Hokkaido, north Japan. My home.
A wonderful land of flowers, sushi, snow and nature...chocolate, cheese, foxes, eagles, onsens, beer...And Corona Virus.
It arrived here big time last week. One day we were all goggling at the Tv when they said two men who'd worked in the Snow Festival had it....and now only days later there are 56? people who caught it, and two elderly people have died.
Yesterday the Japanese government announced school closures nationwide until April.
My community center classes have been cancelled and private students are switching to Skype...or cancelling. Thank goodness March is the quietest month for tour guide work here....
Hokkaido has far more cases than any other area of Japan.
Is it the cold? The influence of the 1.5 million people who came for 2 weeks for the Sapporo Snow Festival? Foreigners?
All around is quiet. Events are cancelling. Public places are quiet. Masks, hand cleaning sprays, gloves....it's a depressing time.
On Monday this week Okaasan had a fever of 39C
The care home got the doctor in from their hospital downstairs and Dear Son was informed, cut short his planned visit to her.
We fretted.
Next day her fever was down, she was eating and carrying on as normal. MAYBE nothing wrong, just a passing fever that she has sometimes.
Gosh. Hope it stays this way. Apart from the obvious concerns of CV, just moving Okaasan to a different hospital with different people and a whole battery of tests would be awful for her mental condition....
We have decided to stay away from visiting her. Just too much risk of us taking the virus into the care home. Risk to her and the other residents. We are a little surprised that the home hasn't banned outside visitors yet, like they do with Noro Virus.
I've stopped going to the gym. Lots of cute young men stretching and flexing for me to watch (it's mainly used by local high school and college sports guys)...but too worrying with all the shared spaces, sweat and stuff.
Going to do a WHOLE lot of walking in the fresh, hopefully virus-free air!
Yesterday, with no work suddenly, Dear Son and I took advantage of the sunshine and the Seniors Discount day at the local ski area...to ski...
Joking apart. It's a sad time here in Japan.
The third crises I've lived thru here.
The Fukushima earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.
The Hokkaido earthquake and electricity blackout.
Now: a virus that is hard to spot, can apparently come and go, is probably carried around by people with no-symptoms, very very bad for the elderly and sick.
Debate about wearing masks, or not.
Alcohol sprays
The value of closing all the schools - families all over Japan have a huge childcare problem now. Japanese companies are unlikely to do bring-your-kid-to work.
Yesterday we stopped off at a revolving sushi place. They had compulsory hand sprays at the door and didn't have the little plates on the counter for anyone to take.
But....I watched the young chef take a paper order from a customer...put the paper on the counter and then pick up the fish and rice he was making for someone...all in 10 seconds. He wasn't wearing gloves...
Human to human contact is so easy.
So, Okaasan can stay safely in her care home...Tv, food, day care hours on the 3rd floor, toilet trips...and hopefully stay isolated from all of this.
Where ever you are in the world, stay healthy and safe. Protect weaker members of our society from this thing.
Love and hugs, everyone.
Well, love and waves, maybe.
