Another dreaded and expected happening.
Where are the needed pleasant surprises. Well, I did see one tonight.
Haven’t posted recently for several reasons. Not having anything to write about not being one of them. If anything, having too much to write about but little really worth more than a few lines has been an issue. Having too much to write about another topic is another. The fact that my finances are in a horrid state desensitizes me to most other issues is probably the largest reason. Although, hay fever plays its own massive background part; especially with this being the first Spring in 5 years that I have been out of the house.
But one I was not looking forward to but expected to happen at some point happened tonight and brings me to the keyboard. Before I get to tonight, permit me cover some of the short but not necessarily smaller stories.
Masks. The 10 year old had a cram school test last Sunday. This one was held in a Jr. High school a few stations away and just a couple of blocks from my brother in law’s and his new wife’s home. So we arranged for all of us to go out for dinner together. As usual, I took the testee to the venue and found some place where I could work online and have coffee. Sadly, after walking around for a hour, I had to settle with McDonald’s. At least the coffee is cheaper there than at a real coffee house. Being close by, I was the first to reach the venue after the test. Somehow, the ten yr old found me quickly and we had to push our way through the dense crowd to gain the alleyway of a main street. There we found my wife, her brother and his wife…all three masked. Now, my wife suffers from hay fever and has long worn a mask in the Spring and more recently added “Pollen glasses” but the other two adults do not have hay fever. When will they stop wearing masks?, I continue to wonder. Besides these three, I saw many masked on the crowded streets and on the train that day, including numerous children from just past toddlers and on up. How many due to pollen vs. covid I have no way to know. Before the panic, you would see many of those who wore masks against allergies take their masks off after they boarded the train and if not then, once they got inside a building. However, they have been wearing their compliance rags for 3 1/2 to four years so it could be that those wearing them against pollen just keep them on now.
Then there is this wonderful new product offered by Canon that I snapped a pic of an ad for it on a train on Feb. 26th. It is a mask designed to mute the wearer’s voice enough so that others cannot hear while being fitted with a mic and ear phones for video conferencing.
How would one wash such a thing? YUK.
A week ago was the opening day for a big fountain pen fair at a large stationery and book store. This was THE event in Tokyo for we stylophiles in this part of the world. It was here that I met new friends from Hong Kong, Taiwan , Australia who flew in for the event and of course Japanese and gaijin living in Japan. We would meet up at the event, lunch together, trade, buy and sell pens, ink and paper with each other as well as show off our recent acquisitions. A great time and one that we looked forward to each year. We would talk about it for months before hand and write up after action reports complete with swag photos for various pen blogs and websites. This too is a thing of the past.
This year was the first time it was held since Japan reopened its borders cuz covid; first one open to overseas visitors in 5 years. Writing this, I am not sure if correct. Japan may have been open last March but I think they were still requiring clot shot records and I know maskers were still “recommended”. Anyway it was DEAD. None of my friends with whom I met here each annually in years past was present. The event limited edition ink again sold out before noon despite limited to just one or two bottles per person, but when I arrived a little before 1 pm the venue was no more packed than it is on a normal day. That is how it has been during the full on covid madness but not how it was during any of the few years prior to the panic that I attended. Hardly any overseas makers. I think that even two of the big three domestic makers did not put up booths this year. If they did, I do not remember them. In the past, you often had to wait for counter space to test a pen or ink. No problem walking right up and doing so this year. While more was offered this year than the past 4, it was still a far cry from before the panic. In the past, I added considerably to my collections of pens and ink at this event. Not this year nor the past 4. Now I am trying to sell the pens and ink I bought there in the past. This year I went to buy pens for a friend from India who is now studying here. As a member of the store’s pen club, I get a discount. He gave me a huge sum of cash and I bought several of this year’s limited edition show pens for him. Otherwise, I would not have come to the event. Same as last year as he was finally allowed in before that show.
Before the panic, the government here had an extremely high target for the number of foreign tourists visiting. A whooping 31.88 million foreign visitors came to Japan in 2019. When I was first told this number, I did not believe it, thought it must be a translation error as I did not think it was possible to move that many people to and from Japan in the span of a single year. Nope. The number was correct. The goal for 2020, the year the olympics were supposed to be held was 40 million. Japan promoted its “Cool Japan” campaign far and wide and had a come one, come all attitude towards tourism as it was the only section of the economy that was not either stagnant or contracting. Now that Japan has reopened after the panic, what is its attitude towards foreign guests? One would think that given it killed its own domestic economy with on and off again shutdowns that it would outdo itself with the red carpet treatment of overseas visitors to bring in even more. Nope. “Over tourism” is the current buzzword. In the past week or so I have read that Osaka is considering a fee for foreign tourists, Kyoto has banned gaijin from the small alleyways the city is famous for and other ways to combat “over tourism” have been discussed for a few months now. Are more tourists here than ever before?, you may ask. Good question. The latest I have read, which admittedly was a few weeks ago, says “no”. Many more than last year, duh, the borders were still shut a year ago to unvaxxed and masks were still “recommended”, but not as many as prepanic 2019. However, despite 31.88 million visitors in 2019, Japan hoped for 40 million in 2020 and “over tourism” was not to the fore of the national consciousness. While December 2023 did see an 8.2% increase for the same month in 2019, overall, 2023 saw only 25,066145 visitors. Yet “OVER TOURISM” seems to have replaced COVID as the big scary thing we must all fight against together. Talk about killing the golden goose. Surreality. Or, as we say in Japan, “BAKA”.
Tonight.
While still cool, it is warmer than it has been so I rode my bike down to pick up the 4th grader from cram school. I ride, slowly, as they run. I said this jokingly the first time but they enthusiastically agreed. Tonight I rode fast enough only to stay upright as they jogged, worn out from swimming and too many late nights at cram school. On the way down, I saw a large group of older JR. High school or high school students in a park. Such a bizarre scene given these past 4 years I am ashamed to say that my first reaction was disgust mixed with anger as I wondered “What no good are they up to?”. And what “no good” were they up to? Just hanging out as kids this age used to do before the panic. It was nice to see but I am concerned at my first response and whatever the reasons may have been for it. It is truly the first time I have seen scores of kids this age together, unmasked and not unsocially distancing in a full four years. Gladness dampened by anger towards TPTB who denied so many children of this for so long. May they all rot.
I did not have to wait so long for my kid to come out of the school tonight but of the 6 kids that preceded them, 4 were masked. Tonight they had a new topic. It was the first they were so excited to share that they could not wait until they could share it with both mommy and daddy at the same time. Well, they’ll tell mommy when I am not around but never tell me anything unless mommy is also in attendance. Spoke of this new subject enthusiastically all the way home and during dinner with mommy away at practice. The subject? SDGs.
Oh dear - it's so very lonely being awake, isn't it? And watching our worlds change, seemingly not for the better ....
How can the topic of SDG's make anyone enthusiastic? This alone is part of the problem. I don't have a problem with reusing old buildings for new purposes, but I see it more as preserving the past rather than ridiculous "sustainability" goals. The whole thing is predicated on the notion that sustainability is an issue at all. Oddly the measures taken to promote "sustainability" are also measures that aren't sustainable.