Japan and the New Flu

Asami, the J-List employee who keeps us well stocked with amazing bento boxes and traditional Japanese items will be out for the rest of the week. The reason is that she caught the swine flu that’s been going around, also known as the “new-type influenza virus” (as they call it in the Japanese media). Japan is doing its best to tackle the new flu outbreak, and fortunately the country is good at organizing itself . My wife was given a long list of steps she’s supposed to take regarding H1N1, including taking the temperature of the kids each morning and keeping them home if they’re above a certain point. If five or more students at a school are diagnosed with the flu, it’s closed for a week to keep the outbreak from spreading — that happened at my daughter’s school last week, to her great joy. Between its culture of wearing health masks to keep germs from spreading to generally being focused on health, I am optimistic that Japan will come through the current crisis in good shape. Asami is fine and will be back at work next week.

Poor Bruce…his last name sounds very close to the Japanese word for “virus.”