Anna Matsushita

  31st March 2024 marks Easter, a celebration in Christianity commemorating the resurrection of Christ. This widely embraced Christian holiday, now quite prevalent in Japan, is a moveable feast, changing dates each year. Despite the uncertainties of the pandemic, places like Tokyo Disneyland used to host Easter events in pre-COVID times, featuring egg-shaped chocolates and festive treats. The Easter period spans about a month and a half. In Catholic tradition, it kicks off with Shrove Tuesday's Carnival, 41 days before Easter, followed by Ash Wednesday, marking the start of Lent – a period focusing on prayer, fasting, and charitable acts, sharing in the suffering of Christ. During Lent, individuals often undertake acts of kindness or give up indulgences such as sweets. On Shrove Tuesday, known in the UK as "Pancake Day," festivities involve making and flipping pancakes in a unique competition. Towns and villages host pancake-flipping challenges, and some even attempt the

 March came. The number of COVID-19 patients now seemed to be under control. Somehow, people seemed to have got used to the situation. One of the thing I noticed during COVID days is that we were not good at keeping social distance. The queue at the supermarket and train station were always packed, not many people seemed to be aware of the rule to keep distance anymore. I reckon it is partly because there is no penalty for rule breaking.  It was difficult to keep distance from the crowd, but you need to go shopping for grocery and take public transport to go to job centre. The number of COVID-19 patients was at one of the lowest in March 2021, with daily about 1,000 patients throughout Japan. Vaccine was gradually on roll out, and essential workers began taking vaccines. All we needed was a blue print when those who are not essential workers can get the jabs. I felt a luck of festivity in this season. We do have celebration of “Doll’s day”, when families with little girls celebrate

  On 7th April 2020, a state of emergency was declared in Japan. Our company followed the request from the government to close the office for a month. At office, our colleagues and I said farewell to each other, promising to meet next month. We have never felt the words “Take care” meant something – some colleagues even laughed at the implication of the words too exaggerated. But we needed to take care of ourselves more than ever, to meet again in May. I made a mental to-do list while on furlough. A month at home was quite long. On top of some of the homework I was assigned from my supervisor, I decided to walk, bake, and read some books. For baking, I decided to borrow some ideas from the celebration of Easter. As anyone working in the travel industry, I was always conscious of holidays abroad – Shrove Tuesday, Easter, May Day, Bank holidays, the Ascension Day, Ramadan, Christmas, and many more. We needed to make sure that the tour schedules will fit in to avoid the closure of some of