After hiking the countryside of the Kumano Kodo trail, I wasn’t ready to return to civilization. I had heard whispers of what was happening in other countries. Borders to travelers from China were banned in much of the world. South Korea, Italy, and Iran were being ravaged by COVID-19. The EU has closed its borders to outside travelers. In my own country, large gatherings were now banned, as is travel from the UK and EU. Things had gotten significantly worse in the past few weeks, and I wasn’t sure what to do.
When I returned to Tokyo, I was surprised at how normal everything was. Bars and restaurants were open. A few trains had been canceled due to decreased traffic from COVID-19, but the station was still busy. I noticed a lot of face masks, but that’s nothing new in Japan. It was jarring, hearing everything that was going on in the rest of the world and seeing that Japan seemed, more or less, fine.
I headed to my hotel where I was scheduled to stay a week before heading to Kyoto. I checked into my hotel and got my temperature checked before dropping off my things and grabbing dinner from a packed, basement ramen shop (probably not the best idea, in retrospect). I was exhausted from hiking and traveling the last few days and fell asleep early that night.
I woke up on March 19 and decided to treat my time in Tokyo as if I would have to come home any minute. I walked to Shinjuku Gyoen, a park known for being a great cherry blossom viewing spot. The trees were just starting to bloom, so there wasn’t much to see yet, but I’d hoped to come back in a week when they’d be in full bloom. I went to my favorite crepe stand in Harajuku and ate as much sushi and ramen as I could stomach.
When I woke on March 20, I had several worried messages from friends and family asking if I was coming home due to the news. The Department of State had issued a Global Level 4 travel warning (the highest level) for the entire globe, urging US citizens not to travel for any reason. The US was closing the borders with Canada and Mexico and was talking about closing the borders everywhere else.
On the one hand, if I was going to be stuck somewhere, I didn’t mind being stuck in Japan. In many ways, it seemed I would be safer in Japan than I would be trying to travel home. I thought about traveling to a different country – New Zealand hadn’t yet closed its borders to Japan, and I could seemingly travel there and wait this out, but staying in New Zealand would be expensive, and it could be weeks or months until I could leave. I had no way of knowing.
I went to get dressed and realized I didn’t have any clean clothes (I’d forgotten to do laundry the night before). After finally figuring out how to use the washing machine, I put in a load of laundry and headed out. I grabbed coffee and lunch to think it over and do some research on flights. I already had an existing flight out with American Airlines, but it wasn’t for a few weeks, and I wasn’t sure I could wait that long. In the end, I decided I should try to come home in the next few days before things escalate any further.
American Airlines had waved their change fees due to coronavirus, so I called them to move up my flight. I asked what they had over the next few days, the woman paused for a few moments and said the cheapest flight they had for the next two weeks was four thousand dollars. I was stunned. Everyone also panic-buying flights out, and prices had skyrocketed. I asked if she could check if there was anything else, further out, maybe tonight or early tomorrow. The woman said there was a cheaper flight at 6:15 pm tonight. It was 2 pm at the time, and it takes at least 2 hours to get to the airport. It was going to be close, but if I left now, right now, I could make it. I told her to book it, guessing it was the best I’d get.
Chaos ensued. My clothes were still in the washing machine, which was in Japanese, and I couldn’t figure out how to stop it. I called the front desk and they sent someone up, and we spent the next fifteen minutes trying to end the wash cycle. Eventually, we were successful and I grabbed all my sopping wet clothes and threw them into my backpack.
Once I made sure I had everything, I went to the front desk to checkout. They politely reminded me I can’t get a refund for checking out a week early, and I said that was fine. I asked if they could call me a cab to the airport, but the time it would take for the cab to get there and then drive me (there was a lot of traffic and would be much more the closer it got to rush hour), so they gave me directions on the best train route.
So I walked the 1.5 miles with my backpack, now much heavier due to my clothes being wet, to the train, where I then transferred to another train, then another. I made it to the airport around 4 pm. Airport security was very efficient, and I made it to the packed terminal with 30 minutes to spare.
The closest I’ll get to cherry blossoms 
People are not messing around. 
RIP 2020 Olympics
So, I didn’t get to see the cherry blossoms. I missed out on about a month of the trip I planned, but I made it home, safe, sound, and coronavirus-free.
What an adventure!