Inside my extremely half-assed quarantine - #quarantinelife

in #quarantinelife4 years ago (edited)

I would love to tell you what life in a Tokyo self-quarantine is like. I'd really like to tell you...

But I can’t tell you what a real quarantine is like. I can only tell you what a half-assed quarantine is like. Although I believe people in Japan SHOULD be staying at home, I don’t see them doing it until the situation gets a lot worse, and I’m convinced that it will pretty quickly. So chances are that my full quarantine will come much later than yours. For now I can tell you about the awkward situation I am in in Tokyo.

I work half my hours for a company, and the other half for my own students. The company closed for two weeks when there were 2 cases in the town it’s located in. They opened again two weeks ago when there were at least 30 cases in the town. That goes to show you how things in Japan are going.

People are extremely worried about the economy because it’s all they ever think about and so they are awkwardly trying to shut down whatever they can without having too much of a negative impact on the economy, and trying to be very careful while simultaneously not being careful at all.

The government is recommending everyone stay home if they can, but “can” is a funny concept in Japan. People “can’t” stop going to the office, even when all their work is on the computer. Many people are working from home and many are not and it seems to depend less on practicality and profit and more on which companies are comfortable making adjustments. Schools were off for two weeks before spring vacation started, back when there were less than 100 cases and now that vacation is almost over and there are nearly 2000 cases, they are going back.... for half-days....

What?

Half days? How does that help anything? So parents had a hard time taking care of kids when they still have to go to work, ok...but if the kids are going back to school, how will a half day prevent the spread of anything? Why not just do full days then?

So there is this obsession with the economy where everything is just too inflexible and impossible (until we learn that it isn’t like in the US) for now. But there is also this feeling of “things won’t get that bad because we are cleanly and don’t have much bodily contact” and also an observation of the current numbers without much imagination being put into how many asymptomatic people are not being tested (many with slight symptoms are denied tests by doctors) and that the numbers only reflect REPORTED CASES. So people see 100 new cases and think the cat isn’t already out of the bag. But it’s very much out of the bag and people are just trying to spend a little more time at home and basically live life as normal while the wheels of society keep turning and asking them to adjust their private lives while their public lives remain unchanged.

This puts me in an awkward position. I’m not alarmist, I’m personally trying to avoid the virus for two reasons, neither of which is fear of death or medical complications. The first is that many of my students are elderly, one with cancer and one with diabetes. I don’t want to get them sick. Other students have family with similar heath issues. The other reason is this: if I’m going to be stuck at home, I want to be healthy and productive, not coughing my face off. So I’m biding my time and being as safe as I can while still going with the flow of what the people around me are doing. The thing is, I can decide to lock myself indoors, but these old ladies are still going out for tea and films, so I don’t see how I can protect them, other than being a little cautious.

I’ve put my social life mostly on hold to focus on self improvement and I ride the train to my company an hour earlier or take the local train. That’s my Hiving time. A lot of students cancel, some last minute. The company has been slowly cutting my hours. I’m not paid for any of that, and so I am focusing my energy on online freelance, music, writing, and crypto a bit more. Hopefully I can get stuff moving a bit more so I don’t need to rely on my parents to bail me out if my overseas freelance status means my country won’t.

The longer Japan postpones a lock down, the longer this will affect me, but I’m not worried. I’m already being affected despite having to go to work. I still need to find a way to make ends meet and the lockdown isn’t even being taken seriously yet. But I am just going with the flow and staying at home as much as I can without being fanatic, because of the people around me aren’t being careful there is only so much I can do.

A Day in the Life of this Mess

My work schedule is constantly changing now and so suddenly last week I had Wednesday’s off, now I have Monday’s off and Wednesday’s are back but may disappear next week.

I wake up and if I have work I go for 3-5 hours. I wear a mask all day, given to me as gifts by the same students I want to protect. I encourage them to change to online classes but if they insist on not doing that I’ll make myself available. They want to get out of the house though. I now head straight home to begin my evening quarantine. Yes I know it’s just as useless as the schools afternoon closure.

My quarantine consists of my alternating between standing and laying on the bed, studying Japanese and playing guitar, stretching and exercising or checking out Hive. I have about 4 online classes a week so I do those when I do those.

I try to sleep before 1 and usually do before 2. I usually reject an invitation to go out drinking every 2 or 3 days. It doesn’t bother me much staying home. It just makes me sad that people are still getting wasted and smoking and staying up late instead of keeping their immune system strong.

I don’t check the news. As careful as I am compared to my friends, I’m not fearful. I just wish this country would take a hint from all the disasters and learn how to just take a rest sometimes. A real rest.

Another reason I hope a real closure happens is that if I am not going out at all, it’ll be a lot easier to finish this novel. I can plan out my day at home much better when it’s all at home. I want to get it over with cause I know it’s coming. I want to rest for a while too, even if I plan on being productive. I want to challenge myself to stay home.

It all feels like the moment before you go home from a party, everyone is at the door trying to say goodbye but also indulging in so last minute jokes and pleasantries. I always waited for my parents for 20 minutes after they announced we were going home. I hated those 20 minutes. It’s like waiting for the check to come when you finished eating an hour ago. That’s how this whole situation feels. A real lock down is coming and I’d rather get it started already So I can find my rhythm.

It’s all good though!

Check out some Akihabara maids, I was passing by after meeting a student there for class. I tried to take the picture without them noticing like a typical Japanese perv, and so it didn't come out so well...Corona Maids!
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Is this still the case now? If so and Tokyo doesn't devolve into oblivion like the media has assured us everyone will if they don't stay home 24 hours a day perhaps it could be a lesson for the world. Not that they would listen of course...

I don’t really think that’s a good idea. There may be something fishy going on as well but the virus seems to be very real and very easily spread, so I think people should stay inside right now

i think it depends a lot on whether people believe what the media / government is telling us. One thing about rednecks is that we tend to obey the law until it becomes tyrannical, so personally I will comply with whatever they say for now... but that doesn't mean I believe all the hype.

I'm pretty skeptical myself, I just don't see the harm in staying home, might as well. Better safe than sorry. But yeah I don't trust a lot of the narrative.

Hope to learn more about rednecks :-D

Why are you standing on the bed? o_O

I can academically understand people wanting to get out of the house, I don't mind staying home (though I wish I had the more time I'm supposed to have from not having to run around so much XD). Nice of you to still be available even though I'm sure you could just do video calling lessons. Do you talk to your students about the seriousness of things?