Lawyer Yasunori Sakurai (pictured) is in the process of suing the 5-star Westin Hotel Tokyo (part of the Marriott Group) for refusing him accommodation because he was unmasked.
We visited Japan many times on holiday. Our last trip was Nov/Dec 2019. We long to return, but with great sadness we believe this may never happen. We are not vaccinated and refuse to wear masks, which has not been an issue for more than a year in the UK. A proposed May 2023 trip has been postponed to November, in the hope that restrictions may lessen, but we have booked flexible flights with full refunds available because we suspect the situation will not change. If Japan wishes European visitors to return, it has a strange way of showing it. Japanese hotel websites, in their zeal to assure prospective visitors of how “safe” they will be, serve only to fill us with horror at the thought of constant temperature testing and mask wearing. Holidays are supposed to be a pleasure, rather than a penance.
I've lived here 23 years. I never wear a mask outside of school. Last summer I even stopped wearing a mask at school for a while. And then a supervisor called me and told me to mask up. They can't legally make you, but they can still fire you for *reasons*. I only teach until lunch and it pays well, so I tow the line.
Outside of school though, I never wear a mask. No-one has said anything to me in 3 years. Most people know it's ridiculous and are probably secretly jealous that I can play the gaijin card and flout the rules...again.
Our concern with hotel rules is the arbitrary way they could be enforced. I have never yet visited Japan without catching a cold, it’s just one of the hazards of travelling. Can you imagine being suspected of being “ill” or “infectious” and being referred to a hospital! And just who is the person who makes this decision? Will the hotel pay the hospital fee? I doubt it. One website assures us that their own staff are not allowed to travel abroad so as to be of no risk to guests. I’m appalled at that level of control and amazed that they think I would want to stay with them.
Yes Japan is weird like that. What doesn't help is many people here are monolingual & completely lacking any sort perspective that can be gained by travelling etc... I also only had my mask on handful of times since moving here in March 2022. Mind you we moved here from the communist Melbourne in Australia which had one of the most draconian restrictions - so we were well prepared and know how to "play the game".
I’m glad you escaped Melbourne. After reading about Dan Andrews’ antics and the hateful restrictions placed on Australians in general and Victorians in particular, we decided never to visit Australia again. Another country crossed off the list. We live in hope for Japan in November but because of the situation in Eastern Europe, flights from Amsterdam (our airport of choice) to Tokyo are via Seoul, adding a further 3 hours to a 12 hour flight. Hardly an inducement to travel.
I would like to add that the peer pressure to conform also lead to the bayonetting of small children in Nanjing, China. I am in no way comparing the reduction of oxygen intake to the bayonetting of children because everyone knows that the former is slow death whereas the latter death is instantaneous. Let's stop calling it peer pressure. Let's call it what it really is: cowardice. On my way to the coffee shop, in the coffee shop, and on the way home I encountered about 400 cowards and about 5 who seemed capable of thinking. I did not feel afraid of the non-thinkers because they are basically cowards. They may have strength in numbers. Any one who has seen the documentary Dawn of the Dead knows this.
His story is entirely believable to me. Have had too many similar experiences.
For all the reason directly addressed and others touched upon, this is truly terrifying. They are wanting to make it legal to turn away anyone suspected of carrying an infectious disease. Before lockdowns, the typical individual’s immune system would be fighting off numerous infectious diseases, usually successfully. The reality means this could be used as justification for refusing anyone for any reason, just say that they are “suspected” of carrying an infectious disease.
Another point is that despite most of the world seeming to have forgotten, many diseases existed before Covid and still do exist. While not the law, back in 2020 I was told I could not be on campus if I had any of covid’s symptoms. As one who suffers from seasonal hay fever and year round house dust allergies, this meant that technically, I am never allowed on campus again. My son suffers from all the allergies both his parents have and has a few that we do not. At the year end party we had this year, he sneezed and the man next to him looked and asked rather loudly, “Covid?”. He very well may have been joking, as that is his nature, but he just as easily may not have been. Either way, seeing the reaction to a sneeze, cough or clearing of the throat on a train and it is clear that everyone automatically thinks the offending person, and myself for not wearing a mask, have covid and are to be feared.
