lot less anxious that I forgot to arrange something, and it also give me some guarantees. Here's to hoping that it goes back to normal by Spring 2023. Edit: Also the Japanese government are hypocrites, letting their own citizens travel almost freely but blocking foreigners because of 'Covid'. I barely hear anything about Covid where I live anymore and life has pretty much gone back to normal.
Still waiting for when I can travel to Japan with willy-nilly privileges. Ironically, Japan is probably the best place for solo travelers. High safety level, restaurants usually have counter seating, business hotels are just the right size for solo travelers, and capsule hotels even more so, and public transportation is convenient.
You have Jbaited me very much. My day was made better and I felt my happiness I haven’t felt since I was a child, start spiking inside of me…then you crushed me. I felt all that excitement slowly ooze out of me and left me cold and emotionless. If you don’t know. From your last video, I canceled my trip to Japan because I was ill informed. Didn’t have a visa. So I canceled. Me seeing this video gave me so much hope and then killed it
gotta wonder how strict the japanese government is going to be about agencies managing people's schedules like, of course the agencies can't legally just tell the customers "hey, we're not actually going to be managing you", but could they get away with "Ok, your schedule is to arrive in Tokyo on this flight on day X, visit this Tokyo tourist attraction on day X+1, and board a flight home on day X+6"
I bet it's not any agency, its probably gonna be a few specific government approved Japanese travel companies. Even now you can't book any group tour, it's only from a couple big corporations who basically lobbied the government for the right. It might not go as far as physically tracking your location or anything, but I bet they will be required to book specific packages with everything paid in advance so if you do go off schedule you'll be throwing away money. And maybe if you don't show up to your hotel or something they'll call the agency who will call you and if you are dodging your itinerary report you or something. Last time they claimed to open the headlines were much like this but when they actually announced the details it was much more restrictive than implied.
@@soasertsus my guess is, one the agent will also need to be present in the said country and manage a couple of them at the same time, probably a japanese reqruited by the same company/ a japanese proficient agent from overseas, OR the japanese tour agency will partner up with the overseas tour agency to manage the travellers. purely guessing ~ somehow it feels like letting the chicken loose and the neighbour needs to catch them 🤣
On paper this sounds ok. Sure whatever, I was planning to go on day x and leave on day x6. But for them to do all the filling. Knowing America: small agents will struggle to get access. Big agencies will think they have a monopoly so only one person will be available to file all these claims. You will ask for the 4th and they will say “sorry we only have the 6th” you walk away and suddenly the 4th is available but you have to pay them more…. Sorry, Japan is a older country and may have all their ducks in order. But younger countries like us will not. The biggest thing is if, someone does show up with the 20/20 V, I’m sure the agents will not want the risk. Denying everything.
I’ve had a 2 week trip booked to Japan for November since May-flights, hotels, and everything but the JR Pass-but will gladly cancel everything to wait until I can travel freely and independently within one of my favorite destinations ever. Appreciate the regular updates, Joey!
I guess it depend how you understand "manage the itinerary", honestly, most people like do make an itinerary and list things they want to see. For me, the right move from a travel agency might just be to ask travelers to submit their itinerary and let them do it. It is not as if they said the agency had to track people and they do not have to accompany the tourist either. I can see how it would be much more popular if you just submit your itinerary to a travel agency and ask them to book your hotels in the different cities you are interested in. If they do not overcharge compared if you book it yourself, it would make much more sense for most people than the guided tour.
That would depend on the actual wording of the stipulations that was actually sent out by the Japanese government. If the guidelines are as strict for the travel agencies to keep their tourists in line, especially if the agencies themselves are held liable, it's basically back to square one, if not worse. Hopefully it isn't that way but, still this is a lot of hoops to jump through.
@@carlunadenI've read reports of people going with a tour and sait there was not that much supervision. Once the day schedule was over, they where dropped at the hotel and could do whatever or that they had free time within their tours and even a couple of days completely free in Tokyo. So yes, the government made is sound super scary that you always had to be under supervision, but in the end, they do not seems to enforce any strong control. Anyway, we still have to wait for them to properly announce the detail of how and when it will start.
There are guided tours from my city to Japan with 1-2 days of free time written down, and maybe they'll add more days if the response is good. I guess no one bats an eye if you leave the city limits, but you'll have to return to the hotel for the night. As my hometown still has inbound quarantine, I'll wait until November to see how things go - the weather will be cooler and there will be autumn leaves.
