Member-only story

Keeping my sanity during the Corona crisis

Zelda Kasahara
4 min readApr 29, 2020

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I know this sounds strange to those who have been already staying at home for a long time now and who are really impatient. I know many people want to get back to their normal life again and staying inside has become a burden for them. There is no doubt in saying that this whole crisis has put a strain on all of us.
However, I still really enjoy being at home now. Since I came to Japan in 2014 I have been constantly working and trying to find paid jobs. And now I have a forced break in my non-stop working life. And I still feel the time is passing by too quickly.

In the beginning after moving here I struggled for 6 months to survive by part time jobs. Then I got into full time teaching, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, plus overtime work. Meetings on Saturday; when I worked in real estate I usually had to check my phone everyday, almost 24 hours, just to be there for the tenants of the properties we rented out for them.

Having only 10 paid holidays a year, I could only use them if we had enough staff to cover each others shift. And since in Japan also many businesses are understaffed that meant taking holidays was a luxury , it almost never happened.

But having only one or two days off will never make you be able to travel or fully commit to a

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Zelda Kasahara
Zelda Kasahara

Written by Zelda Kasahara

Writer & editor based in Iceland / 日本語・English・Deutsch / Language teacher, translator, editor.

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