I cannot believe where we are right now and I don't mean this really cool
courtyard. I can't believe we're in a country that has waited for so long to
open up its borders to visitors again. We personally have canceled four trips
in the past two and a half years. If you haven't guessed it by now, we are in Japan!
We flew in this morning to Osaka and it went really well. But we have a huge tip to make your
entry in Japan smooth if you come here right now. So stay tuned for that later on. In the meantime,
we have questions that we want answers to. Are people wearing masks? Is it busy here?
We're gonna hit one of the hottest spots here in Osaka to find out the answer.
We chose to start exploring Osaka from a Shinto shrine located not far
from the Dōtonbori area. Namba Yasaka is a shrine to the neighborhood guardian deity
and is unique for its giant building shaped like a lion's head. It stands
about 39 feet high and 36 feet wide though honestly it looked even bigger in person.
We haven't even done anything yet and I'm already amazed. I just used the
public toilet down in the metro. The toilet seat was about 90 degrees. It
was so warm and luxurious. And there was a button you could press for privacy that
gave me nature sounds in your stall. It was incredible in a public toilet.
We just saw our first intersection where they stopped traffic in all the directions and
everybody just walks in whatever direction they need to. People went straight, left,
right, kitty corner, the other kitty corner, it was amazing.
We are headed to a super famous part of Osaka,
one that we've seen in so many videos and I'm so curious. Normally it's completely packed with people. Are we early enough? Maybe it's
not packed. Maybe we'll have the Glico man all to ourselves. We're about to find out.
What's the Glico man?
I found him.
Right behind me is the famous Glico man and normally this is a really popular
tourist destination. There aren't a lot of tourists here. If I look at the bridge,
there aren't people jostling for position or anything. It's pretty nice.
Walking down the street we saw some of Japan's famous takoyaki being made.
We've seen these doughy octopus balls on TV and have been waiting years to try them ourselves.
We were so glad they lived up to the hype. They were absolutely delicious. Though we
discovered they were super hot inside. If you eat them right away.
Here's what our experience was like entering Japan through Osaka today October 11th. We got off the
plane and there were lots of people to help direct us with where to go. And all the signs were in
Japanese and English so we were easily able to follow along. We went down some escalators. There
were more people who helped us and the first thing that we did was jump the line. I'll tell you about
that in a minute though. After we jumped the line they verified our documents and then we went
through traditional Immigration and Customs. We came out the other side to a lot of fanfare!
Staff dressed up as ninjas welcomed foreign tourists to Kansai International Airport
on October 11th. The move came as the much anticipated visa-free travel resumed amid a weak Yen.
A domestic travel subsidy program was also launched on October 11th.
There were a bunch of photographers and they took our video and some ninjas popped out and
it was amazing. And then we were interviewed by news. We got interviewed by the news. I think we
might have been the first international flight to land here at Osaka on the day of Japan reopening.
It is so exciting to be here not just because Japan's opening for the first time in two and a
half years, fully, but because of all the fanfare that's being attributed to it. Plus we even got
grab bags. I have no idea what's in it yet. There better be some food. I'm getting hungry.
What a greeting!? Thank you Japan!
Look at how cute these signs are...look at it.
There are lights everywhere. It's a little bit overwhelming to be honest. Like all of
the food places and all the options and we don't know what's going on anywhere.
And there's a lot of bowing. We do not understand the bowing rules. If you happen to
be watching this and you have some insight into when we should bow and
what the rules are or you can point us to a blog or something explaining it,
please comment below so that we are doing it right for the rest of our trip. Thank you!
Our second temple of the day was a Buddhist one. Hozenji Temple is close to 400 years old but was
Just down the road from this beautiful shrine is the cutest, coolest road.
It is like totally different than all of the flashing lights and the restaurants and
everything. I love this road. It is just a short little road. It's adorable.
We are so excited about being in Japan, that we're going to do something we've never done before. We're gonna give away a postcard and
the way you can qualify to get the postcard is, if you comment below we're gonna pick one of your
comments randomly, and we'll get in contact with you and figure out how to get this postcard to
you from us from Japan. So if you are just as excited as we are about Japan opening comment
below We'll choose a winner in about a week for this postcard right here. It's a super cool one.
Hey that's Osaka Castle that's also on our postcard. We're going to be going there.
In case you were wondering, we have not seen anyone check vaccine cards
in order to go into our restaurant or any of the cafes or anything like that.
So I think you're good to go once you're here.
One of the common questions out there which we also had is how is Japan handling masks?
They are required indoors but recommended outdoors. How are people using them? Well indoors, yeah,
pretty much everyone is wearing masks all the time. Outdoors it's a bit mixed. Most people are
wearing masks most of the time outdoors even. So be prepared to wear a mask when you come to Japan.
Okay now here's how we skipped the line and this is the most important tip that we can give you
today. And it's a pretty easy one because Japan has made it easy. All you need to do to enter
into Japan as of today October 11th is either be vaccinated or have a negative Covid test
and you're in. But in order to skip the line we highly recommend downloading the Japanese My SOS
app which is available in English. It will walk you through everything that you need and it's not
very much. All you need is a copy of a photo of your passport, a health declaration which you'll
fill out online, and then you'll take a photo of either your test results or your Covid vaccine.
The app will walk you through everything and after they review it on the other end, a few hours later,
you're eligible to skip the line. We saw so many people filling out paperwork. We probably skipped
past one or two hundred people making it a smooth and quick entry. And we were through everything
from beginning to end in 15 or 20 minutes. That is our top tip for you if you're coming to Japan
right now. Just download the My SOS app, do what it says, and then get ready to enjoy Japan.
In case you hadn't picked up on it we are so very excited to be in Japan for the first
time ever. We are going to be exploring Osaka to Kyoto, down to Hiroshima, and ending our trip in Tokyo.
And we're gonna have those videos airing in a few short weeks. In the meantime you might
want to check out one of our favorite videos ever filmed in Singapore last spring featuring
Gardens By The Bay. You don't want to miss it and we'll be back in a few weeks with more Japan. Thanks! Bye!