It's a pretty picture, but I still can't get a COVID vaccination in one of the world's richest countries...

Sunrise in Osaka 4:30 AM.

Spikes! 313 new COVID cases in Osaka yesterday. 1,397 new COVID cases in Tokyo yesterday. 79 reported COVID cases related to the Olympics before it even starts on Friday.

And my family and I are unable to get vaccinations. Maybe 20% of the population here has been fully vaccinated. Japan has not purchased enough Pfizer vaccinations to be distributed through local governments. My city cannot tell us when we can get vaccinated. Japan has not purchased enough Moderna vaccinations to be distributed through large companies and universities. My university cannot tell us when we can get vaccinated. (Japan has apparently secured Moderna to be available in 2022). But Japan purchased a lot of the AstraZeneca vaccine and now it is giving it to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Japan also seems to be waiting for their own domestic company's vaccine to be fast-tracked and available sometime this year... Despite being in a (quasi-) state of emergency and the Delta variant, my university is requiring faculty to teach hybrid/in-person classes; although there is a published safety procedure, I witness everyday how it is ignored.

This is our reality. Don't believe the token so-called foreign experts in Japan on CNN who claim Japanese people have a vaccine hesitancy. This is not true for most of us here (I do have informed and intelligent friends with personal situations who question the safety of vaccines and I respect their concerns.). This is not political or cultural; this is not the red & blue USA that offers beer, marijuana, money and guns as incentives to get the jabs. The Japanese government has strange priorities (don't get me started about the Olympic super-spreader, no alcohol and condoms meant not to be used in Japan...) and incompetent policies.

以上です。

Ringing in the New Year 2021 at our neighborhood shrine - COVID 19 interferes with the liminality of the hatsumode ritual

The liminal phase in a rite of transition usually entails a certain ambiguity - a period where the usual norms of daily life are absent. However this year, COVID 19 seems to have affected the hatsumode ritual (the first shrine visit of the year) itself. On a scouting mission on December 31, 2020, my research assistant and I briefly visited two local shrines where preparations were underway or had finished for the usual shrine visit at midnight.

This is what we saw at the first site. It is not so easy to see the green tape lines on the pathway to the shrine to encourage social distancing. This got me to think what was being done at our own local shrine.

At the second site, there seemed to have been little preparation. No bon fire barrels, no tent for the sipping of the sacred sake. But there were banners promoting the use of masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing (no green tape maker lines however).

Shortly after the midnight hour I visited our neighborhood shrine once again (my research assistant had fallen asleep watching the New Year's Eve special programming on TV).

There were few people present to say their first New Year's prayers.

There were few people standing in line at the shrine in front of me.

And no one was behind me.

No bon fires, no tents, no containers to dispose of old relgious amulets, no sakered sake, and the water to purify oneself was closed off. And the bell at the top of the opening of the shrine was missing along with the rope attached to it that people shake to make the bell ring before they pray. I talked to a couple of shrine elders and they said these changes (decided by a regional shrine association) had to be made because of the corona virus. The shrine was open for quick prayers but not for the usual ritual festivities. It seemed as if most people were staying home anyway.

You can see the difference between this year and last year (click here).

While it was good that people stayed away to avoid crowds and possible virus spread, it was very sad to miss out on the camaraderie and communitas that the hasumode provides for the neighborhood. Here's hoping for normal ritual activities in 2021!