Anna Matsushita

  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.

  HR sent us an e-mail. “CEO will give us a speech. Please make sure to log on to computer. ” By that time, we cancelled all the businesses we have prepared for the year 2020. One day during lunch break, I chatted with some of the sales staffs, and was enlightened that they were working on few quotations. “I don’t know the exact purpose, but some are seemingly traveling abroad. Not sure if they are travelling from Japan. They are all last-minutes booking. I can only give them a couple of days to decide whether they want to book or not.”  So, we still had some businesses. I knew the volume was not sufficient to feed us all, but looked like business was still continuing – but until when? That was the biggest question I think most of us had in our minds. At the speech, the CEO formally announced that the company will lay off some employees. The detail was to be announced through managements. I remember we were all very quiet, listening to what the CEO was saying through the computer scree

  The years from 2019 to 2021 saw something unexpected for people around the world. In the beginning, no one would have expected this pandemic - later called Covid-19 - to last long, and would give serious influence to our lives.  My life changed greatly due to the outbreak of Covid-19. I was working at a travel company in Tokyo which send tours mainly to Europe, as well as Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Since March 2020, the businesses were cancelled, and due to prolonging Covid situation all over the world, the company had to make decision to announce a redundancy plan. I left the company in early autumn. Since then, my life became both busy and slow in a way. I searched for job vacancy at home and at job centre and applied to whatever of the job that I got interested in. At the same time, I begun taking regular walk and cycle around my neighbourhood as exercise. During daily walks, I began noticing how the life around us seemingly relaxed and unchanged – particularly the nature see