I interviewed Tamara on February 19th. I asked her about the actual impact of the COVID-19 on her life in the U.S. She said that it had a significant mental impact on them in the U.S. throughout 2020 and 2021. Before Corona, there was no culture of wearing masks in the U.S., so many people felt uncomfortable with it because it was different from Japan. Also, more people felt stressed because they had less interaction with others. She said she didn’t like wearing a mask or turning on the video in ZOOM. I sympathized with her because I also don’t like participating in ZOOM with a video. In order to maintain her mental health, she ate her own food instead of relying on delivery services like Uber Eats. I thought this was a very good way to relieve stress by going shopping and talking to people there. In Japan, there were masks and benefits of 100,000 yen. Still, in the U.S., there were benefits of over 1,000 dollars for restaurants and businesses that were having trouble running, for the unemployed, and for people who were having difficulty making ends meet. I was surprised at the amount and felt that Japan was stingy.
Runa Izumida
