I have had my first jab!

I show up at the huge Ginowan municipal sports hall at the appointed time. No one speaks English but why should they? The organizers realize that I am not going to be able to negotiate the various stages and very kindly assign a young man to me who acts as my sheepdog.

He leads me to the balcony seats overlooking the playing area. Here we, I am in a batch along with some 30 other oldies, wait for a bit. I am then shepherded downstairs to a second waiting area.

We wait a bit and are then given a number. Mine was 223. We are taken to a third area where we wait for our number to be called. I am afraid to say that I still cannot recognize longish numbers in Japanese, unless they a spoken very slowly. No worries, as my young guide leads me off when my number is up.

I now sit on the other side of a table from a charming lady who interrogates me in Japanese. Again no worries, as the good shepherd produces an iPad that contains a young man in Tokyo who is an English interpreter! He interprets the lady’s questions and then does likewise with my answers. We have the best fun. Having minutely examined my current state of health and whether or not the Olympics should go ahead I am taken to the final area. Eventually my number is called and I am led into one of the vaccination booths. The smiling doctor asks me some more questions by way of the man in the iPad and then jabs me. It is very fast.

We are then asked to hang around a bit more and are given an exact time when we can leave. I leave at 15:27. We are also given an appointment for the second jab.

The whole process was very smooth and well organised. No stampedes for vaccine.

Thank you Ginowan, thank you my young shepherd, thank you man in the iPad.