When the Olympics were postponed last year, I had already sent my deposit for the accommodations to the Tokyo Organizing Committee. The deposit accounted for half of the cost of my hotel rooms in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics. After the deliberations with the hotels, Tokyo 2020 announced that we were able to stay in the same rooms that we had reserved in 2020 during the 2021 Olympics.
A couple of weeks ago, we were sent the invoice for the second half of our accommodations payment. Unlike the Beijing 2022 Olympic Committee (more on that later), Tokyo accepted US dollars as payment. I went to TD Bank and the new assistant manager, Maggie, was able to help me make the wire transfer to Tokyo and a couple days later, my account on the accommodations website was updated that they had received my payment, meaning things were good to go.
However, obviously there are a lot of restrictions and as we close in on one month to go, I've started preparing in other ways. One of the things we have to do is to have two COVID-19 tests within 96 hours of leaving for Japan, including one within 72 hours. Additionally, the tests have to have a certificate approved by the Japanese government and Tokyo 2020 sent us a list of approved testing facilities where we could get the proper paperwork. Of course, living in New Hampshire, there were not tons of local options, with the closest being in Boston. While I am flying out of Boston to get to Tokyo, I was not looking forward to having to make two more trips to get tested.
However, I called the company and left a voice mail with my request and the next day, a very helpful woman returned my call and helped me navigate what I need to do. First and foremost, the testing is something we can do at home, I just had to order the kits. The woman sent me the link for the proper tests to order and I put the order in right away, happy that I didn't have to make two separate trips to Boston before my flight.
I also received an e-mail last week from the accreditation folks at Team USA stating that my credentials had been shipped. They gave me a tracking number and earlier this week, I went online to check where the package was and it came up with "delayed - attention needed." I made a call to UPS trying to figure out what the problem was and they weren't terribly helpful, telling me that the package was not deliverable with the address given. I quickly e-mailed the accreditation people at Team USA and they answered quickly, noting that the fact that I use a PO Box may have been the issue. I gave them my physical address and they made a request to change, so hopefully it is on its way again.
As for Beijing, that's been a whole other problem. As noted in my last post, I started a new account at Citizen's Bank because they can make transfers in Chinese Yuan. They helped me make the wire transfer but evidently, it did not go through. I was told by the Beijing 2022 accommodation folks that it was returned because it was in US dollars, but the bank was told that the money was returned because the receiving organization was not valid. The Beijing 2022 account had an incredibly long name and when we made the transfer, we had to abbreviate some things, and evidently, China is pretty picky about these things. I went back in again today and we made another attempt, thanks to a very helpful banker named Melissa, who admitted it was the most complex wire transfer she'd ever done. Here's hoping that this time, the money get through. This is by far the hardest time I've had trying to give someone money.
