In the spring of 2020.
When the Covid-19 pandemic started raging.
While everyone all over the world was in quarantine, Conor Mason, the singer of Nothing But Thieves, was posting videos of himself singing from his apartment.
He called it “Sun Sessions”
The love he sometimes talked about for his hometown Southend-on-Sea, the view outside the window, the building next to his apartment, that sometimes appeared in his videos…
I was deadly bored, stuck in my own room in Japan, enough to spin Google maps with those clues, and finally identified where exactly he lived.
Now I have to go there.
Well, I’m joking.
I just always wanted to walk around the town that raised their music, since the love of the band for their hometown was well known.
On 2nd May, 2022.
I was in an empty airport.
We have national holidays in May.
I thought I might be able to travel abroad this year, so I renewed my expired passport last December.
That was the right decision. I didn't think I could do that soon though.
The restriction for covid 19 was getting gradually eased.
Yet still, the situation of traveling abroad was complicated, since the Japanese government had a lot of stupid policies.
To enter Japan, you needed to take a PCR test and get a negative certificate within 72 hours before your departure.
The Japanese government was very strict and required you to write down the results on an original formatted form for Japan. Even though you had to take the test abroad, in a strange country.
After arriving at the airport in Japan, you also needed to go through quarantine.
No matter how hard you worked to get a negative PCR certificate, if you test positive there, you had to live in quarantine in a hotel near the airport for a week.
Okay, so now, with all those difficulties, why did I want to go abroad so badly?
I don’t know.
For me, traveling abroad was almost the same as an overdose of anti-depressants.
I swallowed all the pills I had gathered over the past few years.
And now, I arrived at Narita airport.
What a quiet international airport!
Is traveling abroad still a taboo thing???
I had never seen such an empty flight board.
The 3 of them were already canceled, so there were only 3 flights available.
I remember I saw someone on social media posting a picture of this and saying: “The only hallway I miss.”
So true. I missed it so much.
I used Qatar Airways.
There were only a few people and the seats next to me and the one next to that were also empty, so I laid down on the 3 seats.
Is this practically a business class, huh?
Everyone was sleeping like that, so it was a total chaos.
Transited at Qatar
All the Arab people were wearing strong perfume, which left me with the impression that Qatar was a nice-smelling country.
I arrived at Heathrow Airport at 6pm.
I estimated that the immigration procedure would take about 1 hour.
I was worried I wouldn’t get to the place I was staying before sunset.
But there were hardly any lines, a machine just scanned my passport and... yes, that was it. It was just a moment.
They didn't even ask me if I got vaccinated.
I was able to use the Oyster card I used 4 years ago, which made me so excited.
The London Underground
Commonly known as the Tube.
I remember I was surprised before, but I was surprised again.
How small the trains are!
Even in London, there are only this many people... even though it’s 6pm and must be in the rush hour.
The number of people who were wearing masks was about 10%.
Here, I was immediately reminded of the gap between Japan and the rest of the world.
I was a bit worried, so I kept wearing mine.
West Ham
From here, I changed to c2c train and headed to Southend-on-Sea, the hometown of Nothing But Thieves.
When I arrived at Leigh-on-Sea, the nearest station to Conor's apartment, it was already 9pm and getting dim.
I was in such a hurry I didn't take any pictures.
The station was empty.
I couldn't find a place to buy a bus ticket.
I might need some coins, but the exchange machine didn't work.
A bus came, the door opened, so I told the driver that I didn't know how to buy the ticket.
He said like, “Get on! Where do you wanna go?” with a smile.
Oh yeah, this is not Japan anymore.
The bus headed to the place where I was going to stay.
On the way, we suddenly passed in front of Conor's apartment.
I got off the bus without paying and just said to the driver, “Have a good night!” with a smile.
Leigh-on-Sea
There are no hostels in the suburbs, and hotels are quite expensive.
So I used Airbnb.
I was able to stay at the second closest Airbnb house to Conor's apartment. (I couldn’t use the first one because I didn't meet their check-in time requirements)
That distance was about 400 meters.
I hope he won’t recognize such a crazy fan.
It was the house of a family.
My room was an attic.
Now, I can finally catch my breath.
I made it.
For the first time in 4 years, I finally got out of my country...!