"His story is entirely believable to me. Have had too many similar experiences."
Yep. Anyone who lives here will read his story and think "Sounds about right." But many (most?) Japanese would also think "Serves him right!" and never consider how wacky it'd appear to non-Japanese.
Great articles thanks a lot for providing this info in English, really appreciate it!
This story sounds just like Melbourne 1 year ago, I have plenty of similar (worse) experiences. (without the suing part). Except now everybody in the west pretends like nothing ever happened there and things are back to the "new" normal. Please....
We moved here because normal life was no longer possible in Australia when some states mandated children over 12yo to get death-jabs in order to participate in indoor sports. To my knowledge nothing similar has happened here either with kids or adults.
Looking from outside, Japan to many may seem dystopian with masks etc and I agree. But at least personally I feel I don't need to mask as long as I do not care what others think.
The real problem with masks is employment. For most, including myself, it can mean wear a mask or no work. While I have not lost a job due to not masking, though that seems to be changing soon, I have not been able to get new jobs to replace those I lost during the last three years because I won’t mask up.
Yes that's true, and it really sucks! I have been lucky so far, working in IT and remotely dodging the mandates. I feel like this year my luck is gonna run out so I'll be in a similar situation.
I find it believable due to the situation, not because I've encountered it directly. I don't mask and haven't been bothered by hotel managers or flight attendants. In fact, no-one has said a thing a me in 3 years. But I'm a gaijin and have the golden gaijin card that allows me to break rules and get away with it. I play it whenever I can and without shame. That's the social contract between Japan and me as I have to live here.
I think the guest at the hotel therefore has the right to know the medical history of everyone who works in that hotel. He needs to ensure that no one in the kitchen has hepatitis or if anyone in general has psychological issues. This is what they do with pilots to ensure that they will not crash the plane. In fact, I will write the Westin Hotel asking them this. I need to ensure my safety before I stay at their hotel. I suggest everybody do the same.
What rights :-P ? I have spent the convid years in Melbourne Australia. People getting smashed face down onto the pavement for not wearing a mask. Couldn't get a coffee without showing my (fake) digital "Ahnenpaß".
What has been posted here and there is that the store was closed due to no employees available. I have not been able to track down why this is happening but am thinking it is due to financial support for those who are not working due to the restrictions and fear of the disease. This theory has holes in it, however.
Just wait until the Covidian hotel staffer is replaced by a Web 3 Smart Contract via a QR code, a facial recognition camera or maybe even a robot operated by a person in another country via haptic robotic suit (https://youtu.be/UxWH5XAcFnM). There ain't no negotiating with that. Let's start taking about what this "scamdemic" was meant to trigger because it's a much bigger existential threat to our children, our children's children and natural life. Have you heard of Japan's Moonshot R&D program? NTT's Human Digital Twinning program? Here's a starter kit:
I believe this hotel is in Shibuya, a tourist area. That might have something to do with it. Without diminishing the gross indignity of what happened in this case, I recently spent a week in Tokyo without donning a mask even once. I hung one off of one ear at one point when asked to put it on at Korakuen. That was the only time anyone even asked. I know I probably only got away with it because I'm a foreigner, however, if the foreigner in this story could understand Japanese, shame on him or her for not speaking up and taking Mr. Sakurai's side.
Not all that safe for a gaijin to speak up. Not that that has stopped me, but I am the only gaijin I know know personally who leaves home without a compliance rag.
During the emergency/quasi-emergency periods, restaurants were told to turn away unmasked customers. I’ve not read the law on this, but restaurants can probably do the same thing during normal periods too. After all, bars can turn away customers for being foreign.
