Just asking, the ‘common people’, their feelings
regarding our WH resident? His policies?
Are they freely discussing this with you?
It seems in their nature to be so polite,
little would be mentioned as to true feelings.
Anyway, have a great time and good weather.
Candor7, thanks for the tips on places to visit here in Nippon. Will check those out!
...and V.K. I’m working on my Japanese language abilities to be able to broach people on that subject — and many other subjects. I’d LOVE to open up more, but the situation is not right yet.
The best I can do is hint at the problem today and see how they respond. Two months ago, the Japanese federal government called an end to the Covid crisis and invited citizens to feel safe taking off their masks in public. The only place it’s now required is hospitals and other medical settings.
But when people are not walking in the open air, or eating food, 90% of Japanese are still wearing masks — at work, on public transportation, etc. And it’s a matter of saving face. We gaigins (foreigners) can walk around without masks now and almost all of us do.
But the Japanese themselves have not gotten over the Covid restrictions so it’s a silent compliance to the “will of the people”. I have no doubt that more and more Japanese will take off the mask. But you’re talking many months, if not years to remove the social stigma of Covid masks.
Funny thing happened today, my wife and I joined a group of senior Japanese for a pretty rigorous “hike” in the mountains. The views of blossoming azalea and red or white yashio trees higher up on the mountain were stunning.
And naturally we had cell phone pictures of my wife and I in front of the fabulous scenes. But one woman had a picture taken of herself wearing a full mask, sun glasses, and a wife brimmed hat. I had to laugh inside figuring “what’s the point” if you can’t take a picture of your face in the wide open air...
But during the hike, she was totally unmasked. And so I reasoned: because the picture would be viewed by friends and relatives who were NOT on the trek, the picture on the mountain fell under the unspoken “law” of wearing a mask just about everywhere.