Panic shopping begins
For the last couple of months, the novel coronavirus has been pretty much contained in Japan - with the unfortunate exception of that doomed cruise ship in Yokohama Port, the Diamond Princess. However, things are starting to slip, just as schools are set to re-open. The Olympic Games have been postponed. Toilet paper, tissues and face masks have been sold out since January, but today the rush on food began everywhere when Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike announced that she wanted a moratorium on all non-essential travel in the city starting over the weekend of March 28-29, and people are getting jittery. Throughout January, February and March the rise in confirmed coronavirus infections in Japan was fairly slow, creating the illusion that Japan had the situation under control. But in late-March the number of confirmed cases grew and grew, and the Governor was worried about an imminent explosive rise in the number of cases in the capital shattering the illusion of control and overwhelming the hospitals.
Around noon on Thursday, March 26th I was at home alone when I got a panicky-sounding phone call urging me to go out and buy food.
So I did.
Business at local convenience stores, supermarkets, dollar stores and drug stores is orderly but brisk as shelves are being emptied.
I hesitate to take pictures of people in the stores, lines of shoppers. So, I just take pictures of the empty/emptying shelves instead. But trust me, aisles are crowded and there are long lines of customers. No lines to get into the stores, just waiting at the cash registers.