Happy 2021

 I know I'm late, but Happy New Year （あけましておめでとう）.

For those who may not know yet, a number of prefectures across Japan are now currently under a second state of emergency. But like before, this is not a lockdown, as apparently the country's constitution prevents the government from implementing any such policy. However, what this means is that they can dictate to businesses to close earlier (especially restaurants and bars, which currently must close by 8 p.m.), and implement other measures to minimise the spread of the CCP virus. Also, they're urging businesses to have their employees working from home where possible. However, for some companies working from home still hasn't apparently caught on for apparently dumb reasons - basically, they can't seem to trust their employees that they will actually do their work from home.

However, while Ibaraki prefecture is technically not under a state of emergency, places have started taking measures anyway, as numbers had exploded until recently in the prefecture - over 100 cases daily, with a number of them coming from Mito. Fortunately, the city I'm in has only seen single digit number cases for the most part. In any case, restaurants around here are closing by 8pm, with last orders by 7:30pm, and the public gym around here has closed until early next month. While I would have no problem with that, the fact that all other private gyms are not subject to this kind of ... actually, really pisses me off. While it would be simple as just going to another gym, the problem is, I would be required to enter in to a contract, and pay monthly for it, which I'm not interested in doing - the public gym only requires I pay every time I go there, and I'm pretty comfortable with that arrangement.
Also, I had to take a break due to injuring my back for two weeks, and then finding out that the gym went shut down from the 21st of this month (just after fully recovering) really frustrated me, as I did gain weight from the winter break of stuffing my face. Well, I guess I just need to wait for another week before I can finally go again (assuming they do not extend the shut down period).

Also, it looks like I'll be doing another year in this city as an ALT - presumably, due to the CCP virus, the plans my employer had for me for the following next year did not come to fruition, combined with perhaps the inability to hire from overseas due to Japan closing its borders to most of the world. I did rent out my current apartment for two years when I first moved here, just in case I ended up doing a second year here anyway, so I'm not too bothered. However, I will need to plan for next year in the event that there are no vacancies for better positions within the company.