Published April 10, 2020

Published 4/10/2020

We all have been impacted by COVID-19 in different ways. Here are some things Keiro staff members have been doing in their personal lives during this time.

Kent
During the COVID-19 lockdown, my fiancé and I have been practicing physical distancing while also supporting our favorite Little Tokyo businesses. In this photo, I am enjoying a Café Dulce sausage donut – typically an item only found during Nisei Week!

Michelle
I have decided to sew my own face mask during this time for myself! Cover your face when you have to go outside.

Kylie
Family has always been important to me which is why I decided to host a virtual family dinner through Zoom. While it took some time to get everyone acquainted with using Zoom, it was definitely worth every minute to reconnect with extended family from miles away.

Makoto
To stay connected with my friends and family, I have been using smartphone applications and wearable technology to track workouts and runs. I enjoy these activities during self-isolation, but I do them with my housemates for both camaraderie and motivation.

Lauren
While physical distancing and staying at home, I’ve been texting my grandma more often. We play Word Jumble from her LA Times newspaper and try to figure out the words together.

Kevin
I’ve always hated the idea of running for fun, and I’ve always sought out the gym to get my daily exercise. However, the “Safer at Home” policy has really given me the opportunity to see how fun it is to get outside and just run. Every day, I try to go a couple of blocks farther than the day before.

Irene
During COVID-19, our family uses the Viber app to stay connected. We send each other birthday greetings and share various food recipes with each other.

Hiromi
My family and I live slightly far away from Japanese food markets, an essential for our family. I spent one day going shopping at the Japanese market for both my family and some of our older Japanese family friend neighbors and made deliveries… of course keeping physical distance.

Marielle
To stay connected with my friends during this time, I play the game Animal Crossing on my Nintendo Switch. For a lot of my peers, this game has been a part of our childhoods – we haven’t seen a new installment in seven years! Through the Internet, people are able to visit each other’s towns and play together, allowing us to form a sense of community through this common interest.

Julie
I play Animal Crossing with my kids to touch base with them and to feel like I accomplished outdoor tasks. My daughter and I also go on google duo and play remotely with each other. Last night the kids came to my island to take a virtual family photo.

Brad
During this time of working from home, I learned how to use Zoom as another tool to work more efficiently with my peers through face-to-face communications. I plan to change to a Zoom virtual background next.

Claire
I found that having workout buddies keeps me motivated. When my gym announced that they would continue classes, I asked friends that I haven’t talked to in a while to join in on the fun. Friends from childhood, college, and community friends from all over: Glendora, Walnut, La Mirada, and even San Jose joined in! It’s so nice to work on my health and see my friends at the same time during a time of staying in the house.

Heather
My friends and I had a virtual cooking party to make our own freezer-friendly food, including gyoza.

John
Here’s my day: first thing is sweep the driveway, light breakfast (smoothie), work in the yard pulling weeds and trimming. I spend a couple of hours contacting friends and family making sure they are okay and enjoying their conversations. 

Mark
I work on small DIY projects such as refinishing outdoor furniture, COVID-19 mask making (for personal use), Long term (deep) spring cleaning, deferred household maintenance projects, and more. This is one of the leather chairs I have deep cleaned.

Lydia
During Safer at Home, I work out on the treadmill 30 minutes every day to keep myself healthy.

Brandon 
During Safer at Home, in order to have somewhat of a “normal” life, I have been doing virtual happy hours with my regular Little Tokyo happy hour crew. For one of the happy hours, we also included some of the bartenders from our favorite local bar that was impacted by COVID-19. 

Gene
Trying to declutter my garage! One good thing is that I have a lot of donations now to give out. This is going to be a very long project… sigh.

What do you to pass the time? We would like to feature what Our Community does to pass the time during the COVID-19. Submit a picture and description to [email protected], and you may be featured in an upcoming article!