Bit of an update since reality ended up being pretty different. Individual tourists ARE allowed. You just need to arrange with a travel agency for them to essentially "sponsor" you. You do not have to book through the travel agency, you just need to arrange with them. For example, you can book the flight yourself, then provide the agency with the flight confirmation details. ( Note: Whether an individual travel agency will accept this is up to them. Naturally many of them want to push you to book as much as possible with them. ) Then you also need a first nights hotel confirmation, also arranged with the agency. ( Note: It has all been very wishy washy. The official government documents used rather loose wording, so it's no wonder there has been so much confusion. ) No tour, no detailed itinerary, etc. You are free to explore yourself. I personally did it: The eVisa only requires the ERFS provided by the travel agency, flight and first nights hotel. That's it. HOWEVER: They have announced they are planning to remove virtually all restrictions ( entire visa and daily caps ) within the "not-so-distant future". It's expected in october, probably early october. They are supposed to announce more of the details sometime this week. I would absolutely expect the vaccine vs. testing requirements to remain for the time though. No reason to lift those really.
A friend of mine recently moved to Japan for work, and I've been hoping to visit him this winter. Been trying to plan things out but yeah, Japan is making that kind of impossible rn lmao. Organizing with a travel agency or tour will make our planned arrangements get thrown out the window.
Joey and Aki both uploaded at the same time and guess the titles:- Aki: Japan is NOT gonna let foreigners inside the country 2 seconds later...... Joey: Japan is finally letting foreigners inside the country Edit: Joey, The Jebaiter Man jebaited us 🤡🤡
I’ve given up on going back to Japan this year. I had booked to go in 2020 which obviously was cancelled and have been holding out ever since. But every new announcement is just as disappointing, especially for people who have been to Japan before. Like many others I’ve seen I’ve now booked to go to Seoul so I can do what I want with my time. They have mask requirements and entry tests which are fine! But no managed itinerary. One day I will go back to Japan but it’s discouraging seeing what Japan thinks of tourists.
Same here. Have been to Japan 8 times and 2019 was my last visit. Now also planning to visit Seoul instead as South Korea is also on my list. Might be a good chance to go to other countries during this time as I normally would go to JPN. In 2019 I did Sapporo, Asahikawa, Okinawa and Osaka. All places I have already been to multiple times.
@@Tassadar2k3 such a shame that it’s played out this way. But exactly, a great opportunity to explore new countries. I have been to Seoul once before on a very short trip but I really enjoyed myself and am also excited to return! I hope your trip goes well 😁
You don't have sign up for a group tour, but there's still one condition. You have to arrange your visit through a travel agency which will manage your itinerary in Japan.
So you can’t really go anywhere you want at your own time/pace… ??? If I’m going to harajaku I have to be there for a specific time as arranged with the travel agency. So in a sense, they gotta keep track of where you are in case of infection ?? Am I overthinking ?
That's literally the same thing... they will "manage" your itinerary which means you have ZERO freedom to do what you want and see what you want on your own time. Nobody will do that until Japan does away with their travel restrictions.
So if I tell them I just want to visit Tokyo Disneyland for 2 days they'll arrange for transportation and a hotel and help me buy tickets? Shut up and take my money!
I've said this on Aki's video too. I'm so tired. I'm one of the students who never got to study abroad in Japan because of the travel restrictions Japan has in place. Every other country allowed students in for Fall 2021.... Japan just opened up for students. After I graduated. I agree with Joey, they are side stepping the obvious solution to their economic problems. I also agree with the xenophobia thing. They can open up 100% and still have masking and quarentine guidelines as well as a testing requirement.
My Coworkers wife is a travel agent so I planned on using one just to make sure my own plan to visit works. Hopefully I can do what i've planned in april but its a step towards opening up and im staying positive!
My friend moved to Japan and is getting married in October. I was on the ball and applied for a visa which was approved last week (as guests attending weddings was allowed with a visa since June), which involved waiting 3 weeks for an appointment and a week for the decision. But other guests left it and now it's IMPOSSIBLE to get an appointment at the embassy. 3 of us stayed til midnight last night to refresh the page and book an appointment and in less than 10 seconds all the appointments were gone. I've seen companies offering visa application services for 6 times the actual visa application costs with a promise of a weeks turnaround, and I suspect they're using bots to book all the appointments ahead of the tourist boom.
I have only been on a holiday with a travel agency once because my aunt booked it. It was to Dubai in march 2020 and we were quite lucky because our flight home was cancelled and they rebooked us to a flight one day later and prolonged our stay at the hotel. It saved us a lot of stress and worries because during our holiday all of Europe started to lock down and through the agency we knew we wouldn’t be left alone in a foreign country. Edit: the only things booked through the agency were our flights and hotel. Once we were in the country we could do whatever we want and didn’t have to follow a strict itinerary but sadly it sounds like that’s exactly what Japan wants.
