I’ve been using eMed, a telemedicine service utilizing the Abbott BINAXNow COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit (which is NOT a molecular NAAT/PCR test), several times over 4 months now to fulfill the 1 day COVID test requirement on international flights to the US. This kit is officially accepted by the CDC for travel to the United States, and as of Dec 6, 2021, a COVID-19 test (molecular or antigen like this one) is required within 1 calendar day of flight departure to the US. Previously, they accepted a test within 72 hours of departure.
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Update 5/4/21: There is currently an Amex offer for Yamibuy for $10 off $50 in one or more transactions, expiring 6/3/21! I appreciate it if you use my referral link for $5 off. 🙂 Please also check out my Pro Tips for Weee! post.
This is a follow up to M’s post about Weee! (my referral for $20 bonus) back in December. Weee! is an Asian grocery delivery service similar to Instacart and Amazon Whole Foods/Fresh currently serving the SF Bay Area and Seattle. I started using it at the beginning of Shelter In Place since I craved Asian groceries, but the lines at 99 Ranch were sometimes pretty daunting. I’ll also talk about some similar alternatives to Weee!, Yamibuy and Yamimeal in this post.
Updated 2/6/2021
A couple months ago, I wrote a post about Asian grocery/food delivery services. Since then, I’ve been using Weee! the most, though Yamibuy actually has a wider selection and greater coverage. Weee seems to promote their products more frequently with various discounts and has also been greatly expanding their daily bundles. You order multiple days’ worth of bundles in advance.
Melio Payments is very similar to Plastiq, which you’ve probably all heard of. It’s a way for you, as a business, to pay a vendor or another business using a debit or credit card (they can also do bank transfers) and by sending either a check or ACH to the vendor.
Debit cards and bank transfers are currently free, while credit card has a 2.5% fee, similar to Plastiq. The ACH transfers to the vendor appear to be faster (within 24 hours), whereas Plastiq may take a few business days. Check speeds are about the same for both, about 7-10 days.
This post is mainly for the ladies! I feel like men have it so much easier with travel shoes. As a female, my criteria for travel shoes are:
Comfortable – can walk miles, which is often a full day of travel
Well-padded – so you don’t feel the ground
Cute – generally nobody wants to wear ugly shoes
Durable – so it doesn’t fall apart from the rigors of travel
Multi-purpose – looks good with any outfit including dresses/skirts, should be able to go from a whole day of walking straight to a nice dinner, helps keep packing light by not taking up precious suitcase volume, and eliminates the need to carry around extra shoes all day or have to make an extra stop by the hotel before dinner
Easy to clean – sometimes travel can get shoes a bit dusty/dirty
Lightweight and breathable – walking around all day can get uncomfortably sweaty
Back in May, my husband and I went on our annual trip to our favorite country in the world, Japan. It was an amazing trip as usual, and this time we hit up Tokyo, Fuji, and Hakone. We purchased the Fuji-Hakone Pass, which gives you round-trip transportation from Tokyo and unlimited transportation within the Fuji and Hakone area, plus many discounts or free admissions to local attractions. I’ll review this pass in a future post.
Our itinerary was pretty tight since we planned to go from Tokyo to Fuji to Hakone all within one day. We planned to take the bus from Tokyo to Fuji Five Lakes and sightsee around the area before taking another bus down to Hakone, where we would do more sightseeing before finally checking into our hotel.
We had two carry-on rolling suitcases. The more I thought about it, the more dreadful dragging them around the whole day sounded. My original plan was to store the suitcases in lockers at Lake Kawaguchiko Station, but I didn’t know how plentiful the lockers were (although I read on Tripadvisor that people have just left their suitcases on top of the full lockers and because Japan is so safe, nobody had touched them by the end of the day) and it didn’t solve the problem of having to drag them around Hakone either.
Then I discovered the amazingness that is Yamato Transport and other transportation services that offer to transport luggage overnight for very affordable prices. Yamato is the largest door-to-door delivery company in Japan. Japanese people often use them on their own trips throughout Japan.
