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.
