Today is the day of departure. I am very nervous. Finally, after 4 months of living abroad, I am going back to Japan to make a business card. I want to file my tax returns, see my family, meet my Japanese friends, and do many other things. At times like these, it is best to retreat to my parents’ house in Japan. So I am very excited to be back in Japan for the first time in a long time.

Me, who thinks about all the uncertainties of the route to reach home in Japan

From Prague city to the airport, then from the airport to Poland by plane, and from Poland to Narita in Tokyo. I am very nervous. I have many missions before that. First, I have to take a bus to the airport, then CHANEL’s tax refund, then pick up my ticket, then check my luggage, then where do I go through passport control, and will I be able to finish it in time to catch the next flight? Will I arrive in Tokyo safely? Will I arrive at my hotel in time? Would I be able to wake up the next morning and get on the plane to return to Chubu without being late? I really had a lot of worries. Yesterday, when I was taking a shower, I was so stressed that I felt really sick. Of course, I couldn’t sleep through the night. But you know, this kind of anxiety doesn’t happen 90% of the time. So I think everything will probably be ok. You are just creating your own anxiety in your head, so you don’t have to worry about that. That’s what I tell myself.

But I wonder if I can do it. Well, I am a human being, and we are all human beings. So, I will be fine. We are all made up of the same cells, just from different races and different birth environments. We are all friends. Everyone in the world is your friend. So, don’t worry.

Ice cream shop! I recommend this place so much!

After checking out of the place where I now live, I went to an ice cream shop and had a delicious ice cream. I don’t remember what it tasted like, but I think it was some kind of nuts. It was vanilla with some kind of black chocolate chips. The taste was very unique and something I had never tasted before.

The ice cream was about 600 yen, but it was a lot of ice cream! It was so much that I thought the waiter would have to put in a crazy amount. But it was delicious. I also ordered a cappuccino, so I drank it while writing my diary and replying to the company.

Since it is the last time, take a walk in the Czech city

Since it was the last time I was in Prague, I decided to walk around the city. We walked across the bridge to Prague Castle, which we had visited yesterday before, climbed up, and arrived there. The view was still beautiful. We could see a panoramic view of Prague and a lot of red roofs. There were a few buildings in Prague, and I thought, oh, there are buildings in Prague. I don’t know if she was a German woman, but I liked the color of her jeans.

I was looking at an Instagram reel and saw a video of a couple who dared to buy an old video camera and moved Paris, France, and I thought it was really wonderful and romantic. I thought it was really nice. So next time I want to buy a retro video camera and take a walk in Paris.

Buy souvenirs and relax at the Franz Kafka Museum

So, I was tired, so I went down. I found the Franz Kafka Museum, so I went to the entrance of the museum. But I didn’t buy a ticket, just a souvenir.

The coaster was 30 kroner, so I used the remaining 220 kroner or so to buy one for my family and one for a friend who likes literature. In front of the Franz Kafka Museum, there were two interesting statues of Franz Kafka peeing. A little further down the road, I reached the riverside, where I lounged.

Walking all the way with a bag weighing more than 10 kilograms is too tiring, so I need to take a break. So I put my bag on a stone and lean on it for a short rest. I listen to a French song called Sympatique.

A song with lyrics about how I don’t want to work – I don’t want to eat lunch. Aaahhhh, nice. It’s nice to hear this in this place. But this song is best suited for a mademoiselle who wants to laze around in her black underwear, swaying her hips, or lying on the sofa, when you can see her through the doorway. I found such a video on Instagram actually and felt very inspired.

On the other hand, I wondered how she makes her underwear. She is in the underwear business, so I wondered if she makes them herself. I wondered how hard it must be to sew on a sewing machine. A French woman making bras and pants on a sewing machine in her underwear with a cigarette in her mouth is fascinating, isn’t it? I think so. I think that slouchy atmosphere is so sexy.

Time goes by so fast! Really!

Well, it was already 2:00 p.m. when I was thinking about it, so I decided to go to a cafe near Prague station anyway. So I went to a chain restaurant called Bluebird, which means “tree-lined avenue” in Japanese. There, I had a Caesar salad for the first time in a while.

