Road to Recovery: Cleanliness and Culture (Series 8)
OPINION PIECE BY MIKI TAKASHIMA (Osaka, JAPAN)
June 6th, 2020
The month of June brings about the seasonal rainy season for Japan. Yes, typically June is the beginning of what is called "梅雨" (reads TSU-YU) although it hasn't hit us yet! The humidity starts. My hair starts to curl naturally outside, a personal note to myself that summer has arrived.
This will be my last series piece on the COVID-19 Road to Recovery articles I have presented to you in the last 8 weeks. There are so many other topics I'd like to cover, and I know I will go back and forth as businesses will continue to build up their normal practices again post COVID-19's attack, but I think many of us are overloading on the subject of the corona virus.
I was doing some digging around on sanitation on the web.
My mother told me that, right after the second world war, Japan was actually not very clean. This was big news to me, because I grew up thinking, without a doubt, that Japan always was conscious about cleanliness and public sanitation. However, it made sense that there was a process, an investment by the government for infrastructure to be put in place, and now it became commonplace and common knowledge... even a bit TOO much of the clean virus?? (if that is even possible.)
A few interesting articles I found are as follows:
BBC: What Japan can teach us about cleanliness
I am now very interested in looking into how different cultures are approaching cleanliness, sanitation practices, and discretion on wearing or not wearing masks in public. I have seen a few news clips online where store owners or floor workers in the USA are facing some conflict, as particular customers actually refuse to wear face masks in various stores. One must wonder, does this violate your right to do what you want? Or what about respecting social practices? What is acceptable?
I look forward to seeing what different cultures and countries accept as their own safety measures, and once tourism is up and running again, how this will be managed.
I know for a fact that Japan will continue to stay clean, because, from my point of view, it is SUPER clean already but the general public seem to still want to clean and sanitize :)
#travelinsight #inspiration #traveltomorrow #fightcabinfever #stayhealthy #tourism #newchallenges