There is an expression in Japanese, 「ウサギの昼寝」(usagi no hirune, “a rabbit nap”). It describes a moment of carelessness that leads to unexpected misfortune. It was a rabbit nap that caused the speedy hare to lose his race against the tortoise in Aesop’s timeless fable, and it was a figurative rabbit nap that caused a lot of trouble for my friend Guy Cocques-Jean. Remember him? Cooped up during the COVID years and 孤独感に襲われて (kodoku-kan ni osowarete, beset by feelings of isolation), he decided to bid Japan a bittersweet farewell.
