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| Ian and Minako - Tokyo, Japan |
We are both very well and hope everyone is enjoying summer!
The number of daily reported cases for Tokyo and the rest of Japan is getting more serious and reaching record figures, Tokyo having 366 on Thursday, the first time above 300 and the 7 day average moving up to 250. Total deaths in Tokyo increased by 2 to 328. Nationally there have been 29684 cases and 996 deaths.
Some 60% of the new cases are younger people, 20-30 age range but there has been an increase in the 40-50 range too and more cases on the outskirts of Tokyo not just the busy nightlife areas around Shinjuku. Japan’s second city, Osaka now regularly has over 100 cases per day.
The Tokyo Olympics were due to start this weekend with the opening ceremony on Friday 24th so Thursday and Friday were public holidays making a 4 day weekend of celebration and sport. Of course, the Olympics have been postponed until the same time next year and even the rainy season has gone on longer than usual to put a dampener on the holiday, it’s still very wet, dark and even relatively cool for this time. On Friday, there were firework displays in 120 locations nationwide, some of which were in Tokyo but we didn’t see or hear anything in our area.
The Government ‘Go To Travel’ scheme still went ahead but after much deliberation and hesitation they decided to exclude Tokyo residents which naturally caused some upset and confusion. It coincides with the Tokyo governor announcing (again) that Tokyo residents should refrain from all unnecessary travel over this long weekend. Many thought that the campaign should have been stopped as it is designed to promote domestic travel with discounts.
A night walk in the park
It may help the travel and hospitality business but residents in the holiday destinations are anxious and apprehensive about receiving many tourists from the big cities. Mutsu city in Aomori prefecture actually decided to close all the tourist facilities during this long weekend. It's all become quite unpleasant and tribal, setting prefectures with little or no covid cases against prefectures with high numbers. Several signs have been seen saying “No service to out-of-prefecture people”.
Another very quiet week for us, just a daily walk around the neighborhood and park when it's not too wet and a bit of shopping. We walk in the evening more often now because it's a lot cooler and quieter. Normally we don't go out much at night so it's quite interesting (exciting even!) to be exploring in the dark with only occasional joggers passing and the screeching of cicadas in the background. The ponds and the trees look so different illuminated by lampposts or the moon compared to the bright sunlight we're used to.
As it's so quiet our highlights tend to be small things like finding new interesting music on Bandcamp or a bit of positive news in the media. We've read that there are more vegan restaurants and even bakeries opening up. It's actually difficult to find vegan bread in Japan because they like to add milk, butter, eggs, anything to make it light and fluffy (fuwa fuwa) and shiny!
Vegan burger
We did manage to visit one of these new places the previous week, an American style, all vegan burger restaurant called The Great Lakes, not far from Shinjuku. They have switched to 100% plant-based in response to the environmental concerns highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was very nice; it was empty as we arrived early but is apparently very popular, the burgers are made with some Japanese ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms and wholegrain rice. Also we heard that triggered by this pandemic, a lovely cafe near our place has shifted to vegetarian and aim to meet SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).
Last week we took trains (first underground train ride in many months!) to get the doctor’s appointments done plus to treat ourselves with a gallery visit (Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo). But now the COVID-19 infected cases are on the rise again, we will be avoiding public transport for a while. When all the facilities were closed it felt relatively easy because there was no point going out when nothing was happening anyway but this time places are open (Yokohama Triennale has started!) and they are so tempting.
Great to visit an art gallery again
It’s apparent that once lockdowns and states of emergency were lifted globally and most of the countries are seeking a balance between the prevention of the epidemic and the economic recovery, people have become complacent including here in Japan. More people are wearing masks as it's become mandatory in a lot of countries but how many people still wash their hands for 20 seconds or sanitize everything they bring in to the house or stay 2 meters apart (1 meter is not really enough)?
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