Category: Saitama Diary

Today, I called my dad with my mom and my sisters. He is now stuck in India, where he was supposed to work for one more year. We asked how the quarantine was in India. For my father, who was living in a luxurious hotel, things seemed not too scary as he said that people around him including himself had been doing fine. Though he said the virus is rapidly spreading around the city of Delhi. I could easily imagine that because the last time I went to India, the street was flooded with people, both young and old, and loads of animals. Quarantine in Japan made the gigantic metropolitan cities in Tokyo, even Shibuya, clear of people. I wonder what is happening to those cities in India with the quarantine. He said he had not gotten any vaccination, not even the first one, because there is a shortage of medicine, not to mention vaccines. 

Speaking of vaccination, my mother also shared an interesting story with me yesterday at the dinner table. My mother works at the clam school, though her shifts got cut off a bit because of the governmental emergency alert, and there, her co-worker told my mom that she is not getting a vaccine shot because she believes that the mandated vaccination is the American government’s trap to kill people in other countries including Japan. That co-worker, a lady in her 50s whose son works at a famous game company in Tokyo, according to my mother, does not even wear a mask because she believes that COVID is faux. I thought those people were not real, but I guess they exist, even in this proximity. 

Recently, the government announced that we are required to take a second vaccination. Last time when we had the first vaccine, all of us had a horrible fever, and my mother needed to cook and take care of us although she was also suffering from a terrible cold and fatigue due to the side effects of the vaccine. My mother has not been able to find any slots available for the four of us to take the second shots, so she is aiming to get two slots in the first week of June and another two slots in the second week of June. It is good anyway because we learned the lesson that no one will be able to take care of each other if we get the vaccine shots at the same time. I hope she can find the slots as we plan.

Finally, it was my turn to go to school today. Starting this semester, my high school switched to hybrid after the Japanese government issued an emergency alert nationally. It means that some of us take classes online while the rest of us commute and attend the classes in person. I like it when I get to see my friends although I cannot see their smiles because they are covered by the masks. On the train from home to the school, there are barely any people, eerily. Maybe it was because 10 am is past rush hour, but I never get used to not seeing the chairs on the train fully packed, especially on busy lines like the Saikyo line. This morning, I saw a woman, seemingly in her 20s, sitting face down on the platform of Ebisu station. I asked her if she was okay, then she told me that she was on period and got dizzy because of anemia. I was a bit surprised, and pissed off, that no one passing by seemed to care about this woman who was obviously so sick. I was also mad at the company, or even at capitalism, that makes her work even though she is in a condition where she cannot manage to stand up and support herself.

But having those thoughts did not help her in any way. I could not do anything and just left her there. I transited to another line and waited for the train to come. The announcement resonated into the silence of the subway platform. It goes: Mamonaku, densha ga mairimasu… Kiiroi senmade osagari kudasai… The train is arriving…Please stand behind the yellow line… This was probably the first voice that I heard besides the woman who was almost fainting on the platform earlier. I feel so lonely.

Now as I am writing this, I am heading back home from school. Today is Friday! On Fridays, my mother always makes curry for dinner and packs lunch that my two younger sisters and I bring to the school. She says it is because it is easy for her when she does not need to decide what to cook even for one day. I bet this hybrid-style schooling has saved her a lot of time because in that way she does not have to wake up at 5 in the morning and pack her lunch every single weekday. This quarantine makes me reflect on what I have that I do not appreciate enough. I am excited for the curry tonight.

Today, I am stuck in my room. I just woke up at 1 pm and have not even stepped out of my room yet. I have been switching between Instagram Reels and Twitter and scrolling for an hour. People on Twitter are sharing their lives. Arisa, a mother of two kids, was worried that she would not get masks enough for her family because she lives in a highly populated area in Tokyo, where the mask shortage is more severe than in other areas. She was also sharing her friend’s concern that no kindergarten has a spot available for their kids because there are so many more needs among those parents who both go to work. KN, a teacher for kids with special needs, struggled to secure spots for the first vaccine for him and his old mother. I cannot believe that Japan, or the Kanto area at least, has changed so much in such a short time. I feel like it was yesterday when the first infection was confirmed in my town last month, a tiny town in Saitama where I thought the virus would never reach. It is spreading so fast. Meanwhile, on Instagram, I have been seeing people protesting for the death of George Floyd. Burning the supermarkets, marching across the metropolitan city with masks on. I am also seeing a bunch of teenage girls dancing to Doja Cat’s Say So. My eyes are tired. I am hungry but do not want to step out of the room. My mother will check in with me if I have done my homework, which I have not even pulled out from my backpack yet. Well, I will start my work then.