CoVid-Induced Staycation in Miyagi: Day 1

    Yesterday marked the first day since school let out following Prime Minister Abe's declaration last Thursday, insisting that all schools be closed for the next two weeks to stem the outbreak of the coronavirus CoVid19 that is currently threatening to shut down the summer Olympics in Tokyo in addition to likely wiping out a good swath of this country's abundantly elderly population if left to let nature take its course.

    Many parents were left scrambling to find daycare options for their children who are now going to miss the last two weeks of the school year, in some cases including graduations though many of those ceremonies are still being held, sometimes with curtailed guest-lists (no parents in some cases, only parents and students on others) and in our case, tentatively at best. 

    In the meantime, there has been a run on household paper products in many places, shockingly including my own neighborhood in Shiogama. After a day of relaxing and staying mentally active at home with my kid, I left my husband and daughter at home so I could don a mask and go to the supermarket. This was after a Saturday when the shop had a 5% discount sale, so I knew many things would be low in stock, but I was actually shocked to see this:

Used to be stacks of toilet paper and tissue boxes. Now? Barren wasteland in shelf form.    

    All of the toilet paper was gone, as was all of the paper towels and tissue that did not come in tiny packets, and only a few of those were left. Weirdly, soap was plentiful, so no one seemed to be worried about running out of that, but masks have been off the shelves for weeks.

    I was shocked to see that almost all of the menstrual pads were gone, too. Surprisingly, our area did not have the same run on diapers that other areas have had, but apparently everyone is expecting a heavy flow from CoVid and/or pads to not be available in the near future. Luckily, my family stocked up at CostCo the last time we needed any of those and are still pretty well prepared.

    I had expected to be able to buy paper towels, though, and was so excited to see a tissue-box sized contained of what called itself Kitchen Paper in English. I grabbed three of those and one bag of tissue packets along with the other groceries. Having bought toilet paper just last Friday, I felt pretty good about my purchases and headed back to find that the "kitchen paper" was really tissue. While it wasn't what I had expected, it was still something we needed and I felt lucky that there had still been come left in stock. Did the earlier customers not need paper towels or not read the box correctly because it was only in English?

    We're staying inside as much as possible and wearing masks when we're not in addition to washing our hands frequently, as is recommended. Yesterday also saw the first case confirmed in Sendai, from an elderly cruise ship passenger returning home, and that sent shock waves through my town. Will my eikaiwa classes be cancelled this week? Will my students opt to stay home? If they do, how will I afford  food at the end of the month?

    The only answer I have right now is sit tight and save what you can. Keeping up with my kid while keeping her occupied in the house is enough of a challenge that it isn't as though i could do much more than sitting tight anyway.

If you're also hiding out from CoVid19, how are you handling it?