Masked men

Despite vigorous attempts to keep it from invading this island nation, swine flu has hit Japan. In the last couple of weeks, Narita airport has famously checked, double-checked, and quarantined whole airplanes of people (if there was one "suspect" on board), but H1N1 is spreading. Last week, a handful of kids and a teacher returning from Canada tested positive for the virus. A couple of days ago, four high school students in Kobe (near us) had it. Today, there are over 130 confirmed cases in Kobe and Osaka, and 1000 schools in the region are closed. We caught a train on the way home today from Arashiyama (a temple district on the outskirts of Kyoto) that had come from Osaka--it was full of people with face masks.

We keep reading news reports quoting Prime Minister Taro Aso saying that he won't release details, but that the government is working to limit the spread of the flu beyond the region. I'd be a little worried to live in Kobe just now--is the government going to burn it to the ground or something? So far, all he's done is to ask "social businesses" such as movie theaters to close for the week.

We're hoping not to get sick, but the swine flu is already affecting us in minor ways. I was supposed to give a lecture at Kobe University on Thursday, but that has been rescheduled since the whole university is closed all week. For S, of course, this means a day off! We were planning to travel beyond Kobe to Kyushu for the weekend, but we may change our plans to avoid trains and buses full of infected people. Though people here are very dutiful in staying home when they're sick, H1N1 has a long incubation period, and many carriers may not know if they're sick until after others are infected (hence the closing of schools and many businesses in the region).

We're also both supposed to give papers at a conference in Seoul early next month, but we're waiting another day or two before finalizing those plans. Kyoto University has instituted a 7-day exclusion policy, which means that anyone (us, for example) who visits an affected country (S. Korea, for example) cannot be on campus for a week after returning (which would make it difficult for S to teach his classes there). We're also concerned about being quarantined (sick or not) for up to 10 days upon returning. On the other hand, we've been looking forward to this conference and to the chance to see Seoul and S. Korea. I expect we'll still go, but we're seeing how things play out in the next few days. Of course, it might be safer to go to Seoul with the flu spreading so quickly here!

In the short term, we're avoiding riding trains coming from Osaka and trying to stay a little closer to home. I'm pretty sure the baby won't tolerate a flu mask, but it sure would be cute if we could find a tiny one for him!