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Global Voices
Global Voices
Used-books store in Jinbocho, in Kanda, Tokyo. On annual visits back to Japan, I set aside several days just to visit bookstores. I visited this bookstore 872 days ago. Photo by Nevin Thompson. (CC BY-NC 2.0) It has been 879 days — 2 years, 4 months, and 26 days — since I last set foot in Japan. This is my longest absence from the country in 27 years — 10,009 days, to be exact. Thanks to Japan’s strict, and, in some ways, incomprehensible COVID-19 travel restrictions for foreigners, it’s hard to say when I’ll be able to return. On the other hand, others stuck outside of Japan have it far worse…