Voices from The Coronavirus - An Englishman in Japan during the time of corona

The editor's brother Bill Hill, has somehow got himself caught up in this coronavirus business (just like the rest of us!). Here’s his voice about what life is like during a global pandemic in the Land of the Rising Sun.

06.52 Wednesday, 15 April 2020.. just boarded the Rapid Airport Train bound for Sapporo. So named because it goes to and from Shin Chitose Airport (CTS), rapidly. Fair smattering of passengers, 90% masked up. We’ll be in Sapporo at 07.19. Hang on! That’s longer than the usual 24 minute journey time. Am I confused?

Not unimpressive snow-clad mountains pass me in the distance on either side. I was skiing on one of them a month ago, if you can call it skiing. You try taking a 40 year break from the pistes.. a degree of rustiness had .. err.. set in. And getting those boots off afterwards! That was by far the worst part. For an interminable fifteen minutes, I felt like one of those idiots that go to A&E to get cooking pots and the like surgically removed from their heads.

After 10 minutes my carriage is full, a few people standing.

Quick check of the Corona stats worldwide. USA forging ahead, but UK doing its best to climb the rankings, now deep into the top 10, like a low-handicap golfer desperate to be off scratch. Have to say, it’s not looking good, this cv. Japan languishing down in 25th. This Asian country’s trajectory is however, upward, like most. Burgeoning pockets of cases prompted central government to declare its version of a state of emergency last week in a number of provinces (called “prefectures”, of which there are 47, some very big, some very small), with restrictions currently less tight than those imposed in Europe. Hey, they’re making an extra stop at Shiroishi.. hence the extra minutes… but I digress…

My island of Hokkaido, a “prefecture” in itself, or more specifically a “circuit”, whatever that means, has not been dictated to yet by Tokyo, but it is, as it did for 3 weeks in March, taking its own measures. These, I understand, include suspending school classes from yesterday. I was at an extra-curricular football practice session for 9 year old kids last night, and there were loads of them running around together.. so I’m not sure where the distancing measures start and end. Anyway, the Hokkaido governor in charge of the island is highly regarded, and trusted to take prudent decisions. That might be something to with being a spritely 35 year old who cuts a fairly dashing figure with the ladies. Barely out of nappies for a high profile public servant, he’s regarded as “hansamu” (you can work that one out, methinks. Japanese has a penchant for filching words from other languages, sometimes changing their pronunciation beyond all recognition, and giving them curiously different meanings. This one, however, remains relatively true to the original). I’ve never seen him without a mask, though, so he might have an awful-looking nose and mouth.

Well, 07.32 and I’m in a branch of Tully’s Coffee here in central Sapporo. They’re a chain, like any. In fact I’m using my Starbucks reusable tumbler (which gets me a 30 yen discount – tamburaa-nebiki …. tumbler discount -) .. which I bought last September while studying Japanese for 3 weeks before taking in a couple of the early Rugby World Cup matches in the same city. After that I bullet-trained it around the country seeing a lot more matches, including the England highs and lows in Yokohama at the end of October and start of November. Well, I came back late February this year for more Japanese lessons at the same school in Sapporo (Hokkaido JaLs .. very good, by the way).. which Corona restrictions put an immediate hold on for three weeks before unleashing me on 23 March. What did I do for that “down” time? I traipsed aimlessly around supermarkets, coffee shops, department stores.. and any place that randomly caught my eye, and I learnt and immediately forgot reems and reems of Japanese vocabulary. It’s what I do.

Tell you what though… this lingo has a certain impenetrability about it. Perhaps that’s the attraction. Masochism.

Originally due back early May, the uncertainty of flights and the Corona situation, particularly in the UK, prompted me to approach the regional immigration office recently regarding a possible extension to my stay. It bore fruit… my new deadline is late August. This is a welcome gesture of flexibility on the part of the Japanese authorities. Whether I’ll actually end up availing myself of this extra time is yet to be decided, but I am very grateful to have been afforded this buffer. I understand some other countries have made similar offers to visitors, including the UK.

Who knows where this dizzying bullet of a roller-coaster ride through this mesmerising language and culture will take me. But, I recommend to one and all a dip in this mysterious ocean.

Okay.. 09.18.. classes start 09.30 a few minutes walk from here. On entering the school reception-cum-lounge, I will have to don my face mask (yes, like Hokkaido’s dashing governor), have my temperature taken, which will invariably be about 35 degrees, meaning I’m some kind of zombie, and then take the lift to the 6th floor where I will sit down with my two classmates … a Canadian of Korean extraction, and a Frenchman. The Canadian looks and sounds Japanese, and the Frenchman seems to understand most of what’s going on. Then there’s me.

Sayonara.. for now

ps. Temperature was 36.0.. going up

Swindon Link is calling on its readers to write to us about their experiences for our campaign called 'Voices from The Coronavirus'. The idea is that we can share our experiences underlining that none of us are alone.

We want to hear from you from whatever walk of life you come from to hear how you are dealing with this new reality. Everybody has a story to share from keyworkers to teenagers. It doesn't matter what your writing ability is, the whole point of this is to make sure every voice is heard so that people don't feel that they are battling this alone. We will try to publish your story on our website no matter who you are.

All you have to do is write to us with your experiences to [email protected]. Please make sure that you send a picture of yourself to go with the piece and try and keep it under 500 words. Please also include some basic details about yourself. For more details press here

And for previous entries into our Voices from The Coronavirus series press here