Yep. I remember seeing the “No foreigner allowed“ signs．It was not until 18 months into this silliness that I first had any problem with not being masked, then suddenly I did at two schools. It had been becoming more and more frequent through last year. Just two days ago I was not allowed to enter a city bathhouse until I masked.
A few months ago, a bunch of tatted-up Yakuza were in an onsen change room all masked up. You know Japan has failed as a country when even the almighty Yakuza have succumbed to the covidian cult, and humans like you and I and our fellow oxygen-breathers are now the outlaws.
We had one of those in our town. We'd go in and make them (try to) throw us out while causing a massive scene that emptied the place out. The police were often called and we got to know each other by name. They just escorted us out and let us be on our way. After 6 months of this happening every weekend the bar closed down.
I find it easy to imagine that, once hotel staff get used to screening guests in this way under color of this law, it would empower bullying and discrimination against people with all sorts of disabilities and injuries or conditions that affect their appearance. A law that validates the kind of behavior that laws are generally meant to curb seems pretty ill-advised.
You are correct. It will open the doors for more discrimination. I say this is fine. A parallel economy--or at least the threat of one--will come about. Personally, I do not want to give my money to any company that supports stupidity.
I have looked through the list…pitifully short. However, it is something. I plan to dine at one of the few restaurants on the list in Tokyo during my now once monthly trip into the city. Thanks again.
I often refer to this list and I have seen it has gotten bigger over the last year. Global Dining restaurants--some of them at least--do not require their employees to wear masks. Some of them still do but I am glad they have the option. I try to avoid masked places but sometimes it is difficult. I am willing to travel to support the non maskers. If you find a place that does not require the face attire, introduce them to the no mask site. The more the list grows, the better.
This is an excellent resource. Will be looking at it in detail soon. I wonder though, how many places for children are on it. I know that we have to wear masks at all the places my kids used to enjoy.
There are a couple of regular local places we enjoy as a family where the employees don't mask, but we basically just waltz in anywhere without the covidians' useless religious garb. We hope that doing more of this will help to build the inner strength and confidence of our children to not succumb to covidiotic religions.
I do the same. If someone gives me trouble--this is rare, though--I just say no. "I do not follow any unscientific countermeasures but thank you for your concern."
Had some zombie woman try to hand me and my kids a pile of muzzles a couple weeks ago, trying to pressure us to put them on or leave. I said thank you and gave my best "fuck off" grin as she stormed off in a puff of spike proteins.
Our two small kids go to a free school in a community where nobody wears masks -- not the teachers, not the administrators, and certainly not the children. Jab rate I understand is somewhere around 20% for the adults. We all understand that children need childhood illnesses to build their natural immunity. Kids go to school snotty as kids should, and the kids are healthier and stronger than ever.
In fact, we're actively trying to grow this school and community as I believe it is a bastion of humanity in these dark times. If you guys care to come to remote and chilly Hokkaido...
AH! Should have guessed! I have had a few Hokkaido natives as students and they are NOT the same as the rest of their compatriots, in a good way. The ones I have known have been remarkably open minded and independent thinkers, not at all given to group think and little care for what strangers think of them.
As far as relocating, the idea is a nice one but I am taking on water and becalmed. Maneuvering is out of the question, long distance travel even more so. Got to stay afloat through the storm on the horizon before anything else can be contemplated.
While I agree this should happen, I can not see that it will, at least not for all. Unless I don a mask for work, I am basically unemployed and thus have zero funds to participate in this parallel economy.
Ok, I have a question for Guy or Kitsune, or whoever has a thought:
In Sakurai’s account, he says the manager ignored the maskless condition of the people at the adjacent tables, to wit, a foreigner on one side, and “two red-faced [presumably Japanese] men who appeared to be drunk” on the other.
Since this isn’t actually about infection control, I understand why the foreigner would be ignored, since he’s outside the wa, and all the usual Japanese inferiority/superiority stuff kicks in. But why do you think the rubicund drinkers were excused?
