The night before …

It was a busy week at work as everyone wanted everything in place and secured before I’m out of the office for two months. Understandable, but … I’m tired! I did get a “No one wants to hear it. You’re going to Japan for two months,” from ever-so-sympathetic attorney. By the way, I work at a large labor and employment law firm in downtown Chicago. They’re used to me taking three week vacations, especially if I’m on a scuba diving trip, but I had to comb through the firm’s time off policy like an attorney reviewing a brief to be submitted before an ornery judge to see if I could pull this one off. (That was too wordy, wasn’t it?)

My nephew informed me last night that the bus he had been planning to take from Osaka to Tokushima had been cancelled because Sunday, February 26th is the running of the Osaka Marathon. Yes … he just found out last night … sigh. We independently did some quick Internet research and found he could train from Kansai Airport to Wakayama, take the Nankai Ferry from Wakayama to Tokushima, and finally take a train which would deposit him about a 10-minute walk from our reserved AirBnb. So, he’ll get there a bit after 11:00 p.m. as opposed to his original plan of 9:00ish. I think I’ve now done enough traveling to believe it’s worth spending a little extra money to avoid more modes of transport than absolutely necessary. I’m flying directly into Tokushima via Tokyo and should be to our lodging around 9:30ish p.m.

I got my packing done tonight, but it was uneventful. I’ve had most of the gear sitting in a corner in my dining room for the last three years and had been fretting over the packing list much longer than that. I finally decided I couldn’t do without my Nikon D7500 DSLR camera and two decent zoom lenses covering 14 – 80mm and 70 – 200mm. I agonized over my 60mm macro prime lens, but … no … no … it’s too much … no. Fortunately, I strong-armed my nephew into lugging the 70-200mm lens for me under threat of misreading food menus to him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought that said ‘hamburger'”. He packs superlight anyway, so, even with the lens, his pack will likely be lighter than mine. In fact, I think he’s just bringing an extra pair socks and a pencil.

He texted me again this evening letting me know that his 72-hour COVID test had been rejected by the Japanese government’s travel security website for not have all of the requested information printed on it. He knew he could submit a record of his vaccinations, but had misplaced it. Having downloaded a copy of my vaccine records from the Illinois Department of Public Health, I asked if he had checked his state’s health department’s website to see if they carried similar information. He was able to locate his records there and was approved almost immediately.

After he informed me that he had received an email confirmation of acceptance of his vaccination status, I started to wonder why I didn’t recall receiving an email for my application. It turned out my phone didn’t display the final “Register” button when submitting my information to the Japanese government and I had done this weeks ago. So I quickly submitted my information through the website rather than the phone app and was approved several minutes later. So Connor’s minor emergency saved me some confusion and delay on my upcoming arrival.

However, having said that, if my nephew keeps running into these types of hiccups, I have my brother’s permission to abandon him in a bamboo forest.