Swine Flu #2

Day 13 - Swine Flu comes to Tokyo and people are really freaked out about it. A college in Osaka was closed because they had one case. So... one of our students is sick this morning and needs medical attention. We tell the concierge, which sets off calls to the local health offices and we are given an appointment to see a doctor about 3 blocks from here. The concierge tells me that we should wear masks when going to the doctors office and that if the doctor determines that the student may have influenza that "we" may be quarantined at the local hospital. Luckly, the doctor thinks it is something else... I don't think anyone realizes how close we come to all being quarantined and the program coming to an end 3 weeks early.

quarantine inspection document

Here is the notice of health inspection that each person gets to leave the airplane. We were also given a face mask to wear once leaving the flight too. There is another UF group doing a cinema workshop here in Tokyo and they have been asked by the Japanese government to please cancel their program. So I think that we are very lucky to be able to bring 15 people here and spend 5 weeks during all this flu scare. I think partly because we are so small that we can fly under the radar. 

swine flu

DAY ONE: Hey guys.... so I am going to make this blog work so stay tuned for daily posts. I swear I will post daily (Rae!) Flew into Narita on Saturday after a one day layover in Chicago (dont ask). We were told that we would be quarantined for 30 minutes while the Japanese authorities did a thermo scan of everyone on the flight. It was very interesting to see the swine flu team enter the flight completely wrapped in protective clothing, using a thermal scanner to look for people who have a higher than normal body temperature (see photo). After being scanned everyone was given a yellow sheet that declared they had passed the health check and were asked to show the paper to the entry officer. Later that day the first case of swine flu entered Japan in a 5pm flight and about 30 people were quarantined in a local hotel. In the US they never really say why the swine flu is so bad but the basic story is that the swine flu is able to recombine easily and if it recombines with the deadly avian flu we would have a big problem.