Hello, again!
Since my last post, I have left the house exactly once. Two bills arrived in the mail with due dates before the state of emergency is due to be lifted, so I needed to go to the convenience store to pay those. I bought some snacks while I was there. It was a strange experience.
The convenience store closest to my house has put plastic sheets up in front of the counter between you and the cashier when you're checking out. I'd already seen that at the convenience store right next to my work, so it wasn't too shocking. The clerks there are also all wearing heavy duty plastic gloves, the kind you wear when you're scrubbing down the bathroom or something. And, of course, they're all in masks.
I actually saw more people than I expected while I was out. While people in the US are used to buying a lot of food at once, which makes storing it for long periods easier, a lot of houses don't have room for that kind of storage in Japan. And frozen foods and other things that keep for a long time exist but not in the same abundance as in the US. Most people I know here go to the supermarket on a near daily basis to buy food, so I imagine a lot of people are cutting back on how often they go but might still be going more than in the US. But obviously that's just me speculating.
Though I bought myself a sandwich (and some frozen food and ramen) at the convenience store yesterday, I've been eating a lot of furikake and rice to avoid going to the supermarket for as long as possible. (I can't pay my bills at the supermarket; otherwise, I realize that going there for food would have been the better option yesterday.)
Yesterday also marked the day when Tokushima got two more cases of COVID-19 because I choose the best days to finally leave the house. That brings our total up to five during this entire thing.
The other big piece of news yesterday was that Awa Odori, the festival that Tokushima is famous for, was canceled. It's not until August, but I guess that the most famous dance groups start practicing months in advance and they don't want those groups gathering for practice. It's really sad since Awa Odori is such a big point of pride with Tokushima, and it's a reminder of how long the effects of this pandemic are going to last.
Meanwhile, I'm still at home. Eventually, I'll venture out to the supermarket, but for the next few days, at least, I'll probably just be here trying to keep myself occupied.
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