One of the good sides of the coronavirus pandemic has been enjoying staying home on the weekends. We are pretty comfortable with just hanging out, walking to the grocery store to see what vegetables look good, and then cooking a delicious meal based on what we find that day.
Currently in Japan a significant drop in new cases means that we have hit a low point – just about 200 new cases per day in the whole country. Compare that with the UK that has half the population of Japan but is hitting 30,000 new cases per day. It feels like things are back to normal here, although people are still wearing masks and disinfecting hands.
On Friday we had a department dinner party at a restaurant for the first time in two years. We squeezed in all the changes that have happened in that time – new employees, retiring ones, and transfers from other departments. We met at a restaurant in busy Kobe Sannomiya, and had a great meal of veggies and seafood, with our masks tucked away in little plastic bags while we ate.
For me it was the first time to talk with my new boss, and also a chance to see my coworkers in person. One of the joys of my job is that I work alone and get to miss out on all the meetings and extraneous stuff involved in working in a Japanese office. Sometimes that separation has a downside, so this was a nice chance to catch up with everyone.
On Sunday Kuniko and I hosted one of my former coworkers and his family for a lasagna lunch. Mr. Tada and his wife and two kids came over by car, and we had a nice time with them talking, eating, playing games (video and otherwise) and generally just chilling out around the house.
We don’t hang out with kids so much, but their kids don’t seem to mind, and watching them play Ring Fit Adventure together (one holding the ring, the other wearing the strapped controller) was a highlight. They are really nice people – very laid back and relaxed. The kids were so polite and full of funny comments, too.
We have the next few weekends to ourselves, and we’ll get back to our usual routine, but this weekend was a rare chance to break things up and polish our social skills a little.
