I’m Back in Japan on COVID Lockdown…And It’s Not That Bad

Comment

Quick catchup for those who missed it: at the end of July I finished my Day Job teaching Japanese elementary English on the JET Program in Toyama, and in August I flew back to the States for some long-awaited reunions with family and friends. Now it’s September and I just flew back to start my new job teaching university English in Yokohama, just outside of Tokyo.

Unfortunately, Japan’s still a tad behind on COVID vaccinations and is still being tight on its border rules. Only just this week (six days after I entered the country!) did Japan relax its rules to allow vaccinated visitors to go through a shorter isolation period.

That means that even though I’m fully vaccinated, as of now, I still have to go through a mandated 2-week isolation period (notice I wrote “isolation period” instead of “quarantine”) after arriving. I also had to do a TON of paperwork, install a check-in app on my phone so Japanese Immigration can robo-call me to check my whereabouts, and wait in a 2-hour line at the airport. Bleh…

Anyway, it’s important to note that the “isolation period” isn’t a quarantine per se—I’m supposed to stay in my apartment, avoid crowded places and anywhere with people Continue reading »

Life Upheavals Make It REALLY Difficult to Do Your Creative Work

Comment

Yeah, I’m here.

I just packed up my entire apartment, said goodbye to all my Toyama friends, spent two and a half days traveling halfway across the world, finished another round of developmental edits on my novel, and met up with my New Hampshire family and friends for the first time in two years, all while battling jet lag and struggling to find the clean socks I’d scattered throughout the darkest regions of my luggage to save space.

How you doing? Continue reading »

I’ve Become the Kind of Person Who Does Work in Coffee Shops and I’m OK With That

Comment

For most of my adult life, I had a shit-ton of debt and was chronically short on money, which meant that I cut back on unnecessary purchases as much as possible.  My thought process usually went like this:

 

[At the gas station]

Do I really want that can of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles?

Nah, I’ve got snacks at home.

 

[When Making Plans]

Do I really want to see the Blade Runner Final Cut rerelease in the theater with my friends on a fun outing that may or may not include costumes and also go out for pizza at a restaurant I really like where we’ll have a great time hanging out?

Hell yes. Continue reading »

I Was Having Problems at My Day Job and Talked to My Boss About It

2 Comments

Yep, this is kind of a serious post.

Things in general haven’t been going well for a while, and I’ve kind of been in denial about it.  My writing’s still stalled, I’ve been way too insanely busy, and I’ve been pushing myself too hard during the week and then crashing hard on weekends.  None of these has been doing me any good.

Apart from all this I’ve been experiencing some pretty bad lows, many of which can be indirectly traced back to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Even though Japan’s been grappling with the virus far better than the States, over here I still have to deal with cancelled plans, limited activities, and lot of other negative changes.

Here’s a big negative change: I had to cancel my trip back to the States in August, when I was planning on meeting friends, seeing family, and attending my brother’s wedding.  That sucked pretty hard. Continue reading »

Thoughts on Going Back to Work After School Closures

Comment

Quick Recap: The Coronavirus pandemic hasn’t hit Japan nearly as hard as most other countries, and in my region of Toyama there’s only been 227 cases since COVID-19 came here in late March.  Still, schools in my city were closed for most of March, all of April, and the first three weeks of May.  During that time I mostly stayed home, running a schedule that mixed creative work and Day Job work, where my coworkers and I made English movies for the kids to watch at home.

But that’s all changed now—schools in my city opened on May 21st, and as of June 1st the foreign teachers are back to work too.

Since most schools in the US are still closed, Japan’s school openings…may seem surprising to some of you.  Going to school naturally involves a lot of people being close together indoors for long periods of time, Continue reading »

Things That Bring Me Down During COVID-19

2 Comments

I haven’t caught the Coronavirus, nor do I know anyone who has.  I also still have a job, got a $1,200 stimulus check from the US government, and I’m going to get another ¥100,000 yen stimulus (just under $1,000) from the Japanese government in a few weeks.  My part of Japan has had relatively few cases, and almost everywhere in my city has stayed open except for schools—which has given me a lot of extra creative work time.  I also got a haircut yesterday—the barber wore a mask, and since not many people go to that particular barbershop, I felt pretty safe.

In the grand scheme of things I shouldn’t feel sad at all, since there are other people out there who have things way worse than me—but still, I often feel down in the dumps.

If you’re like me and don’t have any of the more serious problems I listed in the opening paragraph, maybe you’re feeling guilty that the comparatively minor problems you do have are getting you down Continue reading »

Texting While Working on Something Else is the Bane of My Existence and I Hate it So Freakin’ Much

Comment

Before starting this post I responded to a text someone had sent me and then put my phone away on silent so I wouldn’t be tempted to look at.

