July 23–28桐始結花 Kiri hajimete hana o musubu - Paulownia trees produce seeds
July 29–August 2土潤溽暑 Tsuchi uruōte mushi atsushi - Earth is damp, air is humid
August 3–7大雨時行 Taiu tokidoki furu - Great rains sometimes fall
Okasan's latest summer postcard - a 'maneki-neko' (lucky cat) summer wind chime. I assume she's keeping them sparse and simple, as it's simply too hot to get stuck into anything more finicky.
Saturday, July 16th.
What would summer in the 2020's be without a newer, stealthier, more massive wave of pandemic pandemonium chucked in to the mix just to up the ante?
Any hopes of a season free from sub-variant paranoia were effectively dashed in the latter half of June, when positive test numbers all over the country started shooting up exponentially. Pandemic wise, it seems that whatever happens over in the U.K. is a fairly accurate bellwether for what's going to happen over here a month or so later.
Things started going to shit over there toward the end of May.
With the notable exception of the 'men in grey' over in Tokyo, I think we all knew what was coming...I mean, we've been to this rodeo a half dozen times already.
Then a few days ago, to make it all 'official' (so to speak), a poker faced announcer on the evening news took a few minutes out of endlessly rehashing shit-heel Shinzo Abe's d.i.y. assassination to drop the proverbial checkered flag, and herald the 'official' arrival of Japan's seventh wave of COVID infections.
“Experts assessing the coronavirus situation in Tokyo say the number of daily new cases may exceed the peak of the sixth wave of infections after a week.”
Lovely.
Of course, he was referring to the infamous 'sixth wave'....the one that exploded onto the scene over here the second week of January, and didn't start to peter out until near the end of May. Even at that, the lowest number of daily infections here in Aichi Prefecture was just shy of a thousand...that is, before the numbers starting shooting up again almost a month ago.
Today, there were just over 7000 'officially reported' new positives in these parts. The real number is surely much higher.
Tokyo's 'officially reported' figure came in at just under 20,000 late yesterday afternoon. Again...the actual figure is likely to be a few times that.
The NHK talking head then went on to say, "The spread of infections is accelerating. If they continue to increase at the current pace, the daily tally will exceed 23,000 after a week, surpassing the peak of the sixth wave..."
He then added that, "...the number could break through 53,000 after two weeks”.
That's 53,000 a day, in Tokyo alone.
Nice.
While hospital beds are gradually starting to fill up...based on what we've seen happen the last six times around, the real scary stuff - the gasping for air, dying and so forth, won't really kick in until the first week of August - just before the Obon holidays. The virus (and it's familial sub-variant cohorts) likes to meander around its victims. Give them a week or ten days before it finally turns their lower lungs into glass, chokes off their oxygen supply, and puts them in an ICU, comatose and hooked up to a ventilator or ECMO.
Three years after we had to cancel our last attempted vacation, then watch my brother-in-law's tragic late summer demise, it's hard to believe that we're back at the bottom of this hill again.
I suppose if we're looking for silver linings, at least we don't have to struggle to get masks and hand sanitizer like we did at the start of this whole mess. There are also vaccines that kinda work, and might keep us out of the hospital. That is, if the Japanese government decides that it wants to move forward with a broader campaign to make fourth jabs available to eligible parties under the age of 60 before things get too far out of hand...
Which they already have.
Thus far, there's no indication that they have any intention of doing so. They weren't even going to give boosters to the nation's healthcare workers until someone decided to make a rather abrupt policy about-face toward the end of last week.
As of yesterday evening, official word now has it that they'll start giving the nation's medical workers booster jabs 'in earnest' starting Monday. For some inexplicable reason, that doesn't include ancillary hospital staff or home health care workers. They'll just have to rough it. Whether any of this will make much of a difference this late in the game is debatable.
Based on past experience, we'll likely be well into autumn before most of the medical cohort will have had the opportunity to get an extra jab.
Regardless, there was a collective sigh of relief around the dinner table when the plan to let medical staff get boosters was announced. Mina had her last one a week before Christmas, so her current antibody level is probably pretty close to nil. The sooner she gets boosted, the better we'll all feel.
What's with the Japanese government's reticence to go ahead and boost everyone over 30 who qualifies before the numbers really get out of control?
