It is a long flight back to Japan, that is right.

Alright, so here we go. I'm starting a clock.

Start.

We will see how long it takes from one door to the next.

How many seconds until we go home!

We're on our way to our flight to Japan,

and we've done as much prep as possible to be able to enter the country, including our negative COVID tests.

But will it be enough to get back home to Japan with no issues?

It's going to take a long time — is that what you said?

The second flight is the 13-hour one.

The second flight is 13 hours.

The first flight, do you know how long that one is?

Two Two hours, that's right.

So you want to go to Japan in 2021? Not so fast!

There's a lot of things you need to have in hand before you can even get on that plane.

We had the benefit of hearing from others what the process is like, so now we can share it with you.

That is a lot (of luggage)!

We're going to unload.

Mask

OK, to come back to Japan it's quite the complicated process.

So once you get your COVID tests, not only do they have to be negative,

The place where you get your COVID test has to fill out a form for the Japanese government

Stating what type of test it was, when it was done and that it was negative with the signature of the doctor.

We have our negative COVID tests!

I can't wait to play baseball with you again.

Oh yeah!

Hey Mr Josh

Grandma needs a big hug.

Thanks for coming. Love ya.

Can't kiss you with a mask.

I love you. She can't kiss you with a mask on!

Just kiss your mask.

Eating breakfast, huh guys?

Saying "goodbye" is never easy.

It's one of the hardest parts about going back to Japan.

But we really are looking forward to getting back home to Japan.

Hi Dude. Hi.

Look. Can you see?

Look, the bags are going in. Can you see them?

Yeah.

And you can pop your ears like...

That's right, that's how you pop your ears.

Bye Peoria.

We're taking off Dude, we're taking off! Yes!

Then also you have to fill out a questionnaire for each person in your family

And have that QR code ready to show the officials at the airport in Japan

We are higher than the clouds!

Wow — look at the mountains down there.

This is how you pop your ears, right?

So your ears don't hurt when it goes down. Did you figure out how to do it?

Ah! There you go, your ears are good.

What is that?

There's Dallas/Ft Worth.

Touchdown!

The first leg of the journey may be done, but the trip has only begun.

Next will be a transfer in the hub city of Dallas before we board our plane headed for Tokyo.

OK, our trams here.

Before you even get on a plane for Japan, you must have a way to get into the country.

In pre-COVID days an American could just show up in Japan and get a tourist visa.

Anna... Getting ready to board.

Now, about the only way a foreigner can get into Japan is if they are a returning resident, and even then it is strict!

I get the whole row to myself!

You got the whole row to yourself? Yeah!

You too?! Oh that's so cool! This is my dream.

You can tell there are no tourists going to Japan and very limited business travel — our huge plane had only around 40 people on it!

Here we go! Look - oh so cool, huh?

Just how strict is Japan, you ask?

Well there are a couple countries from which you can't even get in.

Then there is a long list of places where a returning resident must quarantine in a government hotel for at least 3 days

before finishing their 14 day quarantine at home.

Fortunately for us, we're on a short list of places

where we should only have to quarantine at home for 2 weeks before returning to normal life.

Well we've been following the sun for over 5 hours

We just keep tracking along with it

And so it never actually gets dark outside

Just the windows get dark

By the time we touch down it will have been day the whole time.

And our time keeps ticking on

It's been over 11 hours since we left the house

Well girls, did you hear? It's 4 1/2 hours to go.

Wow! That's not so bad, huh?

Sarah, looking at her map.

About an hour before landing, they open up the windows to let light in again.

We've been on this flight for 12 hours now,

but the new COVID immigration process may take us up to 6 hours,

and includes a second batch of COVID tests

and the installation of a couple of apps that will track our position inside Japan.

We're going to bump, it's close to the ground!

There it is! Well, was that loud?!

What I did that really helped me was I printed out a piece of paper with all our passport names, numbers and expiration dates,

So I don't have to go through all the passports at the airport trying to find it. It's just all on one sheet of paper.

And if you have all this stuff already beforehand, in your hand, in a file folder,

Then when you go to each station, which there's like 30 stations you have to go to,

You can just hand them the file and they will look through and pull out what they need and what they want to look at.

And it really makes things go so much smoother.

Oh, so it took us 2.5 hours just to get through the tests, installing the apps,

The spit test.

I did not like it.

The apps. Yeah, no joke. You didn't like it. Maybe the nose one was maybe better.

2.5 hours. Now we get to do immigration which is everything you normally do when you get off an international flight.

It took us another hour of walking and immigration before we finally exited the airport and went to our car.

Oh my goodness.

That is a finally packed car right there if I do say so myself.

We are back in our car. Is there somebody back there? Who's back there? Oh!

Anna!

My goodness, sweetie! It's so nice right here, it's so hot!

We're back in Japan which means I'm driving on the other side of the car and on the other side of the road.

So if I just keep following traffic I should be just fine.

We've got an hour and half until we get home.

How much time, do you think, has passed? 6 hours?

Mommy's going to have a good guess. I'm going to say 24 hours.

Oh, our bridge! You can practically see to our house, oh!

We made it. We made it, alright, let's see.

Twenty three hours and forty-three minutes.

Our tree is large and in charge, my goodness!

Time to unload.

And that's it, we're home!

Night night.

Oh yes! It's been a long time since we've seen that view!

Some of these trees just absolutely exploded while we were gone, my goodness!

It's only 5 weeks.

Here comes that familiar sound...

Oh yes!

Oh that's just right, yes!

Oh, the girls are up for the second time!

Yeah. We were awake for 2 hours before You were awake for 2 hours?!

Playing on the Switch.

Oh!

And then you decided "Let's go back to bed?" Yeah.

Is it exciting to be back home guys? Yes.

We have 14 days until we're out of quarantine, this is day one!

I'm going to skip 9 days, 9 days...

I'm going to skip school, eeeee....

No school! Bye bye!

Becca, you getting hot chocolate for everyone?

Yes, except Joshua and Daddy and Mommy.

Well that was nice of you.

And momma chan woke up, talking with Grandma already.

The kids playing Minecraft... And me, but I'm making hot chocolate

By 8 PM I think we were in bed

I mean, we were going to watch something but I don't even know what happened

I mean I was out so fast

And then at 10 PM Anna was like "I'm awake"

And I looked at the clock and I was like "Oh no honey, it's so early!"

Please try to sleep some more.

She was like "If I sleep until 3 AM then can I get up?"

And I was like "Yeah, if you sleep until 3 then you can get up."

So, here we go! Let the unpacking commence.

Ruth has begun!

Barely begun Barely, here goes the first bag

We only have 2 weeks to get it done, so...

Goodness, how good is it to be back and be in my own working space!

Our groceries came, look!

No, I don't think it's groceries...

What is it?! Should Mommy open it?!

We'll see what it is, it might be my groceries.

Might not be.

Oh my! Let's go! Let's go!

Oh my goodness! Here's our quarantine project!

So that was our experience coming back to Japan, what did you think?

Next week we're going to show you what quarantine is like

Especially with the app and the calls that you get

And this big Mario project that we have coming so stay tuned!

Hey, and I know there's a lot of you that have been watching us and comment but you haven't hit subscribe yet,

Do us a big favor and click "Subscribe," that really helps us keep making these videos.

And until next time, we'll see you on Life in Japan, back in Japan! Alright!