Tense Travel on Thursday/Friday

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leehljp

leehljp

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LOML & I head back to Japan (Nagoya) on Thursday, arriving on Friday after crossing the International Date line.

A friend went Monday and called after she arrived. Here is what the Japanese health officials did because of the swine flu:

• Plane landed and detained at the gate for two hours before people could deplane.
• In the two hours on the plane, health officials interviewed every person on the plane in their seats with these questions:
- Have you had a cough in the past two weeks?
- Have you had a fever in the past two weeks?
- Have you had a runny nose in the past two weeks?
- Have you been around anyone who has had a cold, flu, fever, or cough in the past two weeks?
• They point an infrared camera at your head to determine if you have a temperature.
• They quarantine anyone with a fever or anyone who answers yes to any of the questions.

• IF you are within 3 rows of anyone who has a fever or who coughed a lot on the 12 hour flight, you will be detained for 10 days at a hotel and virtually quarantined there.

Going to be tense, but we leave Thursday AM for Detroit and then on to Nagoya.

Remember us and or pray for us.
 
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Hey Hank,

Time to find the good books you been wanting to read.

Take them along, just in case!!

Happy travels!
 
Lee ... Hope you and the wife have an uneventful flight. We will be looking forward to hearing from you when you get back in Japan.

Just wondering ... Is the US Dept. of Health doing anything like this type of screening at our national airports on incoming international flights?
 
Fred said:
Just wondering ... Is the US Dept. of Health doing anything like this type of screening at our national airports on incoming international flights?
Click to expand...

I haven't heard of anything like this on the US side. :eek:

We got an email from the AM Embassy in Japan on Monday stating the quarantine for people within several rows of people found to have the flu. Until my friend called, I did not know the extent of the "inspections".
 
If it were me, I think I would be taking Tylenol every 6 hours just to make sure I did not have a feaver for any reason. Might not be a bad idead to take some cough meds too. If you happen to cough any time on the flight, someone on your flight might squeal on you! Good luck
 
We are going back to Canada in July. I hope all this will have settled down by the time we come back to Japan in mid-August. I can't imagine being in a hotel room with my six year old daughter for 10 days. :eek: Right now, kids, teachers, or school admin. staff who travel outside Japan are required to "self quarantine" themselves at home for ten days before coming back to school.
 
MesquiteMan said:
If it were me, I think I would be taking Tylenol every 6 hours just to make sure I did not have a feaver for any reason. Might not be a bad idead to take some cough meds too. If you happen to cough any time on the flight, someone on your flight might squeal on you! Good luck
Click to expand...

I went by my pharmacist today, and knowing Japan, he said "I would recommend pseudophed but I know that it is illegal over there." "I would recommend a specific cough suppressant that is very good, but it only comes in a liquid. :frown: That would be confiscated at the airport."

We do have some cough suppressant pills and cough drops for the very reason you mentioned! I have Tylenol also!
 
Hope you don't have problems. Two more hours on a plane after the first 12 will be bad enough.

I hope this ends soon, my son is performing in July in Japan and a quarantine could seriouly wreck the concert schedule.
 
I made it back home 12 hours ago. Here is the story:

Our plane (NW(Delta) 72 arrived at the gate about 15 minutes earlier than expected. Everyone was told to stay seated.

I am guessing about 10 Japanese health officials entered. With LOML and me being in the back section, we couldn't see how many inspectors were in the business/FC section. There were 6 for the cattle section! :wink:

These guys entered with tyvek type of suits and head gear with goggles and masks. They also had headsets on. We had been given a form to fill out before hand that contained questions concerning illness related to the swine flu, and contacts with people who exhibited symptoms of the swine flu.

Also on the form were addresses and phone numbers in Japan, and our seat location on the plane, in case they needed to question us again or if someone near us becomes sick later. :eek:

It took about 1 hour to complete the "inspection" that included a person walking down each isle and aiming an infra-red video camera at each person, followed by two people taking the forms and asking a couple of questions as to our point for being in Japan, along with location/travels over the next 10 days.

After that we had to wait about 10 minutes for them to go back through and check their paper work. They came back on the plane and went to a couple of specific seats and asked those people a couple of questions, then left. In another 5 minutes we were allowed to de-plane.

The whole process delayed us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete this process on a full 747.

Because our luggage was out before we were - getting through emigrations, luggage claim and customs was the quickest we have had in 20+ years. LOML and I have "re-entry permits", so going through emigration, we had a very short line for us - as compared to the "Japanese" line and normal "foreigner" line. That took less than a minute. Getting the luggage and onto a cart was a 1 minute deal too. As to customs, we were waved through.

Got home an hour later, called family back home (USA) and went to bed! This morning we unpacked!
 
Glad to hear your return was RELATIVELY uneventful,

Now, just hope the guy behind you doesn't cough any time in the next TWO WEEKS!!
 
Just went through that myself

Hey Hank,

Glad to hear that you didn't have any problems.

I went from Atlanta to Taipei yesterday with a stop at Tokyo. Had the same experience. Looked like something out of the movie "Outbreak" or something. They didn't stop and question us but we did have to add our outbound flight and destination on the form.

They come on board with their biohazard suits all taped up. My business partner and I got a good chuckle out of the whole thing. Fortunately there was no problems on our flight. I heard that they quarantined several people on a Delta/NW flight from Detroit yesterday though.

When we got to Taipei, things were more relaxed. Just had to walk past a thermal camera after getting off the the plane, before clearing customs.

Now I just have to make it back through there in about a week

Bill
 
wlp said:
Hey Hank,

Glad to hear that you didn't have any problems.

I went from Atlanta to Taipei yesterday with a stop at Tokyo. Had the same experience. Looked like something out of the movie "Outbreak" or something.

They come on board with their biohazard suits all taped up. My business partner and I got a good chuckle out of the whole thing.

When we got to Taipei, things were more relaxed. Just had to walk past a thermal camera after getting off the the plane, before clearing customs.

Bill
Click to expand...

"Thermal camera" - THATs what that was. It was referred to as infra-red by someone and I just pict that up.

The goggles that the fellows had on reminded me of the StarWars troopers that rode those "air" motorcycles. It was a little comical. It turned a little scary for a few seconds when they stop and scanned one lady three or four times, then called another fellow to scan this person. They were about 6 rows back from us. They moved on after questioning her with several questions.
 
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