One might think they'd have learned something from the previous six waves...but it seems that they really haven't. While other countries make the vaccine widely available, and getting boosted a matter of personal responsibility, Japan persists with its hopeless and wasteful 'vaccination coupon' distribution system. This is a country in which past mistakes are never learned from. The formula, no matter how flawed, is never changed.
The 'nanny-state' knows what's best for everyone.
Word around the campfire is that despite previously claiming to have enough of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines stockpiled to provide fourth jabs to everyone that received a third booster, the Japanese government doesn't currently have an adequate number of viable doses on hand to offer jabs to every adult who qualifies - hence the parsing of people into smaller, so-called 'vaccine entitled' groups.
Due to the government's failure to start the winter vaccination drive in a timely manner, and properly inform the general public as to the importance of getting that third jab, uptake was much lower than expected the first few months of this year. Of the under 70's, just over 50% of those eligible elected to get a third jab.
A lot of people in their 20's and 30's apparently didn't like the day or two of having a headache and middling fever, so elected to skip it, and take their chances with the virus instead.
This resulted in a shitload of vaccine spoiling and having to be chucked out. With all the recent 'past tense' talk of the pandemic in international circles, perhaps the government thought that it was finally time to move on?
Only a month ago, talking heads in the broadcast media were tentatively encouraging people to start thinking about when it might be appropriate to take their masks off - i.e. when it's 35-40C, or you're out for a bit of exercise -
common sense stuff that seems to evade a good chunk of the native population.
*(it's worth noting that, for better or worse, the Japanese seem to be inordinately attached to the idea of masking in every situation imaginable. Think of Linus and his security blanket. In many cases, it no longer has anything to do with COVID safety, but appears symptomatic of a broader social malaise. Put simply, the natives are terrified of what other people might think of them if they go maskless in public)
In any case, I'm sure that the 'men in grey' pulling the strings over in Tokyo thought that they'd just be able to order more vaccine if and when they needed it, and it'd be here in fairly short order - like in the 'olden days'.
No so fast.
On Feb. 24th of this year, supply line constipation caused by two years of global pandemic lockdowns was further aggravated by Vladimir Putin's decision to invade the Ukraine. Now we're in the grips of a global inflationary spiral that shows no signs of letting up.
Logistics are a nightmare, and everything is leaps and bounds more expensive than it was just last year. With autumn and winter right around the corner, and a lot of the basics in short supply, one can almost understand governments starting to back away from their open, free-for-all vaccination programs.
There's already talk of the Japanese government requesting people to curtail their natural gas consumption in the run-up to year's end, as it seems supplies from Russia may not be forthcoming.
All of this means that the vaccines that everyone has been depending on may no longer be so easy to acquire, or as affordable. Back at the onset of this whole mess, Donald Trump made statements implying that when vaccines were finally available, they likely wouldn't be 'for everyone'.
Up to now, he's been proven wrong; but things look like they're changing.
While there has been talk of domestically produced vaccines being made available at some point in the future, at this juncture, Japan has yet produce anything viable or effective, and still relies wholly on imported stocks.
I guess we can only hope that the "talk around the campfire" is pure conjecture, and that the always honest and forthcoming 'men-in-grey' over in Tokyo really ARE sitting on a massive stockpile of viable doses, and just waiting for the most strategic time to bust them out. My question is, if not now...when?
Sunday, July 17th
As for life on the ground here in Deadbeat City? Yet another season stuck in the 'hood.
Welcome to summer number three of no travel. No eating out. No movies. No live music.
Just more masking up, dodging crowds, and trying to avoid any kind of un-necessary close quarters contact with anyone outside of the immediate family. A third summer of monking.
Friday morning at Mr. Insecthead's was pretty emblematic of what's going on here at the moment.
I went in expecting to teach the fives for thirty minutes apiece, only to have Insect Daughter inform me that out of fifty, only ten had materialized at the school today. The rest either had COVID, or were being kept at home by families fearful that their kids would pack a dose of the virus back home to elderly or otherwise vulnerable family members.
The threes and fours were at about half strength, with around 20 per group, so I was able to pull off 'almost normal' sessions with them.
