Good news first? Well so would I, but you can’t always get things the way you want them. Hence, the bad news is, I spoke to an acquaintance who has been living in Japan until recently who informed me that the borders are still very much closed. What’s more is in her opinion it is “highly unlikely” that they will be opening for tourists before 2022. Womp womp…
What’s strange is that the Tokyo Olympics is still scheduled to take place from the 23rd July until the 8th August this year. However, with headlines like:
‘Tokyo Olympics ‘unlikely to go ahead in 2021’‘(Jan 19th), ‘Tokyo Olympics: definitely going ahead unless cancelled again?‘ (Feb 1st), ‘Over half of firms in Japan want Olympics canceled or postponed, survey shows‘ (Feb 15th), ‘Japanese governor urges cancelling of Olympics as vaccinations start‘ (Feb 17th) and the latest: ‘Tokyo Olympics to go ahead this summer — but without foreign spectators, national news agency says‘ (Mar 9th)
who knows what will happen …
We now know one thing that definitely won’t happen is us waltzing into KIX on a tourist visa in August of this year. It’s not like we weren’t prepared for this, but I won’t deny that knowing it now for certain does sting a little extra.
The good news though? We choose to name the blog Towards Temple 88. So however long it takes to get there, we’re still heading in the right direction.