Whenever, if ever, you go, I hope my thoughts prove useful, crellston. Best wishes!

Good luck. I am planning a trip for Oct/Nov (hopefully fly to Aomori and return from Tokyo is the planning so far).

~Everybody is wearing masks outside there because everyone else is wearing masks outside. IDK what it will take to change that (I feel like that is a necesary change that needs to happen before they reopen, or at least for people to be ~comfortable with foreign tourists around). People wearing masks by the water in a park on Tokyo Bay with nobody else around. In street interviews some people say that if the govt says it is ok not to wear masks that they will ignore it and they expect to be wearing masks for 2 to 5 years.

Japan had its highest covid peak in February and the numbers of new cases has dropped from that peak but is still higher than the post-Olympics peak last August.

I check the covid numbers at this link to see how they are doing:
covid japan - Google Search

The govt could reopen sooner because of economics. Sooner than the people's comfort level with it, I mean. I want to be able to see their faces, but if not, then I at least don't want to be treated like I have plague (when masked).

The more I read , the less hopeful I become! read an article in a reputable newspaper today the gist of which was that the decision was politically motivated rather then anything to do with teh empirical evidence. The government seemed to be caving into the embedded xenophobia of the majority of Japanese people. I am not sure I am comfortable visiting a country with that sort of attitude, in these sort of circumstances. I have been looking into altering my flights to have layover only in Tokyo but flights have more than doubled and there slow availability. Seems like the demand is there and tickets are still being sold so maybe soemone knows something I dont?

Really? Who knew?

So, you just came back to this thread after three months to post that.

no I didn’t. I posted at the time I was notified of that post by Fodors i.e. three months ago. No idea why it has just appeared. Why? Do you have a problem with my post?

It is odd that I could not find the source of the quote or the poster.

I would guess that the post was removed by the moderators?? That happens a lot on the tripadvisor forum and one reads posts answering something that has been removed....weird..

the post in question was clearly removed by the moderators but that doesn’t explain why my post shows as dated 3 months after it was actually posted. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, there are more important things to worry about!

I don't like the idea of using Nice as a base. Just stay somewhere nicer in the first place.
Nice has its own cuisine, nissarde. Squash blossomes, stuffed vegetables, socca, salade nissarda (raw vegetables, nothing cooked) There are places to eat which specialize in the local cuisine:
https://www.explorenicecotedazur.com...sine-nissarde/

Maybe just a chance you posted on the wrong forum? Either that or you like REALLY day trips😉