I was fortunate enough to study abroad this past semester in Tokyo, Japan. The semester itself was surreal as far as tracking the rapid spread of COVID-19 throughout the world. I am in a unique position seeing as I am back home now, in self-quarantine, and able to weigh in on each country’s prevailing attitudes towards Coronavirus.

Given Japan’s geographical proximity to the formation of the virus, it seemed logical to me that being there would cause greater worry than being in the U.S. I have found the complete opposite to be true though; being home has incited far more anxiety than my entire study abroad experience. Watching the news and following the growth of the virus in the U.S. is difficult to fully come to terms with each morning. This coupled with the fact that it is worse in the U.S. than it ever was while I was in Japan makes it objectively worse.

There is a stark difference when looking at my experiences in Japan compared to my quarantine thus far in America. The prevailing attitude here seems to be that this is not that big of a deal and it shows in people’s disregard for basic safety practices. Japan had societally already adopted practices of social distancing in their daily public interactions, such as on the subway or at the supermarket. We had been advised to defer all non-essential travel since early February. Since my arrival, I have noted much less strict guidelines on domestic travel here in the U.S. I feel that America is finally beginning to take steps in the right direction, but it has been a bit slow in its action.

I am basing many of my observations of the United States while I was abroad off of what my friends were telling me and posting on social media. There was a small trend of people boasting about their cheap flights to popular vacation spots, namely my home in South Florida. I saw a multitude of my close friends on beaches I grew up in and it left me feeling disgusted. Many of my peers decided to continue their spring break travels despite the growing virus. This was before I was asked by Marist to come back home. Seeing as in Japan there was less worry surrounding the spread since keeping germs to yourself was already common practice. There was this weird period of time where the worry in the US seemed to be greater than in Japan which coincided with the time I was traveling home. That’s when I saw friends in certain areas around the country having to quarantine themselves. It had not reached that severity yet in the area of Japan I was living in so it was difficult to grasp with that idea at the time. Seeing the growth of reported cases recently and more of my friends having to quarantine as well, it seems that a lot of us are experiencing similar things now.

This irresponsible behavior in the midst of a looming global pandemic only serves to worsen the potential for the spreading of the virus. According to a Forbes article a majority of those students surveyed responded that increased risk of spreading the virus would not affect their spring break plans in any way. My classmates who fall under that statistic are the same ones now returning to the tri-state area, further spreading germs from elsewhere. This apathy was stressful to read about, knowing that not everybody was doing their part to mitigate the spread of the virus.

As I am sure many of my friends in school now are beginning to adapt to online learning, I can say that it has definitely been a difficult adjustment to make. Seeing that Japan made the choice to shut down most public schools weeks ago, I can relate to what many students are facing now. This is the new reality that we have to live in and it is not an easy one. This piles on to the constant paranoia surrounding media headlines as the number of cases reported increases every day.

I’ve been home for less than a week now. I’m just trying to fill the time of day dedicating myself to single tasks at a time. I’ve learned a bunch of new recipes, read books, taken online classes, and played video games. Since I had been abroad I am supposed to spend 14 days in self-quarantine which means I have to stay home and limit my social interaction with everybody. A good rule of thumb is to assume you have contracted the virus and limit your interactions as much as possible. I’m not symptomatic, but it’s better safe than sorry. I’ve had to disinfect everything that I brought with me from Japan. I live with my grandma and she has to stay at my aunt’s house during this 14 day period.

Even though this quarantine is making me bounce off the walls, I know it’s a necessary precaution. Nobody is certain as to how long this might go on, but the spread can be mitigated through certain practices. These include, but are not limited to: social distancing, washing your hands often, and not taking flights to scenic destinations simply because they’re cheap. I get it, this sucks. Only through a concerted effort can we mitigate the spread of COVID-19 — and it won’t be easy.

Returning from Tokyo During COVID-19 Crisis

MARIST CIRCLE