Quarantined in Tokyo
I hope you all are doing well around the world and staying safe and healthy during this unprecedented time. We are doing well in Tokyo; a little bored and trying to keep busy, but thankful to be healthy and able to spend family time together. I haven’t been motivated to write lately with the ups and downs of living through this pandemic. Our new normal consists of cooking and baking a lot more than normal, not being able to see friends in person, having our boys do online classes, Blake working from home, not being able to travel and explore, zoom meetings & FaceTime with family, and finding new things to enjoy around the house.
Sakura season in Japan is amazing, luckily we live close to the Meguro River and could walk daily to see the changes. Unfortunately we didn’t get to venture to see the Cherry Blossoms around the city- Ueno Park, Yoyogi Park, the Imperial Palace and other places outside of Tokyo.
It’s been a little frustrating in Tokyo. The government finally declared Tokyo and Japan a State of Emergency. When Abe closed schools as of March 2nd, they should have taken more aggressive action to prevent the spread, but unfortunately the city still looked like normal until end of March when they finally implemented stay at home orders in a polite way. They “strongly request” people to refrain from going out and staying home. Today, the healthcare system in Japan is overcrowded and cases are on the rise. We are doing our part to stay home, stay away from others, and stay healthy. ,
Masks are hard to get around city, the majority of people wear masks as a part of daily life. We have a few that we purchased for a Shanghai trip that was cancelled in Feb. Good thing I purchased some masks. Blake’s host mom in Nagoya (he did a home stay in Japan when he was in high school, same program that Alex did 2 summers ago) mailed us some fabric masks to use. With everyone making masks, I decided to make my own. Without going out to buy fabric, I decided to use the boys clothes they wanted to donate. Why not recycle their clothes for masks? Alex has a nice Nike baseball jacket, the fabric is a nice synthetic woven material with a textured Nike Sphere knit fused on the back. (Nike Apparel friends will know what I am talking about). I was sad that Alex was going to donate this jacket since it doesn’t fit him anymore, so I got creative and made some masks.
Those who know Alex, he loved his Barcelona Jersey and wore it a ton. Well it was in the donation pile so I created a mask that he can now wear and enjoy. It is even lined with Andrew’s flannel plaid for comfort. I am enjoying being creative with the garments we have lying around the house. All of this is done by hand since I don’t have a sewing machine here with us. This has given me something to do. We still have a bunch of other clothes that I am eyeing to decide how I want to transform them to masks.
Other than making masks, I have been zoom chatting with family in Hawaii, California, Colorado and friends in Tokyo, Portland, Hawaii. Reach out to me and let’s set up a zoom call. This has been my way to stay connected with people.
I cannot believe it is already mid April. We have a senior who will be graduating from ASIJ. It has been hard for him and his classmates in Tokyo and in Portland. So many memories they will not be able to create. On the bright side of things, this cohort of friends are going to be trailblazers in online learning and the new normal for their college experience. They are trying to be creative on ways to socialize and stay connected and all we can do is look forward to what their future will hold. We are excited that Alex will be attending NYU Shanghai. He is really excited and we are thrilled with this opportunity to attend NYU and continue with his Chinese language. He enjoyed his two trips to Shanghai and he always wanted to go to a very urban college and study abroad, he’ll be able to do both. He also plans to study at the NYU NY campus for a year! Exciting times!
Alex loved Shanghai from his first trip in spring 2016. Can't wait to take him in Aug to see how much this city has changed since then.