I haven’t had much time to go out since receiving my Leica Q2 a week and a half ago. The weather’s been a bit depressing lately, but the thought of being infected by COVID-19 is the main factor keeping me indoors. Statistically, the chance of infection is low, but I’m trying to minimize the risk as much as possible since I’m flying to Boston next week – at least that’s the plan.
Today, we decided to sneak out for a quick walk around the neighborhood since it was so sunny and warm. We don’t live in a particularly extravagant or flashy part of Tokyo, but I thought it would be a good idea to bring my Q2 along in case anything interesting caught my eye.
On the way to a restaurant, we saw a cat basking in the glory of the sun. The Q2 has a 28mm lens, so I had to get quite close. Surprisingly, the cat seemed not to care, which is completely out of line with my past feline experiences.
One thing that has always fascinated me about Japan is how quiet the side-streets are in the afternoon. I’ve never experienced this phenomenon anywhere else. For example, I used to live in a suburban neighborhood in Massachusetts. Walking around town, there was always a distinct sense of “people live here”. I can’t say the same about Japan.
Even in the country’s most populated city, Tokyo, I sometimes wonder if I’m living in a simulation where “other people” are rendered in realtime only when the underlying software that runs this universe deems it necessary. It’s kind of like Grand Theft Auto, where the world around your character doesn’t exist until it needs to. Next time you’re in Japan, go walk around a quiet neighborhood. You’ll understand what I mean.
During our walk, we passed an Italian restaurant we hadn’t seen before. Since is was almost lunch time, we decided to eat there instead of cooking at home. The pasta was pretty good, but I was paranoid during the whole meal. When the chef was cooking our food, I saw him cough once, and my thoughts immediately escalated from “he probably has hay fever” to “what if he’s infected with coronavirus” to “I’m going to spend the rest of the week in the hospital because of pasta”. Like I said earlier, the risk of infection is low, and I’m happy to report that I have not developed any symptoms 24 hours later.
