So I decided to help them out. Since I am stuck here in Japan anyway and my thesis deadline was postponed until late May, I am thinking of starting an online shop selling various local items. I live in Uji, a city that produces the best matcha tea in the world, but this is just one of the many options for the merchandise. For now the delivery time to Europe will be around 8-10 working days. What would you buy from Japan?

to share your ideas contact me here @knoblako

Yesterday I completed all the registration forms (there were 3 very similarly confusing online forms asking for all kinds of personal info) for the repatriation flight Tokyo-Moscow announced for 12 April. The Russian Consulate messed up all the communications, made 2 groups in Whatssapp, one in Telegram, each with different and slightly insufficient information at first. Telegram group is being constantly flooded with questions from confused people like me. I feel sorry for those who submitted a phone number not linked to their messengers to the Consulate or just don’t use these apps normally, because the Consulate decided to stop answering all their phones from Thursday. I can see that there are many inactive accounts invited by them into the chats, so there will be literally no way to get information on time for some people. The registration for the flight was announced at 2 am Japan time, only in chats, no emails or sms. This morning when I woke up and finally figured out which link and what form to use to book a seat, it turned out there were no more seats available. I guess Japan doesn’t want me to leave, yey!

People say regular international flights won’t resume until late June. It’s pretty sad that I will have to pay a lot for the repatriation flight since I didn’t have a russian airline ticket before. Also I won’t be able to go straight home for the sake of my family’s safety (but mostly their freedom from police surveillance) and will need to find a place for my self quarantine for 14 days. But the weather here is very nice so I’m trying to enjoy the last days of unrestricted walks with social distancing and masks and inspect all matcha shops in town that are still open (and finally empty) Happy in uncertainty •____•

The flight that I couldn’t board yesterday landed in Moscow with two people having very high fever and intense symptoms of covid. All passengers with temperature above 37C were put into a hospital-based quarantine. Maybe I was lucky that I didn’t fit into this stupid arrival limit of Moscow airport together with at least 15 other people. But I had to move out of the dorm because I’m not a student of Kyoto Uni anymore and it turned out to be extremely hard to find a short-term rent in Japan especially when you have no idea when your move-out date is. Two years ago they passed a law here that made most Airbnbs practically illegal, so my options were quite limited: friends’ one-room sharing options, hostels (would be too risky now) or extra expensive hotels (most of cheap ones closed already, there are no tourists anymore). And then something very strange happened. Someone in the Russians-stuck-in-Japan telegram chat posted that a certain hotel in Kanazawa offers free rooms for those whose flights have been cancelled. If it wasn’t Japan I would assume it’s a scam, so I sent them an email just to check. And yep, they instantly replied and said they’re waiting for me next day with anti-viral contactless check in procedure ready. So I packed essential stuff for a few weeks, took a 4hr bus to Kanazawa and here I am.