I got an email last week from the administrators of the building where the fair Kaisha is located telling me that someone in the building has contracted the swine flu. It then went on to disclose the name of the foreign company where said dirty and infected person was visiting from overseas. Nice. I love how in times of panic people point fingers. My first thought when reading the email was dirty foreigner. What do you think the Japanese people reading it thought?
A friend recently related a story to me about his Japanese partner, who wanted to cancel their yearly summer trip back to the States with their children, fearing the wrath of their neighbours. Apparently one nosy ossan had no qualms in voicing his displeasure at the family's impending trip, thinking they would surely contract the flu outside of Japan's safe border and bring it back, infecting the whole apartment block. The old guy probably has a better chance of running his bicyle into a car. These be strange times and I am almost surprised the government doesn't quarantine all foreigners before letting them into Japan.
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5 comments:
I'm surprised as well...don't give them any ideas I just came back from china and i just knew they were gonna take me in a special "treatment" room and "12 monkeys" my ass (-;
It's strange. In Australia, the government's attitude now seems to be - 'you're prolly going to get swine flu, just suck it up', it still seems to be a big deal in Japan though.
goingloco: Even before I looked up the 12 monkeys reference it didn't look good. I hope they didn't subject you to anything too scarring!
kathrynoh: I thought it had died down here too but now that MJ's been put to rest they can get back to pumping fear into our veins!
When I had strep throat the doctor (who speaks through a throat microphone thingy due to throat cancer, so the whole flipping clinic heard) started to freak out that I had swine flu and was going to infect everyone. Incidentally a few weeks later all my in-laws got swine flu and it was from one of BIL's little punk friends. I think the 'always blame the foreigner' policy is still in full swing!
Corinne - I hate the lack of privacy at clinics here! I was reading about your run-in with the swine flu and am glad to hear it's all over, I can't imagine the stigma it could potentially have in a small community!
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