The Caesar salad was delicious. It seems you can double the chicken for 39 kroner, well, you pay 240 yen and get double the chicken. Well, cheap cheap cheap. So, that will be my last meal. It was very delicious.

Arrive at Prague main train station and buy a ticket to the airport

After that, I walked to the Prague main train station on foot and went to the ticket center because I had to buy a ticket first! So I went to the ticket center and bought a ticket. 100 Krona. Well, it wasn’t expensive, so I was fine with it. After I bought the ticket, I wanted to go to the restroom. To my surprise, it cost me 20 kroner to use the restroom. It cost 120 yen. Well, it was not that expensive, so I was fine with it.

The bus is called “Airport Express” and it connects Prague main station and the airport in 30 minutes. It was very easy to find the bus when I got on the ground. And then, I wondered if I could check in online.

I was really sleepy on the bus until I arrived at the airport and slept most of the way. Surely, I thought, I hope I can sleep on my flight to Tokyo today. I tried to do the online check-in when I arrived at the airport. So I was able to get a good ticket, so I could check in and not worry about being weighed and charged money if the person was a nasty old lady. Then I didn’t know where passport control was going to be, so I asked someone nearby about that and he said it would probably be in Poland, so that was cleared up too! Worries are going away. Worries and anxieties are caused by “I don’t know,” so we just have to squash them. Then, I also successfully completed the tax refund for the CHANEL No.5 spray type perfume. Thank goodness. It was my first time to do a tax refund, so I really didn’t know how to do it.

First of all, you go to the tax refund counter, show your passport, the documents you got at the store, the items you bought, and your boarding pass, get a stamp, and put the documents in the mailbox next to the money exchange counter. That’s it.

Then, the baggage check. This time, the baggage check was great because there were no people at all. I think it was the most empty one so far. So I made it through there without a hitch. The beeping was scary, but I think it might have been my ring, because in the EU they do a drug test, so they put a weird piece of paper over my hand, put it in a machine, and check me. It was very scary, but of course I didn’t have any, so I was fine.

So I got through the baggage check and went to the gate! I can probably go to Poland from Czech Republic, so it’s OK… The problem is after that…

After safely getting through the baggage check…!

I’m listening to a song called The Ride by DBFC as I write. It’s kind of rhythmical and nice. I guess the song that seems to be played during the fashion week is my favorite song.

And so, it’s time to go inside the plane. This time, I was not checked properly before entering the plane, and my passport was returned immediately after a normal look at my face, which was OK.

Inside the plane was a small plane with four seats. But it was almost full of people and there was a lady sitting next to me. It was my first time to fly Polish Airlines and my impression was just normal. In my opinion, Baltic Air is great. I think Baltic Air is great because you can just look up and there is a small screen on the upper air conditioner that explains everything you need to do in an emergency, so there is no need for the crew to go through the trouble. So I think it’s really nice. Now, we’re off to Poland from Czech Republic.

The flight was probably about an hour, almost an hour. So probably about the same distance between Nagoya and Tokyo in Japan.
Now I am at Frederic Chopin Airport. What an interesting airport, I thought. I love Frédéric Chopin so much that they named the airport after him. I put on an eye mask and about 10 minutes later, the cabin announcer announced that we were going down. Then we landed in a flash. The landing was very intense.

The fog was so strong that it was almost impossible to see, and it looked like a lot of work. The plane was shaking up and down, and it looked like it was in a lot of trouble. I really love thrilling landings like this. It was so much fun. It was the best. The plane was landing so far down the runway that it probably almost went around.

I finally arrive in Poland!  What will happen at immigration and passport control?

After arriving at the airport, I took a streetcar to get around. I wondered what passport control would be like, but as I thought, there was no luggage inspection, but there was passport control, and apparently it is separated by gates for international and domestic flights.

I really did see a few Japanese people. When I saw Japanese people, I felt crushed. Ahhhh, the Japanese who stare at people. It’s really true. People in other countries are not interested in other people because they like themselves, but Japanese people stare at others. Can’t we do something against this problem?

Whenever I feel the stares, I really want to tell them, “You should like yourself more and concentrate on your own life. It’s really weird, so please don’t look at me.”