In a nutshell, you can send your luggage directly to your hotel, same day or overnight, for a flat fee per item based on size and distance. Click here for the details and rates. The maximum size is 160 cm length+width+height and the maximum weight is 25 kg. You can have the luggage picked up directly from your room, or you can drop off your luggage at one of their offices (for a discount!) or at a convenience store like 7-11, which are everywhere. You can even send your luggage straight to/from airports.
After our 3rd night at Andaz Tokyo, we had accumulated enough things where it became a no-brainer to use the service rather than drag our luggage around and store it in lockers on our way to Hakone. I contacted the concierge, and they filled out the paperwork for me and asked me to have my bags ready to go by 6 pm that night. I packed our essentials for the night and for our day-trip in a backpack, which would be much easier to trek around with and use lockers for, and called the concierge when I was ready. The bellhop came to the room and picked up the luggage. I charged it to our hotel bill and it was Y1700 per suitcase (less than US $15). I felt that was really quite reasonable for overnight shipping of a bulky heavy suitcase! For comparison, lockers would’ve cost Y600 per suitcase of this size.
The next day, after a long and tiring day of sightseeing around the Fuji-Hakone area, we arrived at the Hyatt Regency in Hakone and checked in. The hotel staff informed us that the luggage was already in our suite, which felt pretty awesome.
I thought that would be the only time we would need the service on our trip, but the story doesn’t end there.
My husband accidentally left his wallet and charging cable in our room at Hakone and we didn’t realize it until our train arrived back in Tokyo and he couldn’t make a transfer through the gates since his Suica card was in his wallet. The staff at Hakone had emailed me as soon as the cleaning staff discovered it, but I didn’t happen to check my email during the train ride.
I called the hotel when I discovered the items missing, and they immediately arranged for overnight delivery to our next hotel, which was a capsule hotel (First Cabin Kyobashi, great hotel, by the way) since we were leaving for the airport the next day. They provided a tracking number, and the parcel arrived by noon to the front desk. Hyatt had packed the wallet and cable in bubble wrap and placed them in a little paper shopping bag. They charged it to my card on file, and it was Y700. That’s about US $6 for overnight shipping of a wallet that contained a bunch of cash…small price to pay!
In addition to the convenience, prices, and speeds, I was also impressed by the handling. We in America are used to delivery companies like UPS and Fedex throwing our parcels around without a care in the world, often causing damage to the boxes or contents inside. I didn’t feel like that was the case in Japan. Yamato Transport handled and delivered everything with care, no matter how small or big or heavy it was.
Hopefully this information helps you on your next trip to Japan!
Have you ever played Mariokart? Do you like gokarting and driving fast? This awesome this-would-only-happen-in-Japan activity called Maricar might be for you. Maricar was first recommended to me by my friend Tim, and since then, many of my other friends have done the tour and highly recommended it. However, out of maybe 10 of my friends, only one was not very impressed. It’s not for everyone, so hopefully I can help you decide if you’ll enjoy it.
Summary
Maricar is a gokart tour operated in various cities in Japan, where you dress up as a character of your choice (not limited to Nintendo characters!) and drive a high quality custom gokart, following an experienced tour guide throughout the city with a small group of people.
How to Book
- First, you need to get an International Driving Permit (IDP). Read this page carefully: http://maricar.com/license/#en
- I opted to get my IDP at AAA for $20 per person. I printed and completed the PDF application, attached a passport photo, and brought it to my nearest branch. I had to wait in line, but the it took the agent only maybe 5 minutes to make the booklet and collect my payment.
- Japan only accepts International Driving Permits issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention. Permits issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention are not accepted in Japan. Please ask for details if you are not sure about your license.
Make a reservation through their Facebook page by sending them a message. They will send you a template message back asking for the following information:
- Which shop (Tokyo – Akihabara or Shinagawa, Mt. Fuji, Osaka, Okinawa)
- Which tour course (I’ll paste a copy of the message at the end of this post so you can get an idea, since the ones on the website are out of date now)
- Date and time
- How many karts/people
- Type of driver’s license and IDP
After you make your reservation, they will respond back with a confirmation and very detailed directions on how to get to the shop. Save these instructions and don’t be late!
