Coronavirus vs. Japan

I’m sure some of you have been wondering about our virus situation here in Japan. Due to the language barrier, we’re not sure we know more than what everyone knows in America.

What we do know is recent news sources are saying Japan has more coronavirus cases than what they are letting on to save face for the Olympics, and that Japan is not testing as many people per day as they should be to keep the number of actual cases down. Seems like it could be true. Japan’s Prime Minister has received a lot of backlash for his efforts on effectively containing the virus; or lack thereof. The most confusing thing he has done, in the opinion of the Japanese people, is ordering all elementary schools and high schools to be closed until the new school year starts in April. They feel this move in particular is a very late response to the epidemic and an unnecessary one to “prove” the Prime Minister is making drastic moves to contain the virus. This is leaving many Japanese parents confused; How to they are supposed to care for their children when both parents are working full-time jobs? And when nannies and childcare are essentially non-existent in their culture? To help, some schools have stayed open for some children to “study alone” in empty class rooms if their parents cannot take off work. Caroline’s kindergarten, like most in Japan, are privately owned and were able to make their own decisions in light of this news. Caroline’s school has stayed open this past week, but as an option and not a requirement. I decided to keep Caroline home, just in case. Nathan was very happy to have his sister home to play with all day.

2 days ago it was announced that the coronavirus has finally made it to our city. An employee at a very popular mall tested positive for the virus. The search for any customer he/she may have come into contact with is going to be nearly impossible to find. A lot of Honda wives shop at this same mall a lot, too. This person contracted the virus by attending a concert in Osaka back in February where there were other multiple people infected with the virus; unbeknownst to the entirety of the tens of thousands of people who attended the event from many different cities and prefectures and before the Prime Minister put out word to cancel all big events in Japan. This makes Justin and I wonder if the Prime Minister’s move to cancel all schools was, in hindsight, one of the worst things he could have done. Where do teenagers out of school go to hang out? Malls. So all those kids, who could have potentially been protected from coming in contact with the virus had they been in school, could potentially have it now.

Not to mention, there is no toilet paper here in Japan, at all! Thank goodness this virus does not cause severe diarrhea because we would be having some pretty big issues without any tissues right now!

This past week I finally ventured out to search for some toilet paper, thinking “It’s been a week, maybe everyone calmed down and it’s back in stock.”. Nope! The whole aisle containing toilet paper is completely wiped clean! Stores can’t even properly put any shipments of toilet paper on the shelves because people are waiting around for the clerks to just hand it to them. I need to learn when their shipment dates are. Another Honda wife and I ventured out to Costco on the coast to see if, maybe, they would have some; and to stock up on other regular essentials. Typically when we go, be it a weekday or a weekend, Costco in Japan is ALWAYS packed and crowded with people. And for some reason they all have these weird rolls in their carts that hold like 50 rolls in 1 bag. What are they doing with all those rolls?! I digress…. when we arrived there was hardly anybody in Costco. Aisles where I’m usually fighting to get through or to even look at products were completely clear and open. We had our pick of the litter on any pre-made dinner we wanted; which are usually picked over. There was no one handing out free samples. It looked sad. Part of the fun of going to a Japanese Costco is to be able to curse under my breath at the people who can’t understand English who are standing in the middle of the aisle! To top it off, the cafeteria area had all their tables and chairs removed with a sign in their place saying, “Due to the coronavirus and to do our part to prevent the spread of the virus, please do not eat here.” Crazy times.

Even though all of this is going on, we feel fine and okay. Maybe a little on edge with the rest of the Japanese people in panic mode. But we also don’t feel like we would be safer anywhere else and are ready to ride this out.