I think they author of the NHK article forgot one very important detail. The "individual" trips must be organised by a travel agency based in Japan! 🤦♂
I used a travel agency when I went to Japan... but it was extremely free and open, they just asked wich places we wanted to visit and for how long, what kind of hotels (western, traditional or mixed) arranged the hotels (all in pretty central places in the cities and very reasonably priced) aranged our J rail pass and on our first hotel they left a big binder with example travel schedules and estimated travel time between cities, instructions how to reserve seats for the trains and how the ticket machines work in the subway stations, and explaining how luggage forwarding was a thing and how it worked (omg that service is soo fckn amazing) furthermore there were pages full of optional 'things to do' for each city. it was a real great experience for us, really got alot out of our 3 weeks, more than if we had to do it completely ourselves. so not all travel agents are bad, yes I would hated it of they'd say, you have to get the train at xx hour, and then go to this shrine at xx then go to this specific onsen for 45 min to then go to the next location, but the use of a travel agent doesn't mean its a completely scheduled trip)
Don't forget, it's also a lot cheaper to buy separately than use a travel agency, like 6k for 3 weeks with it when I went and looked up prices myself and was like 1500-2000 for the same period
I’ll wait to come. Travel agencies just seem to find the most expensive travel possible. The family was going to use one when we went to Europe ages ago but even as a teen I was able to find cheaper ways to travel and more budget friendly accommodation where we saved in the thousands and had just as good of a trip
They should take actions that are mandatory to prevent the spread of covid. I went on holiday to Portugal, when you want to take any public transport you were told to wear a mask, if you don't have a mask on you're not getting on simple
I'll wait to come. I've used travel agencies for certain things before (e.g. Rail Pass and sometimes flights) but I'd rather set my own pace when I come. I was last in Japan in 2011 and I've made peace with the fact things won't be the same when I return, but I'd like to rediscover the country without certain restrictions.
If there is one thing I have learned from dozens if not hundreds of documentaries on a plethora of Japanese topics: Japan is obstinate. Obsolete processes that have much more efficient solutions everyone else is already using? Doesn't matter, we do things our way here! Keeping tradition alive is taken too far in more fields than it should. Maybe to avoid the shame of admitting the own approach was wrong? There is no way any semblance of logical thinking would lead to resisting the obvious solution every centimeter of the way.
I think a lot of Japan is explained by Shinto cultural identity. They may not be 'religiously' Shinto as we think of religious but they're definitely 'culturally' Shinto. Insular, xenophobic, and obstinate on tradition are hallmarks of Shinto behavior.
Ah, yes. The long standing tradition of pandemic response. lol I think it's more about looking like you're taking action without taking action. People will be mad if you don't open things up. People will be mad if you open things up. Solution? Do something that sort of opens things up, but not really.
You act like obstinance is always a bad thing. It has its pros and cons, just like knee-jerk reactionism has its pros and cons. Japan sees the US and Europe being too flip-floppy and creating solutions to problems that don't exist, so no wonder they're slow to change.
Hit the nail right on the stone. I have been waiting to head back to Japan for the third time now and you are exactly right, we don't want a guided tour and are waiting for it to open up.
I planned on going for my birthday in October, but I don't get the travel agency thing. What if I schedule a trip to Universal and I spend the day in Akihabara do they just kick me out of the country? lmaooo
My dad's friend owns/works(?) for a travel agency and they arranged out US trip flights and general location and schedule but didn't do anything super specific. I really didn't have an issue especially knowing they organize a lot of annoying shit. So we just provide the necessary documentation (as far as my involvement) and they did the rest. if Japan needs a detailed itinerary that's a problem because people have free days with no plan. if that's what they will refuse tourists on rip any hope of a trip from us.
11:35 Japan doesn't realise how much of a loophole this will be for foreigners. Just make sure you and your travel agency agree that you set your own schedule but the travel agency will get your business by seemingly providing an organised itinerary. Practically no agency in the world would be that anal to track their customers down to make sure they're sticking to the plan.
