Hi. How you doing.

Yup.

I thought I would use this space to write a bit about what life is like in Tokyo right now, because with the utterly disastrous situations unfolding across most of Europe, America, and, well, pretty much the rest of the world, news about Japan has fallen a bit to the wayside.

Shit here is just weird.

There’s been no massive outbreak here, no pandemic conditions. Very little panic. About a month ago they closed all the schools and theme parks, postponed all the concerts and delayed all the major sporting events. Masks have been very hard to come by, as has toilet paper (Japan was the first country to start that unnecessary bit of hoarding, always the trendsetters). As an English instructor at a major English conversation school, I haven’t been at work all month. Thankfully, I’m still getting paid, and even if I wasn’t, I’m very fortunate financially so I don’t have that issue to really worry about.

But other than that, nothing changed. Stores are all still open. A few have cut down their hours, but most haven’t. Most people still aren’t telecommuting, so the trains are all packed. Restaurants and bars are always crowded. The streets are only less crowded because of the lack of tourists. Life is just going on as normal, seemingly oblivious to the massive human tragedy and economic depression that is gripping what feels like every other person and every other country on the planet.

And the calm here might be completely unfounded! The government still has not ramped up testing to a degree that most experts find satisfactory. No one knows how many people are really sick. As of this writing, there have been only 1,670 confirmed cases of the coronavirus here in Japan, and over 700 of them were from that damn cruise ship. That sound great, and it is when compared to other countries. But only 14,000 people (at most) have been tested since the beginning of February! So who the hell knows how many people have actually gotten sick. Now, a lack of testing can’t hide dead bodies, so Japan obviously isn’t covering up an exceptionally dire situation, but how can anyone know what appropriate actions should be taken when we can’t get a clear number regarding how many people are sick?

Like I said, I haven’t been working for the entirety of March. In the beginning of the month, I treated it mostly as a vacation. There were very few cases in Japan, and the situation in most other countries wasn’t bad either. I went record shopping, had friends over for pizza and movies, drank a lot of whiskey, and so on. But since the explosion of cases in America and Europe, I feel that it’s best to practice everyone’s new favorite pastime of 2020, social distancing. I’m not going to crowded areas. I’m avoiding the train. I even stopped going to record stores.

I. Stopped. Going. To. Record. Stores.

If that doesn’t help explain to you the seriousness in which I am taking this, nothing will.

But while I’ve radically changed my behavior in hopes of keeping myself and others healthy in the ever increasing odds of a full-on explosion of cases here, I seem to be the only one. Again, stores have not closed. People are not telecommuting. Restaurants are still open. We’re in the middle of a three-day weekend now, and it’s also cherry blossom viewing season. While the government has prohibited picnics at several of the most high-profile spots. People can visit those places. And they are. En masse. And there are several other, huge, parks that don’t have any restrictions at all. Over the next two weeks, tens of thousands of people will congregate in these places and spend long periods of time together in close spaces, sharing drinks and food.

And now my employer has said that I’m supposed to return to work next week. Despite the fact that cases have yet to peak, despite the fact social distancing is the best way to reduce outbreaks, despite the fact that the threat is very far from over, they decided that it’s time for me to go back to work. Their messaging has been atrocious every step of the way and they have done nothing to make me feel like my workplace is a safe environment. As an immigrant, I don’t know my options here. I don’t know what happens to my visa if I quit. I don’t know if they can fire me. It’s equally confusing and terrifying.

I don’t have to return right away. In a strange coincidence, I got sick in an entirely unique way. While everyone else is afraid of a potentially deadly viral infection, my body decided by all hipster about it and give me a life-threatening bacterial infection. About a week ago I noticed a lump in my armpit, a few days later it swelled up to the size of a golf ball and hurt like hell, followed by red streaks on my arm. Somehow my lymph node got a bacterial infection. The doctors were so concerned about it when they saw it that they immediately injected me with a round of antibiotics, and had me come back for a second injected dosage before giving me an additional week of pills. That gives me a legit excuse to avoid work, but only for a week at most. I have no idea what I’ll do after that.

As to be expected, this is all giving me quite a bit of anxiety. And, as it should go without saying, I’m also being kept up at night with thoughts of my friends and family back in other countries, where the odds of infection are much higher. I say this should go without saying, but whenever I mention that I actually have worries and concerns about other human beings, a lot people seemed shocked at that. People are selfish sociopaths it seems.

So yeah, I got my own health problems, the possibility of becoming infected with a potentially deadly virus, thoughts of the economic impact of the pandemic, the uncertainty of the future of my job and visa, and the safety of my friends and family all running through my mind. I’m freaking out. I don’t know what to do. I’m losing my mind.

But, hey, before shit really hit the fan I managed to buy 33 Madonna CD singles and some 7″ singles too. So…yay?

Madonna
Angel (7″ Version)
Angel (Dance Remix)
Angel (Dance Remix Edit)
I’m trying to avoid using the trains right now because, well, duh. But as I said before, before things really started to get real, I was still going out a bit. I was just walking. It wasn’t that big a change for me actually, I try to walk about 13,000 steps a day. One day I decided to trek up to Coconuts Disk in Ekoda. It’s one of my top five record stores in Tokyo. Every time I go there I end up buying some weird prog LP, an awesome Japanese pop record on CD, and even the occasional tape. This trip was no different, in addition to snagging that rad Star Trek cover I shared a while back, I also managed to find the Japanese 7″ single for “Angel.”

While I’ve been an avid Madonna collector for nearly 20 years now (hi I’m gay), I only recently starting diving into 7″ collecting. They don’t always interest me, to be honest. I mostly collect singles for the remixes. That’s why I’m so into 12″ singles, they almost always have the most and best remixes, with CD singles often a close runner-up. Seven inch singles usually don’t have anything all that different aside from the radio remix, which, let’s be real, usually aren’t that different. But for those of you who really dig 7″ remixes, here you go. Enjoy the minute differences!

But the 7″ for “Angel” does have one rarity of note, an edit of the dance remix. While the full-length dance remix made its way to a few different formats over the years, I think that the 7″ edit of said remix was exclusive to the 7″ single. I could be wrong. I’m wrong a lot.

I know that the proper full-length dance remix was on CDs because the rip I’m sharing right now is from one of those CDs. If you got the dance remix from my blog eons ago, redownload it now. The CD rip sounds better, as CD rips are want to do. I found this CD at Recofan in Shibuya, another amazing store. When I saw on Twitter that they were having a sale on Madonna CD singles, I made the decision to walk all the way there and back, nearly 20,000 steps. Not gonna let something like social distancing stop my gay ass from getting my Madonna, motherfuckers.

I’m very stressed and recently bought a boatload of Madonna. Listening to Madonna makes me feel better. Expect more Madonna next week.

Stay safe out here. If your boss wants you to go to work in a pandemic kick them in the groin.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2020 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Madonna, remixes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.