The new school year is starting slowly. I already have two weeks of classes under my belt at two schools, another starts this Monday and the last after Golden Week in May. My kids have been in class since the 5th. Yes, they held class on Friday and then had 3 days off as the 8th was the entrance ceremony for 1st graders and of course, classes cannot be held for the other school years. OH, and classes were only held in the morning of the 5th. So, half a day of class on the first day of the new school year followed by 3 days off. Nihon Yokoso.
Having Friday off, we took the family to a ball game. Baseball, that is. Same team and ball park we went to in 2022, I think it was. The first time was horrible. Unsocial distancing was enforced as was masking and no cheering. This time it was as it should be, crowded, noisy, no masks required, easy access to food and beer. They also had lots of special activities that they did not when we went earlier. The kids got free ball caps again. This year they got to choose from the home and away caps and they all got the away as only the home style was available before. This was an exciting game. Got to see a rare double play made by a single player. Sadly, it was against us. But we won anyway. Looking for one of the beer girls, I spotted someone who looked familiar. Nudging the kid closest to me, I pointed and asked if that was so and so’s father. Immense excitement erupted and they asked if they could go over. The ten year old’s friend from swim class was there with his family and seated just two sections over from us. Lots of scurrying back and forth between the two families for the rest of the game. The park is over an hour by train from our station, but it is the “local” team. Not so surprised others from our town went to the same game, but this was the second family from our kids school or swim team we saw there. The other I saw on the train platform after we detained. We walked to the station together but spilt up once there as they had to exchange their vouchers for tickets and we already had our tickets. They had seats far from us. We were in the bleechers. Masks not required but many wearing them anyway. Lots of kids wearing them.
Beer babes. When you order a beer from them, which they serve from the keg they carry on their backs, you get these point tickets which can be used for….you know, I have no idea what the points can be used for. More beer I would guess but both beer maker’s points can be used towards the same something. Hmm. AH! Solution! Go to more games and order more beer from beer babes and find out….or get drunk, whichever comes first.
The 5th grader reports 1/3 of their class is wearing them and stated in disgust that they think masks have meaning. Glad to learn that he now knows that they are meaningless. Now, if I could only get him to understand the health risks they carry. None of the teachers they saw had masks on. Finally, after 4 years of “education” through the language garbling masks, they can finally hear the spoken word unencumbered.
Both weeks at the vocational school saw the same, 1/3 of the class still masking. However, many of these only masked during class. I saw them raise them as I walked in and the same lowered them or took them off completely after I dismissed the class.
The nursing school was different. All were wearing them or at least most were for both sessions the first week. I took notes but lost them. They took them off during the break but put them back on for the class. One student exclaimed as she put hers back on for the second period of the class that she did not want to wear a mask. I told she did not need to but she left it on. Last week only a 1/3 were wearing them. This school requires masks. I suspect that those who did not wear them in my class wear them outside my classroom. I have only seen a handful of maskless nursing students in the halls and none were my students.
So, it looks like close to 1/3 of those in and around Tokyo are still masking. Many gaijin still are. This incudes resident, visitors and tourists. However, It has been so long since I have seen any customer service employee maskless that I cannot remember when I lost saw one. Months ago now, I reported how I saw an entire restaurant crew unmasked and that the number of unmasked employees was increasing. They are all wearing them again. Every employee I saw at the appliance shop when we brought the dishwasher was masked. All at the used car dealership were when I brought the minivan in for its annual safety check a couple of weeks ago we’re wearing them again. All at the various coffee shops and restaurants I have been to between classes are all masked again. Every convenience store employee is wearing them again. Most places, though not all, have finally taken down the clear plastic barriers.
In the bad news column, the vocational school’s course is again just for the first semester. Before the panic it was a full year course. I lost my Medical Discussion course, thanks at least in part to my pharmacist student and her bad and untruthful review. And not enough signed up for a listening course that they had me change to a test prep course but we had to keep the same name due to regulations on changing course names. We are forbidden by the government to change course titles without government permission. No such prohibition exists for the course content, however. Hey! Sounds like bills in the US Senate.
One of the things I miss about dancing is the beer tub girls.
As I was reading your post. I have to say that healthcare is the church of Covid. It will be from there that all things emanate. So the most devout ironically will be in the very place where they should know better than anyone the effectiveness of a given mitigation measure. How else are they going to formulate and reinforce a healthcare myth if not from healthcare workers?
Yes there are plenty of those "devout to the narrative" but they are the "experts." Without the "experts" its just a bunch of crazed civilian fans of the the fetish of masking.
Everything was back to normal for baseball from about mid summer last year. The band, the chanting, letting off balloons between the 7th inning halves. Though maybe that's just Hanshin and the Carp that do that....
We watched the very first open series game on March 1st in Kurashiki between the Carp and Rakuten and we have 2 games in a couple of days mid May - one in Matsuyama and then one back "home" in Hiroshima.
Talking of masks, I note that the staff at small inshokuten often don't mask unlike their colleagues at larger establishments and chains that do. And I continue to observe way more women than men wearing the stupid things. Around here there was a brief increase in masking a few weeks ago but I think that was due to the pollen and that may actually be a legitimate reason to wear one outside. I was amused that the local TV weather forecast warned us a couple of days ago that the Chinese Yellow Dust (a.k.a. a combination of pollution and Gobi desert sand) was not something that masks would protect against as it has too much PM2.5. Logically that admission means they won't protect against viruses which are even smaller but this logic seems to escape many