Well it's official!
 |
| medical masks sold out everywhere |
"No way" I thought.
Way!
Our 6th grade middle boy came home loaded down with everything from his school desk this afternoon. He'll go back for a half day on Monday then Th-th-th-th-that's all folks! No word yet on if there'll be a graduation ceremony for him.
Same goes for older 8th grader boy. Half day Monday then that's it. No club activities planned so that's two of three kids' here on unexpected-till-yesterday prolonged vacations. They're old enough to fend for themselves at least. It'll definitely be harder on parents with younger elementary school kids.
So far we haven't been informed that youngest girl child's kindergarten will close. Earlier today we were informed, however, that one of the five kindergartens we have a contract to teach English at is canceling English instruction up through March. Fingers crossed we're hoping the rest of them don't do the same as that'd be a pretty good hit to our monthly income. So far the government hasn't recommended closing nursery schools and kindergartens. If that does come to pass the local economy will get hit even harder to say the least. Older kids can take care of themselves but moms or dads will definitely have to take off work to care for children if kindergartens close as well.
So schools shutting down early is the biggest change in Japan for us personally since my last entry yesterday. That's a very proactive approach and while it's caused a lot of confusion and ringing of hands for us parental types it's still being met with an attitude of しょうがない
"shoganai" "that's life!"
The only changes or preparations we've discussed, besides some arrangements for kids while we're working now that they're out of school, is to stock up on dry foods and instant ramen and the like just in case. Masks and alcohol spray have been sold out everywhere for sometime now with no idea when they'll become available again, then just tonight was news that they're selling out of toilet paper in Tokyo as well. What the? It seemed odd to me, why toilet paper? So I took it to the googles only to learn all the butt wipe buying binge was due to folks falling for a fake news story. There ya go!
Besides that the most negative news I've come across over how Japan is dealing with coronavirus has been the strict standards imposed on testing patients, which has led some to go to two or three hospitals before finally being treated. That's no bueno to say the least. On a more positive note researchers here have developed a test that can detect the virus in 10 to 30 minutes. Back to a more worrisome note, Hokkaido has declared a State of Emergency and the first case of coronavirus has been detected here in Shizuoka Prefecture. (link to Japanese news there can't find it in English yet.)
Oh joy!
That's no big surprise though. We've assumed that it's already here and just not detected yet. Oh yeah, and no mousekateering in Tokyo for a while. The Happiest Place on Earth is closed. That too is expected though. Like I wrote yesterday, they don't F'#%k around with this kind of thing in Japan. I won't be the least bit surprised if news comes out about Olympics being canceled as well.
So that's that. We're here and the virus is just outside our door. Folks in these parts are bracing for the worst and hoping for the best with more and more proactive measures for combatting it going into effect each day.
And back in home sweet USA home?
Whistleblower complaint the Trump administration sent in unprotected, untrained HHS workers to receive Americans who were quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship hereabouts.
The Trump White House has instructed this guy to not speak publicly about the virus without clearing what he's going to say with them first. Now I'm not disease expert but if back home in California and knowing there's already been a "community-acquired" case there, someone who's been head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Disease; who's been at NIH since 1968 and heading NIAID since 1984 is exactly the kind of guy I'd want to be hearing direction from. Not some idiot who says the USA could have zero cases in a "few days". But hey that's there and we're here so just making note of it and hoping for the best in both places. That said based on what I'm seeing and hearing about how they're combatting it here verses the same for back home...
Well again no expert, but with the criticism that I have read of Abe's response I could only imagine how much more it'd be if he'd done the same as Trump. No scratch that. I can't even imagine the disease experts here saying one thing and Abe saying the exact opposite, double not imagine him following with "stock market starting to look very good to me" like Trump recently tweeted.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tear down what the President Obama built up after all?
No comments:
Post a Comment