so the state of emergency status was
lifted all across Japan and here in
Fukuoka the state of emergency was
lifted almost 10 days ago we are slowly
transitioning back to a new type of
normal we can do the things that we used
to be able to do like get a haircut or
eat sushi but things are a little bit
different than they were before so today
I wanted to show you a little bit of
what Japan looks like coming out of its
first wave of the cove in nineteen
pandemic
I've lived in Kyushu for 15 years and
I've lived in Fukuoka for 10 and it is
really just surreal to see what's
happening right now um even though we
left the state of emergency about 10
days ago going downtown it still has not
returned to its former glory and I think
that's for the best right now but it is
very eerie surreal a little bit
heartbreaking to see um is a great city
it's normally just full of energy young
energy lots of places to go shopping
lots of events happening especially
gearing up into summer there's usually a
lot going on and a lot to look forward
to and all of that stuff it's just gone
so walking downtown yeah it is a little
bit um surreal it's not the city that I
fell in love with but it could be in the
future I think right now it's probably
for the best that things are not as
exciting as they used to be the first
thing I want to talk about is face masks
and this seems to be a controversial
subject in different parts of the world
I would say in Fukuoka from what I've
seen downtown about 90% of people are
now wearing face masks and I think that
that is because it's originally part of
our culture um just out of courtesy to
others if you don't know if you're sick
if you don't want to spread a cold that
you have if you don't want to catch
anything if the air is a little dry
there's many reasons to wear a mask but
right now I think universally it's out
of respect there's really no excuse not
to wear a mask you don't have a mask you
can buy one it's actually finding a mask
is not as impossible as it was before so
there's really no excuse not to have one
you can buy handmade masks
so people are making masks and selling
them some of my favorite masks are
reusable and they're nice they cover my
face they're easy to wear they're kind
of cute um my friend made this one I
love it and the societal pressure I
think to wear a mask is pretty strong in
Japan many of the shops that have
reopened now say that you cannot come in
if you are not wearing a mask
restaurants can refuse entry if you're
not wearing a mask masks are now
mandatory to ride the subway if you are
commuting to and from work within the
city and if you don't have one you'll be
asked to purchase one at the subway
station so there are many instances now
where if you don't have a mask you can't
do the things that you used to do
normally the things that you take for
granted and it's not really some weird
power or control thing either it's just
respect you just want to show that
you're doing your part not to make
things worse another thing that I'm
seeing around town is temperature
monitoring and this is done at the
entrance of large buildings a lot of
places have a system now with a like a
thermal camera so when customers walk
into an establishment they can
non-invasively observe everyone's body
temperatures and if anyone you know
pings the radar as being a little bit I
think higher than thirty seven point six
or something I will double-check that
yeah but it does help make sure that
nobody who is sick and should be at home
is about outside doing things when they
shouldn't be and for me like as a
citizen knowing that shopping malls and
big buildings are doing these thermal
checks as people come in makes me feel
safer about shopping their next hand
sanitizers hand sanitizers are
everywhere at the entrance of every
building next to every cash register
where you're dealing with money even the
other day I went and got kaiten sushi so
conveyor belt sushi wondering what it
would look like I went to a kaiten sushi
restaurant for lunch by myself and it
was surreal every other seat is blocked
off so that there's
distancing between people there are
plastic barriers on the table to
separate customers and they were no
longer serving sushi on the conveyor
belt but they did have hand sanitizer
going around in circles I thought that
was really creative and a little bit
funny anywhere along your route while
you're out you will encounter hand
sanitizers so there's plenty of
opportunities to clean your hands and
wash your hands and that makes me feel
safe it's great so a lot of larger
establishments businesses like Zara or
Muji or Uniqlo have reopened but a lot
of smaller businesses haven't yet I
don't know if they're taking a break
until June and they're just waiting it
out or if there's a problem financially
where they can't reopen um travel
agencies of course out of the question
not open at the moment they're
completely shuttered as well many shops
and restaurants have pivoted to takeout
bento's uber EADS delivery anything to
keep customers ordering without coming
to the store restaurants in the top
floors of Hakata station we're selling
their bentos down on the first floor
trying to make a sale however even
though the state of emergency ended over
ten days ago a lot of shops haven't
reopened and I find that a little bit
worrying I really hope that some of my
favorites can bounce back and get back
to business
really soon one thing that I find really
interesting now is that Japan being a
cash based society is now very
aggressively pushing the cashless and
that means like payments by credit card
visa pay pay line pay pay payment apps
even your transportation card your IC
card
like Cosmo or it's the Tokyo once Lika
any I see cards that have money or
credit on them they're encouraging
people to use cashless payment so that
there's less touching of money and coins
it's something they probably should have
done a while ago and I think that they
were kind of leaning into it a bit up
before the pandemic hit but now just the
idea of not touching money is so
appealing that there is a huge push for
all payments to be cashless now since
the state of emergency was lifted
Fukuoka has had zero to 1 zero to two
infections per day a lot of days with
two zero infections which was really
really good and encouraging but in the
past three days they've started to
bubble up again looking at the data the
past few days I'm a little concerned
that we might be on our way into a
second wave but hopefully I don't know I
really don't know hopefully the numbers
stabilize or subside and moving forward
each wave hits a little less hard
finally um one interesting thing is that
at the moment there are 120 countries I
think maybe even more now on the banlist
and that means that right now for a lot
of us it is impossible to enter Japan
and so for those of you who are planning
a trip sometime in the next few months
I'm not optimistic that restrictions
will be completely lifted for everybody
by the summer but hopefully late summer
things will start to get moving again I
think it depends on each country's
individual ability to control the
pandemic in their area so for places
like the US and even Canada I think it's
going to take a little bit longer before
they're going to let people back into
Japan from those countries unless they
can get their infections under controls
nobody knows for sure what's going on
right now so it's really hard to know
who
to listen to and who to take advice from
but yeah yeah hopefully you find this a
little bit interesting I don't know I
thought some people might want to see
what life is like here now that things
are starting to shift a little bit and
let me know what it's like where you are
alright so that's it for today thank you
so much for watching let me know how
life is where you are and hopefully I'll
talk to you again relatively soon thanks
so much for watching this video and I
will update again soon
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