Tokyo Corona Diary “New Normal” Day 1
Rest Day: Daily Routine; Mass Observation Studies; Teaching in the New Normal
Today’s post will be a little different from typical Tokyo Corona Diaries posts.
Last night at midnight Prime Minister Abe lifted the last remaining states of emergency here in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, and Hokkaido, which have been in place since April 7.
Instead of recording recent events, or taking candid pictures, today I want to catch this moment in time, a “slice of life” of a typical day from the past couple of months before we transition into a new, post-emergency phase of the pandemic.
So instead I will write about today as just another day.
Join me. Or skip this post altogether.
Either way, just so you know what you’re getting into/missing out on :-)
Old Normal
First, a few things to say. I am a Canadian expat who has lived in Japan for over two decades now. As I’ve written elsewhere, I came to Japan on a “three-years overseas adventure. That is a story in itself…
I’ve lived in Tokyo for almost two decades. My Japanese wife and I celebrate our 10th anniversary this year, though we’ve had to postpone our plans because of the soft lockdown. We have a mortgaged house in what I call the “rural suburbia” of western Tokyo; we both work, and have demanding careers.
I am currently on a leave of absence from work. I will return to teaching high school English Language Arts in August.
Currently, among other things, I am preparing myself to teach in the “new normal,” whatever that may look like, when the new school year starts in August by taking online training and self-study in teaching online.
About six weeks ago, as the coronavirus situation reached crisis proportions here in Tokyo. I tried to capture some of the funiki, the atmosphere, of what it felt like to go from “60 to zero” as I tried to put the brakes on my personal and professional life and get some much-needed “re-alignment,” as my doctor might say.
Since then, I have been writing “Corona Diaries” which focus on stories on the news, as well as a…