I see. So by the time he was confronted by the manager after having sat down he was no longer out of compliance, but he had transgressed while walking and had to pay.
I’d love to just smh, but we had those rules on the non-Japanese island where I live too. My only public resistance to covidianism was that I never did the mask while walking in the restaurant thing; it was just one stupid bridge too far for me. Of course it became moot after I was banned from restaurants altogether for refusing to show the Ariernachweis, I mean, proof of vaccination.
I concur with Guy Gin. Additionally, it can be unwise to mess with drunks. However, of late, no one seems shy about telling me to mask and I am very easily noticed as a gaijin.
We visited Japan many times on holiday. Our last trip was Nov/Dec 2019. We long to return, but with great sadness we believe this may never happen. We are not vaccinated and refuse to wear masks, which has not been an issue for more than a year in the UK. A proposed May 2023 trip has been postponed to November, in the hope that restrictions may lessen, but we have booked flexible flights with full refunds available because we suspect the situation will not change. If Japan wishes European visitors to return, it has a strange way of showing it. Japanese hotel websites, in their zeal to assure prospective visitors of how “safe” they will be, serve only to fill us with horror at the thought of constant temperature testing and mask wearing. Holidays are supposed to be a pleasure, rather than a penance.
I've lived here 23 years. I never wear a mask outside of school. Last summer I even stopped wearing a mask at school for a while. And then a supervisor called me and told me to mask up. They can't legally make you, but they can still fire you for *reasons*. I only teach until lunch and it pays well, so I tow the line.
Outside of school though, I never wear a mask. No-one has said anything to me in 3 years. Most people know it's ridiculous and are probably secretly jealous that I can play the gaijin card and flout the rules...again.
Our concern with hotel rules is the arbitrary way they could be enforced. I have never yet visited Japan without catching a cold, it’s just one of the hazards of travelling. Can you imagine being suspected of being “ill” or “infectious” and being referred to a hospital! And just who is the person who makes this decision? Will the hotel pay the hospital fee? I doubt it. One website assures us that their own staff are not allowed to travel abroad so as to be of no risk to guests. I’m appalled at that level of control and amazed that they think I would want to stay with them.
Yes Japan is weird like that. What doesn't help is many people here are monolingual & completely lacking any sort perspective that can be gained by travelling etc... I also only had my mask on handful of times since moving here in March 2022. Mind you we moved here from the communist Melbourne in Australia which had one of the most draconian restrictions - so we were well prepared and know how to "play the game".
I’m glad you escaped Melbourne. After reading about Dan Andrews’ antics and the hateful restrictions placed on Australians in general and Victorians in particular, we decided never to visit Australia again. Another country crossed off the list. We live in hope for Japan in November but because of the situation in Eastern Europe, flights from Amsterdam (our airport of choice) to Tokyo are via Seoul, adding a further 3 hours to a 12 hour flight. Hardly an inducement to travel.
Yes the flights to Japan from Europe are not ideal atm. Our friends will be flying from Katowicz in Poland to Turkey to Japan. Nearly 24hrs :-/
I would like to add that the peer pressure to conform also lead to the bayonetting of small children in Nanjing, China. I am in no way comparing the reduction of oxygen intake to the bayonetting of children because everyone knows that the former is slow death whereas the latter death is instantaneous. Let's stop calling it peer pressure. Let's call it what it really is: cowardice. On my way to the coffee shop, in the coffee shop, and on the way home I encountered about 400 cowards and about 5 who seemed capable of thinking. I did not feel afraid of the non-thinkers because they are basically cowards. They may have strength in numbers. Any one who has seen the documentary Dawn of the Dead knows this.
His story is entirely believable to me. Have had too many similar experiences.
For all the reason directly addressed and others touched upon, this is truly terrifying. They are wanting to make it legal to turn away anyone suspected of carrying an infectious disease. Before lockdowns, the typical individual’s immune system would be fighting off numerous infectious diseases, usually successfully. The reality means this could be used as justification for refusing anyone for any reason, just say that they are “suspected” of carrying an infectious disease.
