A New Chapter - Sapporo

 

Last picture of our apartment building in Warsaw. 

Boarding the flight out of Warsaw was a bit nerve racking. Japan was requiring a negative PCR test 72 hours in advance of boarding. We had gone to the airport a couple days prior to get this test done and with results in hand we were confident we would be fine. We uploaded our results to our apps for landing in Tokyo and were ready to go. At the gate the airline was checking the results to make sure everyone had tests. I saw a couple of people get turned away. When it was my turn I showed them my results, but they insisted there was a special results form that Tokyo would be asking for and what I was showing them was not it. I admit, I was insistent that was the right one and they let me on but once I had taken my seat I realized there was in fact another form I had which was the one they were asking about. In my panic at not being allowed on I forgot I had it.

Shiro tucked under the leg rest

Kuma under the blanket. 

The flight to Tokyo was about 12 hours long, 6 or so hours longer than usual since we went around and to the south of Ukraine and Russia. The cats stayed with us in the cabin so they had that comfort, but the whole trip they were both quite scared. 

When we landed we were beat, but we weren't done yet. We rushed our way through covid immigration, a process we expedited by uploading the proper documents first to an app we then used at the airport. Going through immigration I was handed my spouse visa, 3 years! (some get only 1 year). From there we had to get a cab to cross Tokyo (no small trip) to transfer from Narita airport to Haneda. Once we arrived there we had to arrange for the cats to go in the cargo of the plane, they were not allowed on board. By now we'd been awake and traveling for 24 hours. The cats were very much not pleased with us. 

After about 1.5 hours we landed at Chitose Airport, collected the cats, and got a cab to Sapporo. About 30 hours after taking off we crossed the threshold to our temporary apartment. Being the seasoned travelers we are, we knew better than to crash. We ended up staying up another 5 hours or so to fall asleep once it was dark. 

Over the next few days we slept a lot,  but our jet lag was very mild. A nice surprise. Aya began working again, I was doing some course writing as well as exploring the city. Hiking, running, and just generally being out and about is a nice feeling. Sapporo is a very livable city with cool summers and easy access to nature, but still big enough at about 2 million people to feel like a large city where anything can be found or experienced. 


We've now gotten into a routine of sorts. I have Japanese lessons on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Most mornings I work from home, then go running, work a bit more and then study until Aya gets off at 2pm. We then do something for the new apartment, like furniture shopping and have dinner early-ish. She takes her bath in the evening and I watch the news and that is pretty much our day. It is really nice that my schedule is flexible. On days when the weather is nice I can put any work or study to the side and go hiking, or whatever catches my fancy. 

We have more or less remained in that mode until the present. We are now just two weeks away from moving into our own place, that we decided on every appliance and piece of furniture as well as the design. This is such an odd feeling since for all of our adult lives we've lived in rented places where we put up with the most unusual or shoddy things. We've gotten so used to just shrugging and living with it that it will be extremely strange to have everything that works and is in place as we wish it.

So, a new chapter begins. Here, in Sapporo.