When I went in to do the fives at 11:00 am, there weren't even ten of them. There were seven sort of forlorn looking kids, and Long COVID. I had to scramble to improvise something that would work with a group that small. For over a quarter century, my entire arsenal over there has been tailored toward entertaining a full house menagerie.
The school is getting its arse kicked by this virus. Everyone looks nervous. Three or four of the kids in the four year old class had horrible chesty sounding coughs, and were running around with their masks hanging off of their faces. I couldn't wait to get the fuck out of there.
The whole Kinder Queen Geedorah situation seems to have been swept under the tatami, as if it had simply never happened. Whether this is due to the more immediate concerns of the day superseding the need to perpetuate any more meaningless conflict, or genuine recognition that the cunts were in the wrong remains to be seen.
I stopped by the office upstairs to pick up my pay packet after I was done, and Insecthead and Daughter were hovering around in the computer nook. The phone seemed to be ringing every two minutes. No one knows what to do. It's sure that the situation over there isn't safe; but the government won't let them suspend regular classes like they did every other time the numbers started getting out of control. There won't be any more subsidies available to help keep the schools afloat if they shutter, or cancel regular classes. They'll have to make those judgement calls, and close at their own financial peril. They're essentially being forced to stay open, despite the risks to themselves, their staff and the students.
Fuck the government for making this all about the money.
No one's being offered boosters this time, either. Last summer, when the peak numbers were substantially lower than they are now, there was a sense of urgency, and we were all sent out to get jabs under the auspices of the 'Hazardous Workplace Vaccination Program'. This year, there is no such initiative. We're on our own, with our masks, hand sanitizers, and fingers crossed.
Insecthead gave me a helpless look as he pushed my pay packet and receipt across the counter.
I signed the receipt and pushed it back.
"I'll see you guys on Tuesday, Aug. 2nd. Hopefully things will be...better?"
I wasn't getting much in the way of an optimistic response.
"Hopefully".
I told them to stay safe, and went down to meet Mina, who was parked to the side of the school. It had been raining sporadically all morning, so it was lucky that she'd taken the day off. I'd had my CPAP appointment before class, so she was pulling taxi duty. One of her 'three whole days' of paid summer holidays, down the tubes.
I may be wrong; but it strikes me that nurses in other first world countries get at least a couple of weeks off. Here, it's three days - and they have to struggle and fight just to get that. It's little wonder that they're constantly losing nursing staff over at the hospital.
After lunch, we went out to Yamada Denki, our go-to for appliances, computer stuff and home electronics.
Our twelve year old plasma TV is reaching 'functional antique' status. While the television still 'works', the integrity of its screen image seems to waning noticeably. We've been talking about replacing it for the last couple of years; but biding our time. The scales finally tipped a couple of weeks ago, when our equally vintage 5.1 surround system went tits up. We were getting ready to watch the season finale of The Boys, when the fucking thing started making this awful low pitched feedback noise through every available channel, and on all settings. I half expected it to burst into flames, to be honest.
We'd known that this day was coming this for awhile.
Over here, the rule of thumb for cars, appliances and home electronics in general is that they're only good for ten years - at most. In the case of computers and the such, you can expect five to seven. All things considered, at 12 years, I guess this stuff had a pretty good run.
I spent the next week or so online doing my tech homework, so when we went in, we had a reasonable idea of what we were looking for. After we found the stuff we wanted, Mina got into negotiating mode. She's a master at dealing with these salesmen.
We finally settled on a new Sony ensemble. Not the cheapest stuff going by a long shot; but we don't wanna be saddled with some dodgy shit and have to replace it in four or five years.
From the onset of this never-ending pandemic nightmare, we've had to seriously curtail our traveling and galavanting. If there's yet another silver lining here, it's that we can chuck a bit of the money that we might have otherwise spent enjoying ourselves into getting some decent quality new gear.
The added responsibility of having to pitch in with Mina's mum also means that - for now, at least - we just don't have the freedom to do what we want, or go anywhere. We're committed to at least two weekends a month - and are 'on-call' for the rest of the time. The fact that Mina is a nurse doesn't help our situation at all. The old lady can be problematic and high maintenance at the best of times. Recently, it's literally one thing after another. We have to be ready to drop everything at any time, and Mina has to be prepared to dash out of here at a moment's notice, for the most minor of complaints.
