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Eased COVID measures boost travel during Golden Week

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XBB Variant on rise here in Japan and elsewhere, escapes prior infection and vaccines, so be SAFE!!

-33 ( +3 / -36 )

Good to see so many people's faces again. We're up to 10% with no masks and counting! It's almost over in Japan now. I'd say 40% demasked by summer.

5 ( +18 / -13 )

Plenty of Osaka folk still playing it safe and wearing masks when driving alone, jogging, playing tennis etc.

All service people masked.

5 ( +13 / -8 )

Imagine choosing to travel during Golden Week.

12 ( +19 / -7 )

It's nice to be able to leave and come back to Japan like a normal human being again! My vacation was a blast!

7 ( +16 / -9 )

ANA alone is getting over 10,000 passengers a day, coming down here to Okinawa.

COVID? What's that? (Personally speaking, all these tourists are a pain in the buttocks! Said with a Forest Gump accent!)

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Good to see so many people's faces again. We're up to 10% with no masks and counting! It's almost over in Japan now. I'd say 40% demasked by summer.

Depends where one is, as this number is a hell of a lot higher than 10% in many locations. I still carry a mask, "just in case", but it's not about me, but the people around me. (Well it's kinda about my bad breath, but thats another story!)

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

I am out and about in the Minami Alps until Saturday! With weather as nice as this, who would choose to not travel during GW.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Good to see so many people's faces again. We're up to 10% with no masks and counting! It's almost over in Japan now. I'd say 40% demasked by summer.

Wait until the Kanto heat sets in. Masks will disappear, just like that.

4 ( +11 / -7 )

The company with sweeteners, encouraged staff to take their pick on golden week.

I chose to work over the break and add the time to my leave card/entitlement.

The photo is a tad bonkers.

I do understand why J friends enjoy golden week, it is an occasion whole families join together.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

.... but it's not about me, but the people around me.

What do you mean? If you get flu like symptoms you should be staying home and not spreading it around. If you care about others, that's the only thing you should do for them.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

So masses of people all travelling at once all across the country... Just perfect for COVID. It's a COVID celebration making sure everyone joins in!

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

It is good to see people traveling normally. People are not meant to be locked down.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Eased COVID measures

Do people still care about covid? Honest question, no troll. I'm not asking about masking or other measures due virtue signaling, not wanting to stick out or self-loathing. I mean the illness itself, is there someone really worry about getting infected and sick with COVID? Anyway it is cool to see a little bit of common sense coming back to Japan and people finally traveling.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Good to see travel back to something like normal. Of course Japan is still preoccupied way to much with Covid. Young children wearing masks is now verging on the abhorrent. All employees should be given the option to unmask on May 8. After all, if you categorise Covid as the same as flu then it should be treated the same as flu. Otherwise, don’t recategorise it.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Young children wearing masks is now verging on the abhorrent.

I had 10 customers today for my afternoon tour, two families, one young couple. 6 adults, 4 kids. When one family arrived with their masks on, the other 6 quickly put them on too. We were in a beautiful breezy forest for 3 hours, they only took them off to drink and eat snacks, never spoke to each other.

I'm all for masks in certain situations, but it was a bit of a mood killer today.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

I'm all for masks in certain situations, but it was a bit of a mood killer today.

You just have to try and be more mentally strong than them.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

That smell…

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Too many masks still in view but how do we know it is not a stock photo from months ago?

Get over the chin straps an absolute waste of time but it will be many moons before a lot of Japanese can let go sadly!

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Happy GW…; stay safe, everyone…; get rid of those masks…, enjoy the fresh air…; pay attention to / cherish the little things because Monday is already waiting for us.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

I'm incredibly happy people can visit Japan again.

However, the result of keeping foreigners out for 2.5 years and brainwashing Japanese people into being afraid of the big bad virus, is that now, after having given these people permission to do what they always could or should have been able to do, cities like mine are literally overrun by tourists and there are serious traffic problems/overcrowding. This is because the actions of the Japanese gov't lead to absurdly high pent-up tourism demand. Now the floodgates are open all at once. People have completely taken over city streets and sidewalks. It's uncomfortable even going outside now. This why they should have started this process in 2021 at the latest, not in late 2022.

Visitors (both international AND domestic) are leaving garbage everywhere near my place, and crows are out in full force looking for scraps like never before, making noise, and just generally causing problems at all hours of the day and evening. Japan handled it's reopening horribly and that is the simple reality.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Wolfshine, Is there any move afoot for the Japanese municipal governments returning the needed rubbish bins?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Eased COVID measures boost COVID during Golden Week

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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