Business trip to the Philippines feeling full of anxiety (Part 2)

I went out for a lunch with the employees of Netmarks and 3Q DASH staffs. However, there were no restrictions on how many people were able to join at a table & there were no partitions separating us at the table. There were no inquiries made about anything at the entrance neither. It was just like the way it was before the COVID crisis.

3Q DASH office is located next to Netmarks Philippines office. As the 3Q DASH new office was recently established, we still have a lot of work left to do.

Since Netmarks Philippines employees are working from home, not that many employees are seen at the office.

It used to be that you had to wear a mask and a face shield in Manila; however, you no longer need to wear a face shield. The difference from Japan is that you get penalized for not wearing a mask.

Just as usual, I saw quite a number of people outside. During my business trip, the count of the new COVID infections per day was only around 300, so there were no restrictions on going outside. Jeepney (share-ride taxi) used to have a limitation on how many can ride at a time, but now that the restriction is taken away, I saw a packed crowd of people riding it. Many people were also enjoying Salcedo Saturday Market which was located right next to the hotel I stayed.

Bonifacio Global City (BGC) which is about 15 minutes from the office by a car was also filled with lots of families and youngsters.

The cost of the PCR testing was 2,400 Pesos, meaning that it's about 6,000 Japanese yen. Considering the cost of living in the Philippines, it calculates to be about the same as Japan where it costs around 30,000 JPY.

MySOS is a health management applet to register the PCR testing result and vaccination certification to enter Japan. I recommend you register the necessary information 16 hours prior to your arrival to shorten the immigration process. You will see MySOS applet color changes from red to yellow to green as the registered information gets approved.

[MySOS - The color is red at first (to the left) & turns yellow and to green as the approvals are made]

The flight back to Japan was about 60% full. Most of the passengers were non-Japanese nationals making connections to other cities via Narita Airport. I know this because only a few people were left in the aircraft after all the passengers making connections got off first.

I showed my MySOS & got a saliva PCR testing without much wait. After waiting for an hour, my number was called and I received the testing result certificate.