Let's smile quietly even if the pandemic yet

It is mysteriously quiet on New Year’s day. If this was in the year before the pandemic, the town would be noisy. Especially in the capital Tokyo, so many people were gathering in towns.

In the case of Japan, many people used to go to shrines on New Year’s day. It is for praying for their own happiness. So each shrine was full of visitors every year. However, we cannot see such scenery from 2020.

Today I tried to listen to the BBC broadcast online. Also the BBC broadcast seems to be calm too. The sounds of the countdown events have not been heard from anywhere. I think all over the world it may not be noisy today.

From my mother, her LINE message arrived on the smartphone. Its smartphone is my wife’s. Normally my wife often complains to me worried about my mother but today seems to be going well.

Something has changed

I don’t like it very much, but Japan has so many comedy TV shows. If you watch TV in Japan, you will definitely notice it. So many comedians always appear on TV. You would always hear the sounds of laughing from TV. It can be said that New Year’s TV shows are remarkable about its point.

However, it seems that something changed. Something changed from 2021. I tried to check the TV program on air today. I realized comedy TV shows are decreasing. Many Japanese people may not prefer hearing the sounds of laughing already.

Sure. Here in Japan too, many people lost their jobs. Many restaurants had to close because of a lockdown. It is from the beginning of 2020. I think many people don’t prefer hearing the sounds of laughing now.

It may be that Japanese society should change to an alternative. We may have better to laugh quietly. That would mean smiling rather than laughing. We have better to smile under the pandemic at least.

Smile makes people happy. Even if the pandemic doesn’t end yet.

Mysterious religious event on New Year's Eve night

We have a religious event called 除夜の鐘 in Japan. It is held on New Year’s Eve night, in temples.

Big bell rings 108 times, by being hit. The 108 times bell begins a little hours before that midnight. Many Japanese people go past midnight between old year and new year while hearing the bell.

It is said that the number of 108 is the number of human worldly desires. It is based on the thoughts of Buddhism. We have various desires and it is non limited. As you know human’s desires are non limited. Also human’s desires worry human’s heart. The 108 times bell tries to cancel and lose these various desires.

Hearing this bell, our heart becomes calm. In Japan, New Year’s Eve is in winter. It will be snowing in some areas that night. The sound of a bell echoes in the landscape of snow. It is a beautiful night.

In my childhood, I went to temples many times to ring a bell. With many friends. It was an exciting experience. The bell was very big and about ten times my body. Around me some monks were chanting the sutra there. That was a mysterious place.

It would be that Japanese believers will not be able to ring bells on this New Year’s Eve. Instead, only monks will ring bells in many temples. It is not avoidable because the pandemic does not still end.

Japan will ring bells with the hope that this pandemic will end next year. On the last night of 2021.

The story of my workplace in these 2 years of pandemic

This is a story about me and my workplace. Here everyday, the troublesome “affair” is happening the same as the case of you and your friends. The same as every place in the world. Since the start of this pandemic, our workstyle and livelihood are getting changed more or less. (How about your livelihood?) Also in my office, something is changing now. My workplace is a call center for customers buying food. It was one Sunday in September. I got my first vaccination. I went to the venue for it with my wife. There were many people gathering and waiting for their injections. My turn came and the injection finished soon. Here in Japan, the COVID-19 vaccination was delayed among the developed countries. However, among the world, Japan would be relatively earlier than others. I think the first vaccination should be finished for every person on the globe as early as possible. The next day of my vaccination, I was almost "dead". I had a little fever and my body was very heavy and dull. I was going to go to the office but gave up. “Side effects of vaccination are attacking me now. I cannot go there today.” I appealed to my colleague. And, troublesome days began. Tuesday, my smartphone began to ring around noon. It was the time when I was meeting with my boss. It was from one of my colleagues. “ Sorry, it’s bad news, Manager…”, She said. Her husband tested positive. Hence she became a close contact person with the infected person. Those days, the number of the infected people was over 25,000 per day for the first time in Japan. The number of patients receiving medical treatment at home in the Tokyo metropolitan area has exceeded 60,000.

Saturday, many colleagues talked to me, “Manager, I may take a break from work next week. Because I’m going to get the second vaccination”. I replied, “I see.” They knew that I took a break from work on Monday. The next Monday was my holiday. But some troubles attacked me again. The symptom “Moderna arm” emerged on the arm of my wife. It's a side effect of vaccinations. My wife’s arm turned red. My workplace was filled with the topics of side effects. “I got a fever.” “Me too.” “How many degrees was your body temperature?” “I was very dull yesterday.” “Wow..I’m scared.” The side effects of Moderna were very severe for me and my wife. My wife layed in bed all day. We got a fever. My body temperature rose to about 38 degrees. I think I had never inoculated with such a heavy vaccine until now. I think it may be that something has changed this time in the medical world. In September, we had many complaints from customers in my workplace. So some telephone operators failed to correspond to customers well, and they wanted support from me. One day I went to the office, and I found one note on my desk: "Manager, please call this customer to apologize." Then I had to call the customer to apologize instead of her. On that day a big typhoon was close to us, that’s why some customers were in a bad mood. Additionally many people have a lot of stress, because they must stay at home. And the interview weeks with colleagues started for me, which is held twice per year. I must have an interview with all telephone operators in one month. Japan is already an aged society. At our call center we have many aged customers and they call us for the purpose of chatting with telephone operators. It is sometimes a troublesome issue but I hear the voice from older people: they often have a day to talk with nobody. They say, “I may forget how to speak Japanese because I have a day to talk with nobody.” Emergency declaration period ended on 30 September. At last, smiling came back on people’s faces in Japan. However, the news says the amount of money that the government lends to companies is as much as 30% of the national budget. When I was interviewing with a lot of colleagues, I noticed there are various lifetimes. One colleague is 64 years old, and she said this to me. “Manager, I will be 65 years old next year. Because I have my bedridden husband due to illness, I need to often take a holiday. May I work next year too? If it is possible, I want to work. That is because my life is only staying with my husband everyday, if I cannot work here.” When I heard such a story, I always answered this way. “Don’t worry about it. Please work until the time when you cannot work.” It may be that I will move to another workplace, but I always say this way as long as I am here. December has come. I had a bit of painful news sadly. Actually, my workplace has one colleague who has a non-light mental illness. At last her mind has broken this week. I didn’t know what happened to her this week. Incredibly, she was speaking to another colleague that she may be killed by all other colleagues. She is obsessed with fearful delusions unfortunately. I was very troubled. Basically Japanese society would have something problems mentally. In addition, this pandemic seemed to attack my colleague's mind seriously. We had various “affairs” in these 2 years. I don’t know whether this pandemic will end next year. I don’t know what will happen from now on. However, I think. I think we need to think about others. You should not think only about yourself. There must be someone who is troubled more than you, in this world.