Why?  Because I HATE getting distracted by texts when I’m trying to work on something.

My usual mode of working involves disconnecting from my phone and all the distractions that come with it when I’m trying to get something done.  This normally works pretty well…except when I’m feeling down, or having trouble with my work, or waiting for something important.  In these cases I’ll intermittently pick up my phone hoping for a new message that’ll boost up my energy,.

That kind of compulsive phone-checking is…not good, and I don’t like that it invades my work habits.  At best, these microchecks distract me even further Continue reading »

Stay-at-Home COVID-19 Creative Work Schedule!

Comment

If you’ve read my earlier posts on Coronavirus in Japan, you may recall that cases here have progressed more slowly than in the States, and there haven’t been nearly as many.  Schools have been almost entirely closed since early March, and they’re slated to stay closed until the end of May at least.  In Toyama, most businesses are still open, albeit with limited hours and fewer customers, and most people seem to be practicing safe social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand sanitizing.

I too have been working from home since early April, and have started to understand what my friends and family back home are dealing with.  Not leaving your house…kind of sucks, especially when your house is a three-room apartment and you spend most of your day sitting on a tatami mat floor. Continue reading »

Thoughts on Harnessing Your Creativity During COVID-19 (Or Not….)

Comment

If you’re like me, you’ve been spending a lot more time at home lately, which is both a good and a bad thing.

It’s bad because we’re missing out on a lot of cool stuff, including events, vacations, hangouts with friends, and even the simple pleasures of being in public spaces like restaurants, coffee shops, or (for me) the town library.  Being cooped up inside for too long can also have some pretty nasty effects on our mental health, and that’s not cool either.

On the flip side, more time at home is good because it gives you a lot more of that precious commodity known as Time.  Even if you’re working from home and telecommuting keeps you just as busy, you’re still eliminating your actual commuting time, which adds up fast.  So that should mean that Continue reading »

I Signed a Book Contract…That Got Cancelled Due to COVID-19

Comment

In the words of every SNL host ever: What a week it’s been.

This week I was planning on posting some really Good News…that’s since turned into Bad News.

The Good News is that two months ago I got an email from one the small presses I’d sent MFA Thesis Novel (my novel about grad school life) to.  The email said they enjoyed my book and wanted to publish it.  The email was really short, so at first I wasn’t sure if I’d understood it correctly—but when I realized they were serious, I fell into a state of cautious ecstasy for the next few days.  The email came in the middle of some other life shit I was dealing with that month, so the uncertainty of those first few emails added a lot of extra stress to an already difficult time.

Eventually the press sent me a publishing contract, Continue reading »

Support Creators and Small Businesses You Care About During the COVID-19 Crisis

Comment

I live in rural Toyama, Japan, where as of this writing there still haven’t been any confirmed cases of Coronavirus.  All the stores, restaurants, and other businesses are open as usual, with the exception of special events and large gatherings.  The rest of the world, though, doesn’t have it so lucky.

Back in the States, as I’m sure you’re aware, a lot of stuff is closed, and is expected to stay closed for a while.  And while the government’s approved a $2.2 trillion dollar economic package to help out just about every sector of the economy, a fair amount of that money is actually going to huge multibillion dollar corporations.  Even with the extra help, small businesses and independent contractors are still going to have a rough time.

The Great Recession that happened after 2008 was a rough time for a lot of people, including me—I needed a full-time job when I got back from Japan and had a lot of trouble finding one.  Then, when I finally got one, the pay was pretty mediocre, and it was hard for me to Continue reading »

Sometimes I Have Adventures in Japan, Series 11

Comment

…except not so much right now in these times of Coronavirus precaution.  Since my last update on Coronavirus in Japan, the number of COVID-19 cases hasn’t exploded like it has in a lot of other countries, and as of this writing, around 1,800 cases have been confirmed here.  That’s far less than in the U.S. and a lot of other countries that have been hardest hit.  The exact reasons for this are still unclear as this article explains, and most COVID-19 cases are still concentrated in a few areas (Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and the northern island of Hokkaido, with Tokyo being the epicenter for new cases in the past week).

My prefecture of Toyama still doesn’t have any confirmed cases, and out here the stores are all still in business and the schools have reopened.  As such, it’s been kind of surreal to read the news from back home and worldwide, and to read how people are reacting to the pandemic and the requests to stay home.  Stay smart, and stay safe, everybody. Continue reading »