Corona in Japan -is there a pandemic going on?

 I've been in Japan, Osaka to be more specific, for almost 3 weeks now and although it's different from the other times I've been here, it is nowhere as different as Europe is at the moment. TV still promotes going out to eat and there seems to be no social distancing. I went to the supermarket the other day and one lady even cut the line because she didn't seem to get that I was keeping distance to the person in front of me.

I went to Umeda the other day to meet a friend and was kind of shocked by the amount of people going out shopping. I know I also contributed by going there but in my poor defence I haven't seen my friend in over 1 year and he's not from Osaka so I don't know when or if I'll be able to go see him in Tokyo. I also made sure I didn't go during the rush hours.

Back in Sweden though I felt much more aware of the virus and all the safety precautions, people would stare their eyes out if someone sat next to them on the train and here people don't seem to care how close you are. I guess many think they're safe because basically everyone uses a mask, but maybe half of everyone in a mask as a high quality one and wear it properly. The thin polyester masks seems very popular and those don't even filtrate.

I work part-time at an eikaiwa and the first child arriving on my shift shows up with her mask half way down her face, coughing and sneezing. But she didn't have a fever and it seems that it's the most important thing here. No wonder the virus is spreading like crazy I thought.

Then the other day it is announced that Tokyo has declared state of emergency, but everything remains open and the limit of people who can assemble is 5000. Not sure what they think this will result in. I really hope the numbers will go down soon and that we can all go back to a more normal life.

Nabe every evening