Member-only story
Looking Back on Two Very Different Versions of the Pandemic
Two opposite experiences: 7 months in Japan, 5 months in France.
Like most of us, I can clearly remember how my life changed when Covid-19 started hitting us. Unfortunately for me, however, it started early than most of the world.
While the rest of the world was still fine and looking at how China was handling the virus, it arrived very close to where I lived: in Yokohama, Japan.
At the time, my office was located a 7 kilometers away from where the now-infamous Diamond Princess ferry was moored. Having lived in China in the past and talked with friends who still lived there, I thought I realized the dangers this virus could bring. I was afraid and wanted to leave Japan as quickly as possible.
I figured it’d be safer to go back to my home country, France, far away from that virus. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. While I could work from home for my job, I still needed to work in the Japanese timezone and that meant working from 2 or 3 am in France. A schedule I could keep only for up to a month. I was also supposed to host two friends from France in my flat, which I couldn’t do if I weren’t there.
I decided to stay, worrying, and tried to ignore the risks I was facing by staying close to where the virus was.