I've been comparing Japan to North Korea recently with this whole guided tour thing. This is exactly how they do it in North Korea. You expect guided tours in an anti democracy dictatorship. But in the free world you're supposed to be free to travel at will and as you like. I'm not doing this managed schedule thing. When I'm on vacation I'm not signing up to be bossed around by someone else. No thanks. And you probably have to pay a premium for the privilege. And then you also probably have to book the whole thing through a Japanese agency since your local agency isn't going to be familiar with Japan, speak Japanese, and be able to comply with whatever restrictions they have setup.
from the article alone I read the sentence "the agencies that arrange tours" as an additional thing. like individual travel is allowed through the agency as well as the tours
yea I think it remains to be seen what level of management is going to be required from agencies. I still think its possible that you may only need them to book tickets and hotels and maybe transportation, but don't need any restrictions beyond that.
@@JohnnyYeTaecanUktena I still dont think its worth theorizing over until they announce it. They do stuff overly complicated sometimes, but not all the time, and often times its because they are just crap at making systems rather than being intentional. Also, often times they do the opposite, where they have almost no rules at all and only have "suggestions". If someone asks about if there are going to be restrictions or not, the correct answer it might be restrictive, or it might not be restrictive, no one actually knows right now. The reason why it legitimately has a chance of being less restrictive is because its impossible for them to enforce actual restrictions.
I’ll say what I said on Aki’s video: As a student who will be going on a year abroad next year, I’m terrified. My parents keep talking about coming to visit me as they never thought they would get a chance to travel to Japan and really don’t want to go a whole year without seeing me. However this mentality Japan has to opening its boarders scares me that my parents and my boyfriend won’t be able to come visit me at all. To be quite honest as well, currently I don’t have the heart to tell my parents either that they might not be able to see me for an entire year. I’m really hoping that by time the go, the boarders will be fully reopened but my hopes aren’t high.
I've lived in Japan the past two years and noone has been able to come visit me which has sucked but hey, not much we can do about it besides go home to visit ourselves. But you'll still have a great time and be just fine without them, so best of luck on your year abroad.
@@Syfmuna Just my two cents on that. I spent half a year attending lectures from 1-3AM to 7-10AM, then went to the office for my dayjob until 5PM. I've now finally managed to get past the sakoku border restrictions, there's no way in heck I'm leaving the country until I graduate. My heart goes to those who had to wait longer than me in the same situation, some of whom apparently graduated from Japanese unis without ever stepping onto Japanese soil before the GOJ allowed, with gritted teeth, to let them at least participate in their graduation ceremonies here in person.
Your parents will be able to visit because as a exchange student, you become a resident for the time of your visa. You have to make some paperwork tho. For your boyfriend, unless he becomes your fiancé, he won’t be able to freely visits you.
Great video Joey! You made me happy, until you didn't. I don't mind waiting for a bit. The weather will kill me anyway. But i hope Japan will see how they need us. We just want to love your country man.
Oh shit, this changes my plans. Saw on my local japanese embassys page that they were open for tourists again, but didn't see any details on the travel agency stuff. Hopefully 2023 is the year :( It's been 3 years of postponing this. Hope i can finally make it one day.
When my fiancee and I were booking our trip for 2020 (which obviously got cancelled), we went through a travel agency but that's because we wanted to do so much and were going to be spending a lot of time there. We were going to be starting Fukuoka, working our way down and then work our way back up again finishing in Tokyo, over a month. Booking all those hotels and managing themselves would've been, while possible for us, a nightmare to handle, having a travel agency made it a lot easier. We still had complete control over the schedule though and completely decided where and when we did what we want. They just managed all the communications and such to the hotels, sorted out our tickets for things that needed them and also handled all our cancellations, getting most of our money back. No having to call/e-mail a million different hotels, just a single call and people who could actually communicate in Japanese, could communicate everything to the other end for us.
It's just a guided tour without the guide. Would love to go back to Japan. But I am one of the people who likes to wing it. I like to explore and experience things as i discover them.
Our family owns a travel agency and that is what my mother plans to do anyway, not track passengers. Sure we will book certain tours for those who want one, but we basically let them what ever the hell they want. Heck, we are even giving them the option to book their own hotels, or advice them to book hotels we are partnered with
I'm actually currently in South Korea on a guided tour, however it's not a mandatory thing here I don't think. I had to do a PCR test before I flew out and had to do another one once I landed. Other than that nothing is restricted, just get used to wearing a face mask its no big deal. As someone who has visited Japan twice (once by myself), Seoul from what I've experienced so far has many similarities to Tokyo. I don't understand why Japan can't follow a similar approach.
Honestly traveling through a travel agency can be fine. Often they only help plan your flights and accommodation, and because of how much the prices of flights have sky rocketed this year it can sometimes be cheaper to go through a travel agency. I know this because I went to Mauritius about a month ago and you also had to go through a travel agency to go there, and because we went through the agency the trip was cheaper than expected. And once there we were free to go where we pleased, so I think that this might actually be a good opportunity to travel to Japan for many people.
