I've been in Japan for a couple of weeks now unfortunately I'm still in my service apartment hoping to find a permanent apartment soon, maybe next week.

Just finding an apartment has been a lot more difficult than I had originally anticipated.

So yeah, that's not the point of this video though.

Once I do find an apartment, I will upload the apartment hunting videos and yeah, there's gonna be lots of exciting content coming up.

I wanted to make this video today because Japan has finally opened up the borders to tourism.

It is currently October 11.

So if you guys want to book trips to Japan now is the time to come and I know there's been a lot of different rules and changes to Japan since the pandemic.

So I wanted to make this video to talk about these changes so hopefully it can help you guys plan your trips to Japan.

But first of all I just want to talk about visas.

You don't need to join a tour agency or join a tour group anymore to enter Japan.

If your country is in the visa waiver program, you don't have to apply for visas, you can receive your visa when you land in Japan.

So for Australians we can literally just book a ticket to Japan fly to Japan, enter immigration and you will get your 90 day tourist visa now the days depends on your country.

So make sure you check out your embassy website and find all your information there on how long you will get your visa for.

So getting a visa is pretty much pre pandemic now you can just enter Japan and get your tourist visa.

Now there are some things that have changed and things I recommend you do before you get to Japan.

So number one the new covid rule and downloading my S.

O.

S.

So the current rules for covid this could change later but as of october 11th right now if you are triple vaccinated you don't need to do a covid test before you go to Japan anymore.

You need to provide a vaccination certificate.

So this is the one that I have for Australia but it shows that I have received three vaccines with the dates on them.

Now you will need this certificate if you want to enter Japan without doing the covid test.

If you are not triple vaccinated you need to provide a negative covid test 72 hours before you fly to Japan.

Now in both cases you should download the my S.

O.

S.

App.

So what you want to do is go into your app store, download the one star app.

Amazing.

Alright let's open the app and then you will have some terms of use.

We're just gonna sign our life away.

I don't even know what it says.

Just agree to everything.

Yes.

Now selected country abuse it can detect them in Japan right now but when I did this of course I picked Australia set up in Australia.

Um send notifications.

Yeah sure whatever.

Yes sure now these are the new rules so as of october 11th people entering Japan will no longer be required to take a covid test upon arrival and no longer required quarantine after entry to Japan.

So yes confirmed.

So the app screen would turn to the follow up mode after you enter Japan um but you are no longer two required to check the app yet confirm.

So there's just some covid measures where masks, sanitize hands, you know the usual so let's just yep agree and then now we need to enter your information and register your account.

I am not going to fill this out because I'm already in Japan and there's no need for me to register but it's pretty straightforward fill out your details.

You also can upload your vaccination certificate and then it will be approved.

Now it took me about one hour for mine to get approved.

Once it is approved your screen will turn blue.

Now when you enter Japan you need to connect to the airport wifi which is free and then you need to get your QR code so you need to get your QR code.

Now the staff at the airport can guide you through this.

This will help you fast track through the airport when I arrived in Japan obviously because I arrived before the borders opened it was very quiet so I got through very quickly I believe right now it's going to be you know, very busy so make sure you get this done so you can get through the airport quickly.

Number two vaccination discounts.

I found out about this because of course Sophie and I want to go to U.

S.

J.

It's like our tradition to go dress up in harry product costumes and you know take photos but also for Halloween.

It's so fun because zombies chase you around.

Um I found out that you can get 20% off your ticket if you are triple vaccinated and can prove it.

So you know you S.

J.

Is kind of expensive.

It's about $100 a ticket.

So 20% off is you know $20 off which is quite a bit of money.

This campaign is going on until the 31st of january 2023.

So if you guys are planning to go to U.

S.

J.

Between that time bring your vaccination certificates, you can get discounts.

Number three squeaker on your phones.

I received a lot of questions about this from people.

But yes I have my sweet on my phone.

I just tap my phone onto the charge area at train stations so I don't have to fumble around find my card.

Also I've lost quite a few sweet cards and pass because I'm the most forgetful person ever.

So having it on my phone.

Hopefully I won't lose my phone.

So yeah it's just easier now I've had my speaker on my phone for about five years now When I charged my sweetheart on my phone I usually do it by cash at the train station.

They have special machines that are pink.

You just literally shove your phone into the little box area that got there putting your cash and your phone charges.

So I was charging my phone this way for the longest time.

Even up to December 2019.

That was the last time I was in Japan before the pandemic.

I arrived in Japan September 2022 which is just a month ago and I tried to charge my phone in the same machines and it did not work for some reason if I put my phone in that charging area in the machine my phone will detect it.

But it's thinking that I am paying for something so I could not charge my phone.

I think I stood there for 20 minutes trying to charge my phone over and over over and over again.

It did not work.

I watched a Japanese person charge their phone and they charged it with no problems.

But I do have an Australian iphone.

So I don't know if it's because it's Australian if it's a new IOS update or something like that.

So if you don't have a Japanese iphone you probably won't be able to use these machines anymore unless if there's some sort of IOS update that can fix this issue.

Now that comes to another issue.

So I don't charge my sweet on my phone using Apple Pay because I you know use Australian credit cards and there's exchange rates and fees and stuff so I prefer to charge my speaker using cash.