What I am looking forward to back in Japan is my favorite friends, my favorite family, my favorite Japanese food, and being able to register for business card and meet the members of my company. I have a lot of things to look forward to.

At passport control, the Riga stamp was so faint that I was like, “When did you come to Lithuania?” I told them “Latvia, December 27, 2022.” Then, she stamped and I was relieved. Now I was almost at ease.

Oh, by the way, I went in there to look at the perfume and what a bleep. Seriously. I bought the perfume from CHANEL, and yet it beeped. I thought to myself, “How is that possible?

Well, I arrived at the gate to japan safely and am writing this now. Unfortunately, I can’t use Wi-fi anymore because I can’t get it.
Oh well! Let’s enjoy the flight then.

From Poland to Narita Airport in Japan

Then I boarded the Polish Airlines. Fortunately, no one came in the middle so I could stretch my legs! It was really great.

Finally, I took off and left Poland for Japan!

So I spent the flight enjoying the in-flight meal. I was very sleepy, so I was able to sleep, but my buttocks and legs were really sore because I was sleeping with my legs twisted. My neck also hurt a lot.

But it’s great that I was able to sleep. It’s indeed a problem to not be able to sleep on a flight that’s over 11 hours long.

I woke up like that twice. The first time was over Kazakhstan.

The route was not allowed to fly over Ukraine and Russia, so it went down to Slovakia, Romania, the Black Sea, Georgia, Kazakhstan, China, Korea, and Japan. After a while, I took some pictures of the sky. Then I went back to bed. The next time I woke up, I was over China, and then I went back to sleep.

I decided to stay awake as I was about to pass over Korea and would be arriving in another hour and a half.

Then breakfast is served. Breakfast is curry-flavored gnocchi, spinach and cheese stuff, and then fruit.

Four melons and one kiwi. I wanted it to be the other way around. Then a roast beef kind of thing with something red on it. And a Coke. I was asked what I wanted to drink, I said, “Coke,” but the attendant said, “Coke?” The attendant said, “You mean Pepsi?”. In English, it’s Coke, so I guess he didn’t understand me. He asked me if I wanted a Zero, so I asked for a Normal, but he said, “What?”After all, the other girl on the aisle nearby told him.

I wondered why I couldn’t get through. But the food was really good. I was still looking forward to the in-flight meal and thought it was really good.

The sun was out, the sky was blue, and the ground speed was 1158 km/h. That’s really fast! The sky was about 10,000 meters above us. It was really fast. I’m imagining how fast it actually is, but I really want to see it from a distance. Compared to the ground. I’m sure it must be really fast.

After that, I finally landed. Surprisingly, after passing Korea, the sun was disappearing rapidly and it got dark very quickly. I wondered if this was the moment when the time difference became +8 hours. I thought it was interesting. The flight was really fast. Why is it that the flight is slow on the way there and fast on the way back? I heard it was because of the westerly wind. Something like that.

Well, then, I landed! With the airbrakes and flaps open to their fullest, it was already like a transformer, not so much an airplane wing anymore. That’s what you’d expect from a big airplane. The wings are so wide and cool, I thought. And although the speed is slow, it picks up speed very quickly once it is in the air. It can reach 800 km/h in no time. Anyway, I am glad that I was able to enter Japan safely.

Entering Japan

After entering Japan, I wondered how different it would be from last year, but to my surprise, there were so many useless staff that it reminded me of last year. Every 30m, a person guides you with a piece of paper, and those who have registered for the app are sorted this way and those who have not registered are sorted that way.

Then I had to scan the QR code and register. Then I had to submit it, fill out a form, then I had to fill out a customs declaration form.

Then you finally get out. It was a real hassle. I think the labor cost of these people should be used for something else. It’s really a waste. I thought, “How long are they going to be fussing in Corona?” I was shocked again.

It’s almost to the point of being appalling. Everyone is still wearing masks, it’s really like a religion. It’s disgusting. So I never wore a mask. Not even at the hotel, of course. I am thoroughly against it.

Why would I go along with such a strange system without saying anything? Of course I would protest. I don’t wear a mask. But if they ask me to wear one, I will.