Anna Matsushita

  Our neighbour’s cat came to our garden for an afternoon nap. He has his favourite spot underneath the cherry tomato cage. The roses were in bloom and lavenders were budding. It was fine day, the weather was warm and dry, and everything seemed peaceful. I reflected the past 6 months. Since September 2020, I have been unemployed. The company I worked for needed to lay off 70% of workforce due to COVID19. Somehow, I managed to stay positive while unemployment, with occasional ups and downs. The main reason, I recall, was that I was with my family, also I was in touch with my friends and job advisors through SNS and e-mails. One of the person who supported me was a job counselor. I met my job counselor at his office in Yokohama. He was gentle and always helpful, suggested many job vacancies at stable businesses. My career at travel companies were not in the mainstream of their business. I was working on specialist’s visit abroad. The field of client’s fields were vast, from local or nati

  I’ve been to the office only two days during September 2020, due to reduced working days. The last day at office came very quickly. It was ironic that we should leave the company in September, when travel industry should have been enjoying one of the peak seasons. Quick farewell greeting was exchanged with those who were at the office on the day. It was quite hard to find the right word, as we all knew that no one wanted to leave the company because of Covid-19. I had my last lunch at the office with my old boss and colleagues, chatted over lunch how long we worked and what we were going to do next. One of my boss and my former colleague gave me a box of biscuits. It was a lovely gift from our local chocolate shop. I will treasure this box, as it will be a reminder of our working days together. On the last day of September, our team manager invited the team for farewell lunch. Most of us could make it. It was good to meet them once again, as I could not say good bye to them properly.