If we're going to be virtual prisoners here, we should at least have a decent TV and sound system.
We extended the warranties and Mina did the paperwork, crossing all the 't's and dotting all the 'i's. If nothing else, it's nice to have something to look forward to for a change.
Due to logistical and supply line problems, we'll have to wait until the last week of August for delivery. I'd hoped to be able to switch everything out a bit sooner - but that's the best they can do. This gives us a month to mull over our choices and change things up if we want. Nothing is final until it's all delivered and set up.
Saturday, July 23rd
The rain that was forecast for yesterday didn't materialize, and the early morning cloud cover had all but burned off by 7 am, making for a hot pre-noon slog up the canal.
This morning is bright and sunny, with a lovely mild breeze that will hopefully take the edge off what promises to be another hot day. This weekend it looks like we're in for some fairly standard summer weather, with temperatures up to 32 or 33C. Hot enough to make an Englishman cry.
Mina's on her way to pick up okasan for our second consecutive weekend of 'senior sitting'. All things considered, the three day/two night stint a week ago went fine. The old lady actually scored her first ever straight-up 'C plus'. I guess we lucked out. Fingers crossed that things go at least half as well today and tomorrow.
COVID numbers are absolutely through the roof. There were almost 35,000 official positives in Tokyo alone yesterday - and likely many more that weren't tested. Here in Aichi, it was our second day over 13,000. These are three year pandemic highs.
As expected, hospital beds are starting to fill up, and the medical system is starting to buckle. Proprietors of smaller independently run medical clinics are now being requested to stay open evenings and weekends, to accommodate the mass influx of people needing PCR and/or lateral flow tests. Never mind that these clinics have limited staff and capacity, or that these people have families and lives outside of their jobs.
Weekends, holidays and summer vacations? Better luck next time. I wonder how many will actually comply, and stay open?
Looking to cut costs, yesterday the ne'er do well government also announced that it's reducing the number of days 'close contacts' of the infected need to isolate. Until today it was seven. Now it's five.
Impeccable timing.
Oh - and no restrictions on movement. No limits to capacity at baseball games or in bars or restaurants. As for vaccinations...no plans for any class of broad roll-out. I'd been half expecting another 'about face', and some sort of announcement regarding fourth jabs, but it doesn't look like that's going to be happening.
I'm beginning to suspect that the actual issue really is that there aren't enough vaccine doses available - as the aforementioned 'talk around the campfire' had suggested.
Okasan got her coupon last week, but Mayumi's been too busy to set up an appointment for her to get jabbed. No word as to whether Mina will be able to get her medical worker jab before September, as the hospitals are short staffed, and so overwhelmed with COVID cases at this point, that organizing and setting up staff vaccination sessions is nigh on impossible.
As for me, I hit the five month line on Tuesday, and it remains to be seen whether I get a coupon sometime in August, or not. Having asthma and sleep apnea puts me in the 'underlying condition - high risk' category, so I should be able to get boosted. 'Should'.
We'll see.
While the world is burning to crisp all around us, the latest Japanese PM, sleazy former bank manager Fumio Kishida, announced that the ruling coalition government will splash out a huge wad of tax payer's cash on an official 'state funeral' for the recently dispatched former prime minister, career shit-heel and narcissist Shinzo Abe.
The late throwback neo-fascist con-man, liar and all around grifter is now officially being elevated to national hero/demi-god status on the public's dime.
Eighteen months ago, he was scandalized, and on the verge of being chucked in jail. The whole nauseating fete is scheduled to go down at the Nippon Budokan Hall, in Tokyo in late September.
Unbelievable.
That's where we'll leave it for now. Fingers crossed the old lady isn't too moody, Mina's patience holds out until at least tomorrow evening, and most importantly - no one comes down with a surprise case of COVID.
I hear it's been making the rounds in these parts.
Two weeks henceforth (or roughly thereabouts), I'll be back to fill in the blanks.
Mina and okasan just rolled in, and by all present indications, shit has already started heading south. The look on Mina's face just said everything.
Joy to the fucking world.
So, until next we meet, you'd do well to remember that...
"No matter where you go, there you are".
There, and nowhere else.
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