Week 33 - Ian and Minako exploring , again

Edited BY


G P Kennedy


Ian & Minako – Tokyo, Japan

There has been quite a surge in new coronavirus cases throughout Japan this week, the daily average for Tokyo is now 296, it was nearly 400 the past couple of days and 34,496 in total.




 Nationally the total cases are now 117,103 in total including over 1735 on Saturday. There have been 1865 deaths overall and daily average new cases increased from 808 to 1322. 

It is still the 20-30-year-old age group that is highest amongst new cases but maybe they're the most likely group to be tested as there is still very little testing in Japan.


 The number of suicides is increasing each month now as the economic impact of the virus is hitting home. The increase is especially high amongst women who tend to be in temporary, insecure, low-paid employment.




 The Go-To Travel scheme has been successfully encouraging people to visit and stay in holiday locations. We used it for our visit to Karuizawa last week and it saved us a lot of money on accommodation and leisure expenses


 There is now concern that it is also contributing to the spread of the virus and may need to be curtailed somewhat. Hokkaido is already discouraging people even though it's a huge area and really only the capital city of Sapporo is experiencing high figures. 


 The scheme is scheduled to finish at end of January 2021 but the government is considering extending it until the Spring holiday season. They say it will depend partly on the virus situation and there are mixed opinions on whether it's safe to do so.




 There is also a Go-To Eat campaign, which awards points when you dine at participating restaurants. The points can then be used as discounts on subsequent meals. This, unsurprisingly, is also popular, so much so that the allocated budget for the scheme has run out after only a short time. 


 We took advantage of it this week when we had lunch in downtown Tokyo, it was another delightful vegan meal by the same people that run the hotel we stayed at in Karuizawa last week. The main shopping areas were very crowded though a bit less than normal as there would usually be millions of tourists and it's getting Christmas-y. 




 We're now making the most of our park again as the annual Trolls in the Park art event runs for 3 weeks of November.


Due to the pandemic, the event was in doubt right up to September when the council finally agreed it could go ahead and granted the necessary funding.


The event features over 20 public artworks dotted around the park plus more in various locations in the town and some performances on weekends and public holidays. 




One of the artworks is a banner in the middle of the lake so we hired a pedalo to go out and take a closer look then we participated in a tea ceremony in a portable outdoor tea house which was a quite beautiful experience.


We are so grateful that we can still spend time outdoors in the fresh air and see interesting things.




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