Another friend works for a Japanese travel agents, and they have two years backlog of people with cancelled trips that are already paid for and waiting to go. So even when Jaoan reopens, these travel agents won't necessarily be making money off it as its already in the bank.
I want to go to Japan... but man they make it pretty impossible. Meanwhile, my mom had no problems to book plans to go to South Korea. Come on Japan! You can do better!
I commented this on aki’s video and I will say it again, does Japan really think we are this stupid? It’s still a tour. Did they really think this would fix the problem and make more people want to come? 🤦♀️
tbh japan at this moment feel like a honeytrap on their PR side is very welcoming and warm but the reality feels like they don't care if they tank their economy if it means dealing with less foreigners.
I’ll wait until the mofa site changes. That being said, I used a Japanese travel agency before. Sometime after the big earthquake I used an agency because I wanted to make sure I can cancel if needed. Travelocity gave me such a hard time since that trip was the same week as the earthquake.
Got to agree with Surfer Joey a guided tour to North Head, nah. While understanding Japanese concerns there's nothing better than a random holiday there especially when your young at heart.
Hope they allow individual travel unrestricted as soon as possible My wife and I planned to go on our honeymoon to Japan, so we are eagerly awaiting such a decision to be made Here's to hoping something changes in time to maybe make a spring trip
YES! Now I just need the money to go there hahaha.. haha... yeah. Definitely going in the -near- future though! Edit: And back to sad again after watching the video
Ehhh “外人” is context based. I’ve heard people call foreigners “外人さん” or “gaijinsan” which isn’t rude at all. But all the same if someone randomly starts shouting “外人/gaijin” at someone then treat it like a slur.
at age 25, i HATE the stress of planning and organizing stuff like flights and hotels. I will use a travel agency every chance i get. I tell them which country I want to go to and which dates and leave the finer booking details up to a travel agency and just explore once I get there. but the travel agencies I go to just set up the finer booking details like best price for a hotel in the region you want and the cheapest flights for your time frame and that's about it. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of (let alone used) a travel agency that books every single minute detail of the trip. travel agencies (at from what I've experienced as a canadian) just get you to and from your vacations with minimal stress and leave the actual trip experiences up to you to figure out.
I was so excited for a second 😭I’m in a long distance relationship with a Japanese guy and we are DYING to meet each other, and I am planning to stay in Japan for 2 or 3 months, and the title of the video made me so excited until I watched the video 😭😭 I can’t go with an agency because I just want to spend time with my boyfriend！it’s literally common sense now for the Japanese gov to open up to foreigners, and I hope they do this in the next few months, before Christmas hopefully 😭🙏お願い🙏🙏
Yeah, I know how you feel. I'm friends with a Japanese guy and I really want to meet him in person and hang out with him but with this rule I will not be going, I think I can wait a little longer. I wish you the best of luck and I hope your relationship lasts forever
So it went from group tour to individual tour. Cool. This will still not attract many more tourists, lol. Most people don't want to be babysat and chaperoned on their vacation.
The way I see it: Japan has always been a nationalist and isolationist country, and they got a tiny, tiny taste of it again once they closed their borders for corona and they're having a really hard time kicking the habit again.
Meh, I think they're just shitting the bed over COVID and don't want anymore outbreaks no matter what. So they're bidding their time and showing the people that theyre being tough on covid by locking the country down from travelers. Basically a "See? Look we the government are preventing another covid outbreak!" while not realizing that simply cant last. Especially since Japans economy is starting to go bad big time. Also it doesnt help that Japans positive covid cases are very high. Far higher than theyve ever been.
Well they better start fucking like rabbits and tackling their cost of living, appalling work/life balance issues, and all the myriad other societal issues that they're suffering, and fast! If they wanna go back to the days before Gunboat Diplomacy opened them up to the world again.
I really hope it changes before next year because my plan is to go to Japan during hanami but if that doesn’t happen I’m gonna have to wait until 2024 which is just really upsetting to me.
There is one thing I wonder: how are travel agencies going to control their schedule you are supposed to follow? What avoids you to say "ok yes, I'll go there that day" and then do whatever you want?
Just taking time to appreciate the placements you do. Many RU-vidrs keep saying that they only take sponsorships they support, but that's just not true. If you do a little research on Reddit and co, the promoted stuff is shit. But Bokksu isn't, I've got it myself and it's expensive but good. Generally you are one of the most authentic RU-vidrs I've seen in my 10000 hours on RU-vid and I want you to know that I appreciate that.
