Perhaps this post should have been listed under Jalan Jalan as the photo was taken during a night-time stroll in my neighborhood. But the photo seems to me more deeply symbolic of what's going these days due to the Coronavirus crisis.
Almost all elementary and junior high schools are closed in Japan. Professional baseball (spring training practice) games are being played without spectators in the stadiums. The upcoming sumo basho in Osaka will hold its matches without spectators. Many other public places and events have been temporarily cancelled. My daughter's swimming and piano classes have been temporarily cancelled. There is a shortage of toilet paper so that people are buying it in bulk, waiting in lines and/or finding their local stores have run out.
And my own university has cancelled classes until at least March 23. What happens after that in unknown at the moment. Campus is like a ghost town. And some international students are being recalled to their home countries. Faculty has been asked to do a sort of distance learning, providing deliverables according to the original syllabus schedule. Easier said than done. I hope we can get through this thing.
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