A few blog posts back, I mentioned that Sam and I were heading to Japan. We were in a bit of a limbo these last couple of years, waiting for the border to open and knowing that, when it did, things would move quite fast. Little did we know we were going to be given only 24hours notice that the border was going to open. Since it opened, we also have been working non-stop in order to get there within the timeframe my employer had set out.
To put how fast things have been, I will list everything we’ve had to do (and please bear in mind we’ve had only a month to do all of this):
1) First off we had to get all our documents together and forms filled out to get our ERFS form. This is a new document required to get visas to enter Japan (as the country still isn’t open for tourists, so most visas still aren’t valid)
2) We had to find a sponsor to support Sam’s ERFS (as I had my company to back mine, and they would not sign Sam’s due to insurance reasons)
3) We had to book our flights, despite having no security or confirmation that anything was going head. We had to do this because Sam’s sponsor required this information before they could issue his ERFS.
4) Get a visa appointment… this was one of the biggest challenges early on because, as you can imagine, as Japan has been shut since March 2020, there are A LOT of people trying to get visas for Japan right now. It was also important for us to get an appointment FAST because the visa Sam has only gets issued to a small amount of people per year so, once the limit is hit, Sam would not be able to apply for his visa
5) Get all the documents, photos, forms, money (etc) together for the visa appointment. This also includes finding the money for transportation and getting time off work to go to London to do everything in person at the Japanese Embassy. (SIDENOTE: we had the most stressful time at the embassy when they almost didn’t accept my application due to a photo being literally days too old even though it was literally taken on the last day of August 2021 and I look EXACTLY the same as I did then. Then, we had issues with Sam’s application due to not realising we needed more proof than just a bank statement that his account was, in fact, his account…. yes it’s as weird as it sounds…. honestly wild!)
6) We had to try not have a breakdown in the week between applying/being issued, our visas. This was possibly the most stressful week of my life. The Embassy told me that they could not indicate to us if our visa’s had been issued until one of us was back at the embassy to pick up our passports. They also told me that Sam’s visa is very hard to issue and for us not to get our hopes up so…. We were beyond scared to say the least haha
7) Travel back down to London to get our visa’s/passports. (They were all issued fine in the end!)
8-13) Once we had our visas, it was time to do everything FAST! We had to say goodbye to our loved ones, hand in the notice for our apartment, cancel all our bills and direct debits, give notice for our jobs and… the biggest feat of them all… CLEAR OUR ENTIRE HOUSE! (Scroll right to the bottom of this blog to see Before and After shots of some parts of our home…we literally have the rest of the house to do this week ha…wish us luck!)
14) During the time when we were sorting out all the stuff in the UK, we were also having to sort out accommodation for when we arrive in Japan. At first, this didn’t seem like a difficult process, as we were going to just stay in an airbnb for a month and then find a place to live. Then we realised my training and work location were in different parts of Tokyo, we also realised we would need somewhere to store our luggage for the week we’re travelling after we arrive, and that airbnbs in the centre of Tokyo are SO EXPENSIVE. So, we got to work trying to find an apartment within a decent range of my work. Initially we weren’t worried as we found plenty of options, however as the days went by, each place was getting snapped up very very quickly. Then we found out that all the documents and forms that most estate agents need, you only get once you’re in Japan, so we couldn’t even apply for 99% of the apartments anyway as we don’t have a pay-slip yet for me nor our residency certificates. After being set-back to square one more times than we can count, we finally found an agency that has an apartment we could rent for the first few months of our stay. All our worries then floated out of the window…. well… ish.
15) The final bump in the road is that all the direct flights to Japan out of the UK have now been cancelled due to the war. This means that our flight also has been cancelled and we have had to find another. We are supposed to get the tickets for this flight, along with all the flight details, on Friday… so we’ll just have to wait until then and not panic in the meantime (which is very very very hard considering we fly next week!)
Other than these big 15 things we’ve had to do this month, we also had to keep pestering my employer to give me an exact branch placement (so we could look for apartments). I always wanted to write a little bit on a blog post about where I am based, when I finally got told, and I thought I’d have time to write a separate blog post all about this but evidently, time is one of the only things I don’t have right now, so here’s a very basic couple of lines about where my branch is base:
Ikebukuro is in a district of central Tokyo towards the North West. It is in a district called Toshima, and is known as the “Sunshine City” of Japan. It is known mostly as a shopping district, but it is also home to many of the “anime-inspired” facilities. As well as the pop-culture things to see and do, there are also many more traditional spots to the city. (I am particularly looking forward to seeing out the smaller shrines in the area and exploring as many of the parks that I can.)
Sam and I are also going on a little holiday before I start work, so I will be sure to update this blog with photos of what we see and do during that week. (I’m hoping it’ll involve some Sakura, if we’re not too late!) Apart form that, I don’t think there’s much more I want to include in this post. I am going to drop some photos below of some parts of our home (when it was furnished, and our progress on clearing the house so far). I may drop more photos of the house on this post or another post at a later date (just so Sam and I have a record of this home to look back on as we have lived here over 4 years after all).
Other than all of that, we would like to again thank all our loved ones for all your love and support during this very stressful time. We will miss giving all of you tight hugs, but will be sure to keep seeing your smiling faces on calls and whatnot as much as possible!
Thanks to anyone who has gotten this far in this long blog (keep scrolling down to see the apartment pictures btw, I’ll put them right at the bottom). Speak to you soon (hopefully)!
-Alice
