Silent meal, silent workout

Six weeks have passed since the state of emergency declared over COVID-19 in populated areas in Japan such as Tokyo, Osaka and etc. Japan is in third wave of the Corona infection.

The state of emergency was declared last year in April, when various facilities were closed or shorten business hours including restaurants and bars needless to say, department stores, movie theaters, sports gyms and even schools. Many of office workers were also directed to work at home.

The situation under the emergency this time is quite different.
Theaters, gyms and department stores are open. Commuter trains are crowded. Students go to school.

According to advisories of infection specialists, people seem to have found a way to cope with the virus, “shut your mouth”.
There are lots of posters or notices, “SILENT XXX”.
SILENT MEALS
SILENT WORKOUTS
SILENT SHOWERS
SILENT RIDES (on a bus or an elevator) 

If you have visited Japan, you may have noticed that many of public areas are relatively quiet, at least before 5 pm, in trains, coffee shops, elevators..

When I was in China, we, non-Chinese, commented China was too noisy. When a Chinese person replied to us, “Japan is too quiet to relax”.

It may not be far away until Japanese lose oral communications, perhaps except on-line meetings.