COVID Quarantine Tokyo Style

29th floor Looking at Tokyo Tower and Covid Screening at Narita Airport

On last day of a 14 day quarantine on the 29th floor of a nice very silent Tokyo hotel.  The odyssey starts in Dallas on an empty jumbo jet.  Again less than 15 passengers! And when you land at Narita, its a 2 hours COVID testing screening process right at the airport before taking a shuttle directly to quarantine.  
This means one does not come out of one's room, food is placed outside the door and the only person one sees is a temperature taker twice a day.  So how did I feel going in?  Excited to have some "me time"!  I brought my guitar, books, and a Wi-Fi speaker. Time to catch up with my Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning course (of which I'm still only halfway through after 6 months), time to read and reflect (including many books I have started, Churchill's Trials, The 5th Discipline, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Name of the Wind).  Time to reach out to all my friends and have some meaningful conversations the way bohemians used to do.  

What I have learned?   I haven't gone stir crazy or been lonely.  fact, I could have used more time to do everything I hoped to do.  I has been an enjoyable and enlightening experience! I would do it again!  

Why?  Guitar (my "Wilson" ala 'Castaway'), music, reading, learning, reflection and a few friends...  

A few surprises.  No need to change out of pajamas, wear anything else or comb your hair.  Quite liberating1  A big window looking out over Tokyo is a mesmerizing view when exercising. Exercising can be vigorous dancing as well as the traditional yoga and running in place/burpees  I understand better what it might be to be a rich tycoon living in a penthouse like say Howard Hughes where everything is taken care of. Just let the beard grow.  Still, I can feel that I'm not in the shape I could be if I could get outside to walk and bike every day.  Online courses with video lectures can be more enjoyable and productive watching while exercising.  Uber Eats is cool to get any type of food one wants!  And Google Translate ensures I can order from any venue in a strange new land.  Having a Wi-Fi speaker and internet music apps fills a room with amazing sounds that makes activities more enjoyable. I caught up on my journal and spent a great deal of time on reflection. It's in some ways more "efficient" reflection than hiking solo as there is no chores with food on demand and no need to do any cleaning. 

Dancing, Entertaining and Studying AI with 'Wilson'

I didn't read my books as much as I thought I would or make as much progress in my AI homework.  Mostly I spent more time on personal reflection stories and spiritual growth web sites (I never turned on the TV).  But also too much time on mundane aspects of work. I'm growing less and less tolerant of wasting precious time I have left.  Once COVID allows travel and social action, I think its time to explore new roads.  

Living in a hotel "bubble" with just a big window view of "reality" gave me new perspective into the workings of our mind to form "reality" and "delusions" out of emptiness as Buddhism refers to.  Nothing exists in my world except the hotel room life.  Everything else is a manifestation of my mind at least while I am in this space.  The big hotel window is a view into others reality.  Now I am cared for and fed like the character in the movie, "The Truman Show", but what I perceive, feel, and imagine forms my reality.  I can expand it by reaching out to others, but if I didn't everything is simply in my mind.  I have the choice to empty it of delusions and be at peace or fret about things that don't exist in the here and now

I was disappointed that with a few exceptions most "friends" and family are not keen to interact and carry on in-depth or lengthy conversations virtually or in writing, the way one reads about from the last century??  Just a terse response. Took some time to think about this.  Are they really friends then?  Some, perhaps not. At least not in the way I value. For some its because, they have a mindset that if you can't be together in person, there is less impetus to commit time or energy.  Most don't in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt subscribe to the idea that, "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people"   So should I continue to reach out?   I decided that my intention was paramount.  If I can add value to others then I will engage proactively, as I have found that over time some of these seeds can yield amazing experiences as well as help others grow. 

Cemetery Where We are All Headed
Beautiful Manicured Gardens



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