Another point is that despite most of the world seeming to have forgotten, many diseases existed before Covid and still do exist. While not the law, back in 2020 I was told I could not be on campus if I had any of covid’s symptoms. As one who suffers from seasonal hay fever and year round house dust allergies, this meant that technically, I am never allowed on campus again. My son suffers from all the allergies both his parents have and has a few that we do not. At the year end party we had this year, he sneezed and the man next to him looked and asked rather loudly, “Covid?”. He very well may have been joking, as that is his nature, but he just as easily may not have been. Either way, seeing the reaction to a sneeze, cough or clearing of the throat on a train and it is clear that everyone automatically thinks the offending person, and myself for not wearing a mask, have covid and are to be feared.
"His story is entirely believable to me. Have had too many similar experiences."
Yep. Anyone who lives here will read his story and think "Sounds about right." But many (most?) Japanese would also think "Serves him right!" and never consider how wacky it'd appear to non-Japanese.
Great articles thanks a lot for providing this info in English, really appreciate it!
This story sounds just like Melbourne 1 year ago, I have plenty of similar (worse) experiences. (without the suing part). Except now everybody in the west pretends like nothing ever happened there and things are back to the "new" normal. Please....
We moved here because normal life was no longer possible in Australia when some states mandated children over 12yo to get death-jabs in order to participate in indoor sports. To my knowledge nothing similar has happened here either with kids or adults.
Looking from outside, Japan to many may seem dystopian with masks etc and I agree. But at least personally I feel I don't need to mask as long as I do not care what others think.
The real problem with masks is employment. For most, including myself, it can mean wear a mask or no work. While I have not lost a job due to not masking, though that seems to be changing soon, I have not been able to get new jobs to replace those I lost during the last three years because I won’t mask up.
Yes that's true, and it really sucks! I have been lucky so far, working in IT and remotely dodging the mandates. I feel like this year my luck is gonna run out so I'll be in a similar situation.
Wait til they demand you wear mask in your own home for online meetings.
I find it believable due to the situation, not because I've encountered it directly. I don't mask and haven't been bothered by hotel managers or flight attendants. In fact, no-one has said a thing a me in 3 years. But I'm a gaijin and have the golden gaijin card that allows me to break rules and get away with it. I play it whenever I can and without shame. That's the social contract between Japan and me as I have to live here.
Yep. My wife and her family certainly would, as all my employers and students. However, most of my gaijin coworkers would as well.
I think the guest at the hotel therefore has the right to know the medical history of everyone who works in that hotel. He needs to ensure that no one in the kitchen has hepatitis or if anyone in general has psychological issues. This is what they do with pilots to ensure that they will not crash the plane. In fact, I will write the Westin Hotel asking them this. I need to ensure my safety before I stay at their hotel. I suggest everybody do the same.
Many businesses in Japan have signs stating that every employee has had X number of shots and is tested regularly and all are masked.
The more jabs, the more infectious/infested the place is. Good to have this info before walking straight into it, or not.
I certainly do not want to go in to such a place. I first saw these a year ago, I think.
Sounds like a violation of one's medical history.
Japan does not allow the same rights we like to think we enjoy in the West.
What rights :-P ? I have spent the convid years in Melbourne Australia. People getting smashed face down onto the pavement for not wearing a mask. Couldn't get a coffee without showing my (fake) digital "Ahnenpaß".
Good point. We allowed them to be taken away, didn’t we?
Next year they will post a sign: "All our employees are dead."
What has been posted here and there is that the store was closed due to no employees available. I have not been able to track down why this is happening but am thinking it is due to financial support for those who are not working due to the restrictions and fear of the disease. This theory has holes in it, however.
Lawyer? He did not record the conversation? Or ask for the directive in writing?
As John McEnroe would scream "YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!"
Glad your alive, mate!
