I sneaked out for a walk last Saturday as the weather was very nice and i probably need some Vitamin D. As we all know the situation on Covid-19 pandemic is going pear-shaped rapidly across the world. I had been in self isolation for 3 weeks now and that would likely to continue for the next 3 weeks.

It was said the escalation in Covid-19 cases in Japan in the past week was due to a particular sunny weekend in March where many people went Hanami(Enjoy the view of Sakura). While on one hand the public was not conscious enough about the danger of this outbreak, on the other hand Hanami is a very important event in Japanese culture that symbolizes new chapter, new year, new beginning that most people would feel awkward without.

Japan is a country with culture that really value and uphold rituals and i do think that is a good thing because it provides memory markers. It is like having a good filing system of memory. Growing up, my family did not celebrate birthdays much, and i only have 2 distinct memories of new year feast over the few decades of my life. Sometimes that makes it hard to pinpoint what happened when and also hard to pull up memories of fond moment when things are difficult.

For me that Saturday, i just wanted to look at something beautiful that would refresh my mind and rejuvenate hope that it is going to be alright eventually. And i guess it is true for many other people too. Let us all practice social distancing so we could get some air from time to time and all stay safe through this.