Read their website carefully for any frequently asked questions you may have. The website is slightly out of date but still has a lot of good information.
Give yourself plenty of time to get to the shop on the day of your tour. Even if you arrive early you can spend more time choosing your costume. 🙂
When you show up, check in and pay (credit cards are accepted), choose your costume, and put your extra stuff in one of the free lockers. Bring your IDP and your phone/camera with you. I couldn’t find information on this before, but was happy to find there is a small neoprene pouch attached to the steering wheel of the kart by your right knee.
Save Maricar’s phone number (+81-80-9999-2525) to your phone in the unlikely event that you get lost, you should pull over safely to the curb and call the shop right away so they can alert your guide and not have to send out a search team.
Follow your guide’s instructions, don’t do anything stupid, and have fun!! Throughout the tour, your guide will take lots of photos for you on his iPhone, basically at most stoplights, and during rest stops. He’ll take individual photos of you too.
At the end of the tour, your guide will Airdrop all the photos to your iOS device right away and give you a printed copy of a group photo to take home as a souvenir.Night or Day Tour?
I HIGHLY recommend a night tour. Personally, I feel that Tokyo is most beautiful at night, due to the lights. Having been to Tokyo many times now, I’ve always felt that Tokyo is a city that really comes alive at night. Some buildings are a bit old so I feel like the view is not quite as amazing during the day. The only downside is that it’s harder to get good photos at night. I did not want to carry my heavy Sony A6000 with me, but maybe I should’ve.
I chose the 6 PM Course S-L departing from Shinagawa, hitting up Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba, Tokyo Tower, Roppongi, and Shibuya. This is the longest tour option of 3 hours for a total of 8000 yen (very reasonable in my opinion). In May, the sun has not set yet by 6 PM so I got to see the Rainbow Bridge and Odaiba during golden hour (this is a photographer’s term for the best lighting of the day the hour prior to sunset) AND see the beautiful lights of Tokyo Tower, Roppongi, and Shibuya at night. Shibuya at night is especially amazing. Dat crossing.
One of my friends asked, “Isn’t it more dangerous at night?” To this I say a big fat NO. This is Japan we’re talking about, and never once did I feel unsafe while following our tour guide. Once I realized that Japanese drivers are really polite (just like their culture) and kept their distance on all sides, allowing us to merge when needed (wasn’t needed often, maybe once), I was able to fully relax and enjoy the tour, and had no issues keeping up with my group of 6 karts.
Oh, and there was practically no traffic at night. Their message (copied and pasted below) recommends a morning tour due to smoother traffic, but I would strongly recommend the night tour.
Addressing My Fears
I have to admit that when I first sat down in the kart, I was immediately a little scared. The last time I drove a gokart was at the Livermore gokart tracks and I sucked. Kept running into the sides, had poor handling of the kart, skidded a lot, was overall the second slowest person in my company, etc. All of those memories came flashing back to me.
Not to mention, I HATE DRIVING and I especially hate flooring the car. I always make my husband drive whenever we go out. So when I sat down, I thought to myself, “Why did I just sign up to DRIVE for 3 hours?!” I was also scared for at least the following reasons:
- I would be driving a gokart and not a real car so the handling is different, what if I don’t brake in time and crash into something?!
- We’re in Japan where they drive on the left side of the road, so I’m not accustomed to that…what if I accidentally forgot and drove into oncoming traffic?!
- I can’t read signs in Japanese, the roads and signs and lights and lanes look really confusing, what if I break some traffic rules?!
- What if cars drive really fast and can’t see me because I’m so small and my head is at bumper-level?!
- Since I was such a slow gokart driver in Livermore, what if I get lost and left behind, and have no idea how to navigate the streets of Tokyo by myself?!
- What if what if what if…!!!!
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