There is no such thing as death!
Missed my "comments", Sergei?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w53HbfqkXZU
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/01/canada-to-re-educate-jordan-peterson-for-wrongthink/ - The egg teaches the chicken!
Yes, Vlad!
Just wait until the Covidian hotel staffer is replaced by a Web 3 Smart Contract via a QR code, a facial recognition camera or maybe even a robot operated by a person in another country via haptic robotic suit (https://youtu.be/UxWH5XAcFnM). There ain't no negotiating with that. Let's start taking about what this "scamdemic" was meant to trigger because it's a much bigger existential threat to our children, our children's children and natural life. Have you heard of Japan's Moonshot R&D program? NTT's Human Digital Twinning program? Here's a starter kit:
1. Japan's Moonshot Program & NTT Digital Twin Program: https://youtu.be/_og-LVZlRnE
2. Globotics: https://youtu.be/MAL42CnyJNE
3. Smart Contracts & Extended Reality: https://wrenchinthegears.com/2023/01/06/dear-city-of-brotherly-love-we-really-need-to-talk-about-the-constitution-smart-contracts-and-extended-reality/
With love. G
I believe this hotel is in Shibuya, a tourist area. That might have something to do with it. Without diminishing the gross indignity of what happened in this case, I recently spent a week in Tokyo without donning a mask even once. I hung one off of one ear at one point when asked to put it on at Korakuen. That was the only time anyone even asked. I know I probably only got away with it because I'm a foreigner, however, if the foreigner in this story could understand Japanese, shame on him or her for not speaking up and taking Mr. Sakurai's side.
Not all that safe for a gaijin to speak up. Not that that has stopped me, but I am the only gaijin I know know personally who leaves home without a compliance rag.
You're not alone, comrade.
Thanks, pard.
Oh, great. When my maskless 6'5" gaijin husband shows up at the Marunouchi Hotel in Tokyo in March, are they going to throw him out?
They still can't legally throw him out. But if the law is revised and he has a high temperature, then they will be able to throw him out.
I have been barred entry to a restaurant in Japan because I was maskless.
During the emergency/quasi-emergency periods, restaurants were told to turn away unmasked customers. I’ve not read the law on this, but restaurants can probably do the same thing during normal periods too. After all, bars can turn away customers for being foreign.
Yep. I remember seeing the “No foreigner allowed“ signs．It was not until 18 months into this silliness that I first had any problem with not being masked, then suddenly I did at two schools. It had been becoming more and more frequent through last year. Just two days ago I was not allowed to enter a city bathhouse until I masked.
A few months ago, a bunch of tatted-up Yakuza were in an onsen change room all masked up. You know Japan has failed as a country when even the almighty Yakuza have succumbed to the covidian cult, and humans like you and I and our fellow oxygen-breathers are now the outlaws.
That is a role I am willing to take.
Yep. Saw the same just a few days ago.
We had one of those in our town. We'd go in and make them (try to) throw us out while causing a massive scene that emptied the place out. The police were often called and we got to know each other by name. They just escorted us out and let us be on our way. After 6 months of this happening every weekend the bar closed down.
You’d think that at some point they’d learn. But then again, racist of any stripe are not all that with it.
I find it easy to imagine that, once hotel staff get used to screening guests in this way under color of this law, it would empower bullying and discrimination against people with all sorts of disabilities and injuries or conditions that affect their appearance. A law that validates the kind of behavior that laws are generally meant to curb seems pretty ill-advised.
You are correct. It will open the doors for more discrimination. I say this is fine. A parallel economy--or at least the threat of one--will come about. Personally, I do not want to give my money to any company that supports stupidity.
There are many more places not listed here, more than enough to keep us humans entertained and not having to bother with the transhuman shedders.
https://www.nomaskshop.com/maps
I have looked through the list…pitifully short. However, it is something. I plan to dine at one of the few restaurants on the list in Tokyo during my now once monthly trip into the city. Thanks again.
