I have come. I come for inspiration.

In the first quarter of 2020, I visited Tokyo (Japan) for the first time. I represented the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a bilateral event between Nigeria and Japan. The event was related to promoting?Nigeria's health systems and fell under the NCDC's mandate. At the time, the novel coronavirus disease had just broken in the east, and the world was trying to figure out what to do with it. Dr. Chikwe, the then NCDC Director General, had finished the mandatory self-isolation required of persons who have traveled to high-risk areas, having been in the first WHO team of experts mission to Wuhan, China, in January 2020. Therefore, he needed to stay in his post and not risk another lengthy restriction off-duty. So, he sanctioned my representation. I was his Laboratory Technical Advisor and directly supported the Japanese Government's projects within Nigeria CDC.

At the time, traveling to Japan seemed a bit foolhardy. The frenzy around the novel virus was almost deafening, but it literarily deafened me to the notion that I was working into any danger. Although Tokyo already had cases of coronavirus infections, and the count was ratcheting slowly, I considered my ability to go in and secure the interests of my people essential. Nigeria had recorded zero cases then, despite laying ambush in the form of enhanced surveillance at the points of entry. Moreover, I was inspired by my boss. If he could go to Wuhan, the outbreak's epicenter, willfully and in furtherance of his call to duty, I need not worry. I followed his lead.

This is not a story about my mission to Tokyo. It isn't about how I got locked out of Nigeria as countries unanimously adopted a quickfire closure of borders a few days after my arrival in Japan. And how I managed to negotiate my way home across locked international borders based on human kindness and diplomatic support from my country. Rather, this is a story of how a keen observation of Japanese society led me to an inspiring hypothesis on how to avoid getting the virus far before many could think it., albeit while the pandemic was in its early stage.

For fear of not being locked away in Japan till God knows when and itching to join family and team back in Nigeria, I cut short my mission and began the improbable journey home. Navigating the only open airs space like a complicated jigsaw, I found myself in Ethiopia and could not move anymore. Arriving in Ethiopia from South Korea just a few hours after my intended next port (Togo) shut her air space to passenger planes, my status changed from a transit passenger to a passenger on quarantine. I chose a hotel, paid for my 14-day accommodation, and surrendered myself to the inevitable challenge of confinement to a 10X10 room.

In my 10X10 quarantine space, I reflected on Japan, the beautiful city of Tokyo, and the friendly people I met who offered to keep me hosted until the lockdown ended at their own expense. I also wondered how it was that despite several trips to the crowded malls and the garden visits to see the nationally treasured cherry blossom, Japan kept a low covid19 infection count compared to US and Italy at the time. So I wrote to my boss with a significant level of self-assurance, highlighting what I"had observed. I recall this critical paragraph in my mail.

doesn'tce the public on the massive use of face masks. This doesn’t have to be N95. Japan has successfully deployed fashionable facemasks made from all manner of fabric. Despite all the criticism of a facemask, its biggest benefit is that anybody who wears it will not touch his face, even if his hand is contaminated. "his is why Japan is better in terms of numbers than others.”

I shared the idea of face masking with a couple of my friends on social media, and " argued back and forth. I remember one feedback that said

“ Thecan'tasures will be counterprodnation'sNigeria, nay Africa, can’t deal using the develo"ed nation's model; we need to think of homegrown solutions.”

However, I stuck to my Japan-inspired solution when I eventually returned to Nigeria. I stayed on my mask with consistency such that, despite testing PCR negative repeatedly while on self-isolation, my colleagues acted like my mask-wearing was a sign that I had the disease. Thankfully, the world woke up to the inspiration soon en"ugh. The seem"ngly impractical idea earned the global sobriquet “mask mandate “and helped to save the world.

Today, I am back to (Nagasaki) Japan. Not for weeks but for years and more for myself than for any representation. Hungry for more inspiration, longing to learn. Interestingly, I am already served. I am awe-struck that Nagasaki, leveled by an atomic bomb during a war in our recent history, is today a city of peace. Does it not inspire you that only peace resonates from the ashes of that event? How can people who experienced an event that nearly extinguished a city and its people only look back and embrace peace in a genuinely this-shall-not-happen-again vehemence? How do they do it? I want to learn.

It is evident from the demeanor of many school children brought to these historical sites and monuments on excursions from different parts of Japan that they are proud of their heritage, present, and future filled with peace bought by a sacrifice in history. This is inspiring. It is for this and more that I have returned.