Starting today, I have a few days off for the Obon break. For those not familiar, Obon is Japan's equivalent of the Day of the Dead, with people paying respect to their ancestors and loved ones who have passed away. During this time, people will go back to their hometowns, clean their ancestors' graves, and leave offerings at shrines. Working as an ALT previously, the entire month of August was a break for me, so I actually did not observe or even notice this period of time. I may actually do something during this time - of course, I have no ancestors buried here in Japan, but I feel I should do something in remembrance of loved ones that have passed away - and in recent times a lot of extended family members have passed away
In other news, we had a bit of a scare in the office recently, with somebody apparently testing positive for the Wuhan flu. Fortunately, my employer was pretty swift about it, firstly disinfecting the person's desk (they went home obviously), and those that have either had close contact with him, or have desks within his vicinity needed to take a PCR test immediately, myself included. Unfortunately, my test result turned out invalid for some reason, but fortunately, a second test I took when I went home came up negative. While everyone else on that day also came up negative, a few more people in the following days weren't feeling well and took a few days off to recover, which later turned out to be just a cold and not the CCP virus. I kept an eye out for any symptoms popping up, but fortunately, I've been pretty lucky, and it's been over a week since it happened.
Also, it would seem the Omicron/Xi subvariants have hit hard in Japan for the official 7th wave now. Tokyo has been seeing daily cases of over 30,000, whereas Saitama prefecture has weirdly been bouncing back and forth between 7000 and 13,000 cases a day. I won't deny I am a bit nervous as I have to take a crowded train daily to get to work, but just about everyone is wearing a mask, and keeping quiet - I mean, you really can't blame people for not being in a talkative mood when you have to take the train early to get to work, can you?
On the other, this summer weather is unbearable. Sometimes, I do miss having a car, as walking around in hot and humid weather sucks, especially when working out of town which requires walking for long periods without shade. Not to mention my apartment when I get home is pretty much a sauna, due to facing the sun - even with the curtains shut, it's still boiling hot inside. Though oddly, today has not been too bad actually.
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