Brilliant, Jordan, thank you for posting that. Even though I'm not in Japan I'm happy to see it and need a glimmer of hope, however dim.
I often refer to this list and I have seen it has gotten bigger over the last year. Global Dining restaurants--some of them at least--do not require their employees to wear masks. Some of them still do but I am glad they have the option. I try to avoid masked places but sometimes it is difficult. I am willing to travel to support the non maskers. If you find a place that does not require the face attire, introduce them to the no mask site. The more the list grows, the better.
Not one flag in my town. No suprise there.
This is an excellent resource. Will be looking at it in detail soon. I wonder though, how many places for children are on it. I know that we have to wear masks at all the places my kids used to enjoy.
There are a couple of regular local places we enjoy as a family where the employees don't mask, but we basically just waltz in anywhere without the covidians' useless religious garb. We hope that doing more of this will help to build the inner strength and confidence of our children to not succumb to covidiotic religions.
I do the same. If someone gives me trouble--this is rare, though--I just say no. "I do not follow any unscientific countermeasures but thank you for your concern."
Had some zombie woman try to hand me and my kids a pile of muzzles a couple weeks ago, trying to pressure us to put them on or leave. I said thank you and gave my best "fuck off" grin as she stormed off in a puff of spike proteins.
You are blessed that your wife shares your logical mind. Mine does not. The fight is daily and in my own home.
Someone should start a school where the useless face attire is not required.
Our two small kids go to a free school in a community where nobody wears masks -- not the teachers, not the administrators, and certainly not the children. Jab rate I understand is somewhere around 20% for the adults. We all understand that children need childhood illnesses to build their natural immunity. Kids go to school snotty as kids should, and the kids are healthier and stronger than ever.
In fact, we're actively trying to grow this school and community as I believe it is a bastion of humanity in these dark times. If you guys care to come to remote and chilly Hokkaido...
AH! Should have guessed! I have had a few Hokkaido natives as students and they are NOT the same as the rest of their compatriots, in a good way. The ones I have known have been remarkably open minded and independent thinkers, not at all given to group think and little care for what strangers think of them.
As far as relocating, the idea is a nice one but I am taking on water and becalmed. Maneuvering is out of the question, long distance travel even more so. Got to stay afloat through the storm on the horizon before anything else can be contemplated.
It might be worth it. I am trying to the same here, that is create a bastion. Could you tell me more about this place in Hokkaido?
That would be great! Would apply straight away.
While I agree this should happen, I can not see that it will, at least not for all. Unless I don a mask for work, I am basically unemployed and thus have zero funds to participate in this parallel economy.
Ok, I have a question for Guy or Kitsune, or whoever has a thought:
In Sakurai’s account, he says the manager ignored the maskless condition of the people at the adjacent tables, to wit, a foreigner on one side, and “two red-faced [presumably Japanese] men who appeared to be drunk” on the other.
Since this isn’t actually about infection control, I understand why the foreigner would be ignored, since he’s outside the wa, and all the usual Japanese inferiority/superiority stuff kicks in. But why do you think the rubicund drinkers were excused?
They most likely wore masks until they say down. In other words, they followed the rules.
I see. So by the time he was confronted by the manager after having sat down he was no longer out of compliance, but he had transgressed while walking and had to pay.
I’d love to just smh, but we had those rules on the non-Japanese island where I live too. My only public resistance to covidianism was that I never did the mask while walking in the restaurant thing; it was just one stupid bridge too far for me. Of course it became moot after I was banned from restaurants altogether for refusing to show the Ariernachweis, I mean, proof of vaccination.
I concur with Guy Gin. Additionally, it can be unwise to mess with drunks. However, of late, no one seems shy about telling me to mask and I am very easily noticed as a gaijin.
At least today we can declare (supported with evidence) that the japanese herd of modern moron slaves is DUMB AS A ROCK.
I say that they deserve another 3 boosters!
Sue the rat tails off of them!