I wrote half a post earlier this week, but things are changing so fast in Tokyo that it all became instantly irrelevant so I had to start over today. Teach me for procrastinating.

I had no reason for putting off that post, I just didn’t have the motivation I guess. Self-isolation, even with someone (my boyfriend is at my place, riding this out with me) can be draining. I moved to Tokyo because it seemed like a city with endless things to do. Each day brought upon it a new adventure, exploring the various nooks and crannies to find new and exciting places (that hopefully had good record stores). But in the course of the past two weeks, I’ve left my apartment three times. One was for a late night walk alone in a relatively deserted place, another was for an emergency grocery store run with my boyfriend. The third was a short trip across the street to a vending machine, panic buying a mountain of Coca-cola and Dr. Pepper. I try not to drink that much soda, but with everything going on, one unhealthy habit had to resurface, so I chose that one. At least I’m still able to workout at home thanks to my Ring Fit. I don’t know what I would be doing without that – probably getting mad fat. I’m used to walking about 13,000 steps a day. I don’t even want to look at my phone’s pedometer now. My steps are probably in the double digits. My world has shrank to an area about a quarter of the size of a city block. Apartment, supermarket, vending machine. That’s it.

I think this wouldn’t feel so emotionally draining if I thought that I wasn’t in it alone, but the people of Tokyo really haven’t seemed to grasp the severity of the impending situation, and the indescribable importance of isolating oneself. As of this writing, there are less than 250 reported cases in Tokyo. Now, Japan is still not doing the level of testing that is recommended by the WHO, but it’s still apparent that the virus has not really taken hold in this city yet. There just aren’t that many people who are obviously ill, and hospitals seem to be managing the ones who are just fine. That is all the more reason why isolation is important now. Before things get bad, before there is a spike in cases, people need to stay the fuck home so the virus can’t spread among those who appear to be healthy, but are harboring the virus without showing any symptoms.

A mandatory, one-to-two-week lockdown would do so much to flatten the curve and save lives. But for whatever reason, both the Tokyo government and Prime Minister Abe refuse to take that step. Instead, both issued what they called strong recommendations for people to stay home. That was it. No other action was taken. Some shops did follow the advice and have shuttered their doors this weekend, but others remained open. And while some of the most popular cherry blossom viewing spots were closed to the public, Twitter and Instagram were still full of new pics by idiots eager to take photos of the blossoms, rushing to them like moths to the flame.

Even the national news was contributing to the problem, showing a forecast of the cherry blossoms and explaining that this weekend, the weekend of the “strongly recommended” stay-at-home request, was the absolute best time to see them. NHK is owned by the government. The fact that they can’t stay on message is a travesty.

It did snow today, a lot. And it wasn’t a fun light snow that makes the cherry blossoms all the more beautiful, it was some straight-out-of-Ohio nightmare slush shit. That probably did more to keep people indoors than any government request. However, that’s only one day, and the government request was only for the weekend. Starting tomorrow, businesses will be open as usual, people will be going to work. Nothing will change. A weekend is not enough, it was a futile gesture. It’s hard now to look at the terrifying news coming out of New York City and not imagine that Tokyo will be under similar conditions in just two weeks time.

The company I teach for remains open. I am refusing to go in because the danger in doing so is apparent. It’s a private school with one-to-one lessons in confined spaces. It’s the absolute worst place to be right now. But they keep trying to justify it, to rationalize it. They say it’s safe. They’re providing masks and hand sanitizer. They’re making sure students who don’t feel well have to go home. Whatever. It’s not enough. I’m just waiting for the inevitable notice that my school will be forced to shutdown due to an instructor (or 20) getting sick. And my company will say that it was entirely unpreventable. And that will be a lie.

Sorry if all of that was redundant of my last few posts and/or depressing. It’s just where I am right now.

Sigh. Let’s listen to some Madonna.

 

Madonna
Bedtime Story (Junior’s Wet Dream Mix)
Bedtime Story (Junior’s Dreamy Drum Dub)
Bedtime Story (Orbital Mix)
Bedtime Story (Junior’s Sound Factory Mix)
Bedtime Story (Junior’s Single Mix)
Madonna save us in this time of great duress.

All of these are taken from a CD single, part of my massive haul from a few days back. Again, I think I posted these eons ago, but they were vinyl rips and these sound better.

“Bedtime Story” has aged very well, it has that 90s trip-hop alternative-dance thing going on, but in all the right ways, especially when compared to some other tracks on that album. This single also has “Survival,” and that’s some hella generic 90s white girl RnB. This has a vibe to it that was unique at the time and remains unique still. If you’re reading this blog, then you probably know this already, but this song was co-written by Björk, and it still totally sounds like it. I wish mid-90s Björk and mid-90s Madonna would’ve collaborated more. Hell, I wish both of them would’ve collaborated more with other artists at the time. I also wish that Madonna and Orbital did more work together. Their mix here is the real standout, even better than the excellent Junior Vasquez ones. When Madonna hooked up with William Orbit, she chose the wrong Orb-monikered dance act. She should’ve stuck with Orbital, or gone with The Orb (man that would’ve been rad).

Anyways, drown yourself in music, whiskey, video games, or whatever the hell is getting you through this latest chapter in our stupid apocalypse. Hope that it gets better for those in need, and worse for the bastards in charge.

And here’s hoping Abe and Trump are forced to lick Boris Johnson’s infected eyeballs.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2020 at 5:36 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.