Japanese don't get sick on Wednesday...

Of course many of you probably know that the Japanese medical system is socialized. Which, if you listen to the Anti-Socialist Americans means looong lines to fix a broken bone and X-rays from the 1950's...

Of course, none of that is true here in Japan.

So far, I've gone to the doctor four times, twice for routine health checks and twice because of random illnesses that have gripped me for whatever reason (Well, not for whatever reason, I'm a teacher... kids are germ-generators... it DOES make some sense).

The Health checks are routine and I don't need to do anything more than say "Hi, I'm Me" and they load me into a room, take my blood pressure (Which has been falling every single time... yeah!), blood, etc... make me pee in a cup, then haul me off to be nuked (X-rayed). Then, (As you may remember from my last little excursion), they tell me my kidneys are failing... wait... no, you just excersized? Oh, then there is no problem.

Well, I have had a very persistant cold, It started last Monday and by last Wednesday I had lost my voice. My voice came back on Thursday, but the stupid cold stayed on... By Wednesday, my Vice Principal was threatening to carry me to the hospital himself.

The problem is this: we have no IC's (People who help us with Japanese-English interface) here in MyCity anymore. Our wonderful IC whom I really adored, quit about 5 months ago... meaning that the teachers out here are completely on their own.

Now, I had discovered that a doctor at the hospital near me spoke English, so I figured I was set.

Nope.

You see, the only Hospital open on Wednesday in my town is the ER hospital. And it's only open until 5.

I'm guessing the ER part of the ER hospital stays open... Strike that: I'm hoping the ER part of the ER hospital stays open... But I'm not sure.

Anyway, That's one of the most frustrating things about being an American on Japanese soil... In the beginning I used to think the Japanese were simply crazy, but now I am starting to see Mal's point of view with Americans just expecting everything instantly.

Gas stations close at 9, ATMs close at 8, Hospitals close at 5 or 6, Pharmacies close at 4... if you need these things, you need to be there before these times. You MUST plan ahead here.

Some things don't make any sense, of course... how do you plan your car accident ahead of time? "Oh wait, it's 7:30, I do believe I'll postpone my salmonella poisioning until tomorrow morning..."

I guess those would be ER things... provided the ER stays open (It should be noted that the ER is brand-new... built after I came here... so even if it does stay open... what did they do before it was here?)

And it is a small crack in the vision of the ceaslessly working Japanese... because no matter how hard you work, you have to leave before these times to pull money out, go get aspirin (Which you can only get in a Phamacy here... so if you have a headache, please have it before 4PM), get gasoline, or even go to the supermarket (Only convinience stores are open 24 hours, and not even all of them are at that). So even though they'd like you to think they never leave their desks and are tireless workers... it cannot possibly be true... I have no desire to project that image and it is a full time job scheduling things so that I never run out of gas, always have at least $300 on me at all times, and am properly fed... Add a cold and man I'm overloaded.

Erm... I don't have much else to add to this story except that: Without my IC I had to go to the Hospital by myself, explain my symptoms in Japanese, respond to questions in Japanese, and get instructions in Japanese... Which, I'll tell you now, was a real... pain. :) It's bad enough to be sick... it's worse to be sick and alone in a foreign hospital and having to rely on your broken foreign language skills... It's even harder if you are someone like me who understands that Doctors are people too and feel compelled, even through all of these drawbacks, to crack jokes and smile at the doctors and nurses... I hope you appreciate me, Mal!!!!!! ;D

Oh, Mal, Dad: My blood pressure was 120 over 60 (Or 60 over 120... I never remember which one is the top number). Which has fallen steadily from 200 over 90 when I arrived in Japan two years ago. Since my first health check upon my arrival (Where the nurse looked at my 200/90 and nearly panicked right there and then), my blood pressure has never ventured even near there...

---Still sick, coughing (That cough that you love so much, Mal... and my kids run in sheer terror from), and sniffling... and just generally wishing that they had NyQuil here...

The Shinjuku Photo Safari

So, last Friday was a national holiday, so my friend Blain and I packed up our cameras and headed off to the Buroughs of Tokyo on a Photo Safari:

Our first stop was Asakusa, with the beautiful Sensoji Temple:

I don't know why the temple had public phones, but they were interesting, and both Blain and I found them stunning... needless to say we both took pictures...

...then I set up with my street-zoom (300MM lens) and started taking pictures of the people entering the temple complex... I love this man's face:

I noticed a great deal of little kids in Kimono... Blain told me that it was Seven-Five-Three, the traditional holiday where kids aged -you guessed it-, seven, five or three years old dressed up and went to the temples... Well, this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up:

But that wasn't the best shot from Asakusa... I saw this little girl in a purple kimono and I redied my camera... then I took three shots... the last one (The one that came up on my screen) was a real loss... out of focus, cropped badly... bad color balance and I was so sad... but then, after I got home, I saw the first one of the set (The one I had set up my camera for... she was walking toward me after all), and I was stunned:


I'm not sure I could have done better if I tried...

....

I also got some great shots of lanterns from the main thuroughfare...

I love those lanterns:

...

After that was Shinjuku. The section of Tokyo famous for having the Krispy Kreme... yes, THE Krispy Kreme... there was a sign out front that said "The wait to get a doughnut is 1 hour and 30 minutes"... the line for the door trailed back 150 meters or so from the building entrance... I took pictures, but they weren't really "Portfolio quality", so you all can see them in my scrapbook when I get back. :D

What I did take from Shinjuku was this stunning picture of the high-rises from the bookstore... the amazing thing is; I took this shot without a tripod! :D

Shinjuku also had this wonderful display of what it called "A Circus of Light". Wire pagodas and wire animals were rigged with Christmas lights in a fantastic display... of course, me being me, I didn't care much for the wide shots... but I loved the close-ups...

Last we came back to Akihabara, also known as the Electric Town... If it runs on electricity, you can find it in Akihabara. I found this light shop (That's all they sell, lights... ) on a street corner and decided to have a lot of fun... This shop was so bright that on this cold November night I was being warmed by being on the sidewalk in front of this place... I set my light meter to the sidewalk, locked the shutter open (So my camera thought it was going to take a picture of a nighttime street), and snapped this shot:

---Shutterme