So. Hi!

JUST realized I haven't blogged at all this year, and January is ending.

Because, really, nothing to blog about on the Okaasan side of life. 

She is in her care home. We can't visit her. Our lives go on, week by week. So does her life. The care home (if telling the truth) had only two cases of Covid, and for that we are very, very thankful.

Yesterday in my English class, both students related how elderly family members had died over the winter months, without their nearest family being able to visit with them. Tales like this around the world, of course.

My part of Japan seems to have got infection rates under control again, schools and restaurants are open - although the adult entertainment district of Sapporo has been asked to close by 8 pm...which is probably half happening. In Tokyo the new cases numbers topped 2,000 earlier this month, and are now falling to under 1,000 as a half-hearted State of Emergency was introduced (eating and drinking places closed at 8 pm).

I guess we will see Okasan again in spring, but probably can't go outside with her....into the fresh air. She has been inside that care home building for over a year now...

Our lives go on. I teach online and face to face. I do writing for a website. I picked up an extra class at a downtown English School. Next month I am going to do a narration job involving lots of Ainu language words and I will be given special training in pronunciation!

We cancelled our Okinawa holiday, and rebooked for a 4 day camping car holiday locally - next month going to east Hokkaido to see sea ice and winter animal sights, like the red-crested cranes. 

It's my 60th birthday celebration trip! I'm almost 60...kind of amazing. I even got information from a former-employer, private pension scheme in the UK asking me if I'd like to take my pension payments sooner, or later. THAT made me feel old :-)

Japan won't start its vaccination programs until the end of February, and there have been stories about a lack of dry ice and refrigeration units...a lack of staff in rural areas. All of that...and the government maintaining the Tokyo Olympics will start in 5 months from now....

So, there we are. Plodding on. Today is one year since the very first positive test of Covid was found here. I think it was a Chinese woman who'd arrived at the local airport. Seems such a long time ago...back in January and February last year...we had the big Sapporo Snow Festival, and I went to a Queen rock concert in Osaka...

What a year it has been.

Hope you are well, and happy.