Well, we made it to the Tokyo airport! It seemed doubtful for a few minutes. Apparently the Japanese government recently decided to screen all passengers for swine flu symptoms and has plans to quarantine anyone who doesn’t pass their test. Well, my Mom and I both came down with colds on Thursday, so when we filled out the health forms I dutifully checked yes to sore throat and runny nose. Everyone else was issued a marigold paper declaring they had passed the health inspection. I had 2 red stickers stuck to my seat. Some uniformed health inspectors came and looked at me suspiciously and one of them finally asked politely if she could take my temperature. Of course, I complied, and she proceeded to pull out an old-school thermometer, which she instructed me to place under my armpit. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. I jokingly suggested that an ear thermometer would be better. She had one! It didn’t work. We waited a bit more. The thermometer finally beeped. (Ok, I realize a digital thermometer is not THAT old school, but I expected Japanese health officials to have the ear thermometers) I was fever free. She said, “ok, no problem”, and started to walk off. In a moment of near panic, I said, “wait! DO I get a yellow paper?” plaintively pointing at my Mom’s. She gave me one, and we eventually were all allowed to disembark- every single one of us wearing masks issued by the health inspectors that they requested we wear.
We were in the very back row of seats, so they didn’t recline much, so my Mom is catching up on some much needed sleep while I write this in the Tokyo airport (unfortunately the “free public WiFi” that shows up on my list of internet providers apparently isn’t really free, so I’ll have to wait to post it later.) I’m also keeping half an eye on the sumo-wrestling match on tv. That, the surgical masks, the take out sushi bar, and the shop selling kimonos is as close as I’ll get to the real Japan on this trip
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