But I have heard that people have been having issues trying to charge this week are with Apple Pay.

So I did some research on this and I found out that if you use a Visa card it may not work but Mastercard and american express, it does work now luckily I found a way to charge my sweet car on my phone using cash because I was gonna lose my mind guys like I was freaking out, I ended up buying a new suite card and I was like like this is like first of all problems but I have to carry around a train card now I'm gonna lose it but like I got my speaker on my phone and I can't use it.

So I was getting very frustrated obviously as you can tell so I did more research I found out that you can charge your sweet on your phone using the 7 11 ATMs.

So when I found this out I rushed to 7 11 And it worked you go to 711 put your phone on the charging area and then you can just charge your phone put in your money into the slot and voila phone is charged, we have a way to charge our speakers on our phones but it does take a couple of minutes to actually show up because I freaked out.

The charge didn't show up on my phone and I was like this machine just steal my money.

So I was freaking out for a little bit but after a couple of minutes it showed up so all good, if you need to charge this week on your phone use the 7 11 80.

M Hopefully apple does fix this issue because it does kind of suck that you can't charge at the train stations.

But I feel like it's just because um yeah I've got an international iphone and if you got a Japanese iphone no issues.

But I have no intention of getting a Japanese phone number four shinkansen luggage.

So like I mentioned Sophie and I want to go to U.

S.

J.

Which is in Osaka, I'm in Tokyo.

So I wanted to take the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka.

I was looking up some information online and found out there are some new rules.

So this new rule applies to big suitcases.

Here's a screen cap I got from the Jr sigh and I'll link everything down below so you guys can check that out for yourself.

But if you have like one of those small suitcases you don't need to reserve because you can just shut them at the top of the luggage area.

But if your suitcases massive, you need to reserve a c in advance prior to the pandemic Many times I've taken the sign consent and I've had like massive suitcases.

I would put them on the last road.

There's like a little area where you can put like big suitcases in the last row of the shin consent.

I used to shove all my suitcases there and then just you know sit down, enjoy my journey to wherever I was going.

But now you actually need to book these spots.

You need to book a reserved seat on the shinkansen with an oversized baggage spot.

Now the oversized ticket, it's actually the same price as the reserve seat.

You don't have to pay extra for your back.

You just need to book that seat.

Not all cars by the way have this oversized baggage area.

So you need to check beforehand.

So if you got a JR pass obviously you can write shin consent not for free but like you know that path.

Let's see right shin consent.

You need to also reserve the seat.

So if you have the JR pass, go to the JR office in the station.

So Tokyo station or soccer station whatever and then you can reserve your seat using your JR pass.

So it is kind of like a pain that now you have to book so there are options where you can send your luggage to your next hotel.

Um Usually your hotel can do this for you.

You can just ask the stuff you can also temporarily store your luggage.

There are companies that can do that I've seen at train stations where they have like temporary luggage storage.

So yeah, usually just check with your hotel um and I'm sure that they can do something for you if you need help with your luggage number five masks.

I was living in Sydney and we lifted the mask rules months ago back in March and I also stopped wearing a mask since then because we didn't have to anymore masks is something that is still worn in Japan.

So I know if you guys haven't worn masks in a while, it's going to be difficult and it was really difficult for me to, you know, get used to it again because I would always forget as soon as I go out, I'm like, oh, I didn't bring my mask, have to run back home and get my mask again.

Um and it was really hard.

So wearing a mask in summer was, yeah, it was hard, but unfortunately because um okay, look, Japan has never enforced mask rules.

So it's not like a law that you have to wear masks, but when you come to Japan, you will realize that almost everyone is still wearing their masks indoors and outdoors now if you are outdoors, I do see people taking their mask off, if they're not around anyone when you go indoors, there are many place that say that if you want to enter, you must wear a mask, you also have to sanitize and also check your temperature which was something I was not used to because in Australia we didn't really check people's temperatures and stuff when we went into stores, there are different types as well.

Like there's somewhere like you need to um check on your wrists and they check on your head.

Sometimes you touch a button to get your temperature checked.

Um, I was very confused at the start but you'll get used to it.

Um, and look, I know around the world um, rules are different but just keep in mind you are traveling to a different country so just be respectful of their rules.

That is the end of today's video.

I hope that it was helpful and I can't wait to see you guys in Japan if you see me, you know our industries just say hi um, you know, I'm always down to chat to you guys whenever you come up and say hi to me and yeah, I really hope that you guys have a great trip to Japan, it's been so long, I am trying to go out and trying to discover some new places that I can recommend to you guys.

So if you have any recommendations on where you want me to go and film, let me know in the comment box down below, I have a vlog channel where I've been uploading some Japan vlogs here and there.

So if you guys are interested to see, I guess everyday life in Japan, check that channel out.

Hopefully soon we'll get the apartment, so we'll have some fun, you know, apartment content coming up just well furnishing the apartment and stuff like that.

So yeah, thank you so much guys for watching.

Please thumbs up this video if you enjoyed it.

Subscribe to my channel if you haven't done so yet, follow me on my social media, which will all be linked down below and I will see you guys next time.

Bye guys.