Tokyo and Covid-19

Hi there,

So, I've been in Japan now for 11 years, and I'm working on my 12th. There's been a lot of different events and happenings. I've gotten new crowns and had two root canals done. I've caught the flu at least twice that I remember, been seriously sick with some disease the doctors couldn't figure out, and I've had a surgery to remove a torn slice of my meniscus.

I've worked for...5 companies, I think. I worked one year at a public school, seven years at a private preschool, and now three years at an English conversation school.

I've gotten married, although we still don't have kids and at this point in our lives we probably never will.

I've moved house five times as well, with a general trend towards larger places, although Michi and I have managed to keep the price range around the same each time, give or take $100.

I've slept through more earthquakes than I can even say, and I survived the big one in 2011. There have been dozens of typhoons, a few blizzards, and all sorts of other disasters and tough situations.

I'm thinking back on all this now because I want to let everyone know that things are fine here in Japan. As I write this, there are approximately 400 or 500 people who've been infected in Tokyo. Worldwide, numbers are something like 800,000. I know those numbers look big, but please remember that every year about 650,000 people die from the flu, and over 6 million people get infected by the flu.

In the US alone, about 600,000 people die from heart attacks each year, with another 600,000 dying from different kinds of cancers.

I know New York, Chicago, San Francisco and other cities in the US have been "hit hard" by this disease, but please keep things in perspective. Things will not turn out like in The Walking Dead!

Back to Tokyo. Many businesses have been shut down, some companies are instituting some form of staggered scheduling to avoid crowds on the trains, and even more companies are starting policies of remote work. As in everywhere else in the world, people are hoarding. This is not some uniquely American trait as many media sources would have you believe. Chinese people hoard, Japanese people hoard, and yes, American people hoard, too.

It is tricky to find certain groceries, but not impossible, and the most dangerous thing, in my opinion, is that I will assault one of my co-workers because all they can talk about is how scared they are, how they think Jesus is coming back and these are the end times, and complaining about Trump and Putin, their bosses, and a thousand other things they cannot control or influence in anyway.

Is it a bit scary? Yes, sure. Facing unknown problems always is. Panic solves nothing.

2020

Hey all,

So as usual, I've got the semi-annual blog post here. Michi and I closed out 2019 by moving to a new apartment in Tokyo in December. The reasons behind the move are a little complicated and personal, but let's just say that it was not well-planned or premeditated.

We spent the end of December and New Years in Langkawi, Malaysia, which, as several of our tour guides pointed out, is just a few hour swim away from Thailand. If you happened to go swimming with your passport, you could legitimately visit both countries.

Let's get some statistics out of the way. There are about 60,000 full-time residents of Langkawi, and it is comprised of about 99 islands, with a total area of around 500 km². The Kilim Geoforest, an area on the Northeast side of the island, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. Langkawi is a little more than 400km from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and takes about 1 hour to reach by plane.

We stayed one night in Kuala Lumpur on arriving from Tokyo, and another night there on returning from Langkawi. This simplified the logistics and the number of flights we'd have to take back to back in a single go.

Our first real day on Langkawi was December 30th. The day before, we had flown in from Kuala Lumpur, checked into the airbnb, and booked a mangrove tour through the Kilim Geoforest for the 30th. This took most of the morning and afternoon.

We relaxed pool-side after our busy adventure, and promptly booked a zip line / obstacle course challenge activity through Skytrex. I didn't want to risk dropping my phone or camera, so I don't have any pictures of this, but please check out the video by someone else below.






It took most of the morning and early afternoon, and it was really fun! We enjoyed the challenges, and even made a small game out of seeing how quickly we could complete some of them. My favorite was hanging hands free giggling on the zip lines, checking out the jungle around us.

For dinner on December 31, we went to the next door hotel's restaurant, called the Bayu, and had their pirate themed dinner. It was really good: lots of BBQ-ed meats and fish, some fresh fruits and vegetables, plus a complimentary bottle of wine, which I ended up drinking most of myself, and Michi is a real light-weight. They were handing out vouchers for different events, and we happened to win one for a "steamboat" dinner.

On the 1st, we went snorkeling on a "nearby" island of Payar. I say this in quotes because it takes about 30-40 minutes to drive from our hotel to the ferry harbor, than another hour or so on the ferry. This is the same meaning of "nearby" when I tell my students that Michigan is "near" Chicago and Toronto, even though it takes 4-5 hours to get to either place from central Michigan. Anyway, the snorkeling was really fun. We could see a lot of different kinds of coral fish, a few very small black-tipped reef sharks, sea urchins, and of course some different kinds of coral. Again, I don't have a water case or a water proof phone anymore, so I don't have any photos of this. The one thing that really surprised me and Michi was the territoriality of a certain species of reef fish. There are these white/beige/grey/yellow (please don't ask about the name, I already checked and I have no idea what it is) fish, that are about 6-8 inches long. They usually hang out in the sandy gaps between coral pods, and boy do they hate it if you come into their space. If you stay still, they start darting towards your legs, and if you don't react, they go nuclear and start nipping you. It doesn't really hurt so bad, and they don't even break the skin, but it is really shocking, especially the first time. You're not even paying attention to them, you're more distracted by the more beautiful sights, and you're filled with the wonder of it all, and suddenly you get a hard pinch on your calf or thigh that takes you out of dream land.


January 2nd was our "vacation day," which Michi likes to say with a Spanish accent. We checked out of the airbnb, and spent several hours just lounging around the pool, relaxing and reading books. I finished The Brothers Karamazov this way, as well as The Power of Habit. Around 3PM, we headed over to the steamboat location, which we learned is as below.

We were anticipating a boat ride with dinner, which is why the staff got so flummoxed when I kept asking: when does it finish, what is the end time; and they would reply that when we're done eating we just leave. Anyway, it was quite tasty, and we got it for free, so I can't complain.

And that's basically our trip. The worst thing I can complain about is that the airbnb, although pretty to look at and quite comfortable, was not well built. It had large gaps around the drains, doors, and windows, so basically anything could and did get in. I killed 4 cockroaches and at least 4 mosquitoes while we were there, and I got three mosquito bites, despite having mosquito repellent plugged in. The food was great, the staff were really helpful and kind everywhere we went, and Michi and I got to experience a lot of exciting areas and events.