Hospital Visit

I went to the hospital the other day because I couldn't hear out of my right ear.  I had planned on going after school but my teachers insisted that I go early.  I said ok I guess, and at the hospital I figured out that you can only sign in from the hours of 8 to 11.  The hospital closes in the evening.

Have you heard of this?  Holy hell, I feel like being super careful in the evening now.  I have no idea what people do if they break a bone at 6 pm.  Do they just wait until the morning? Plus they close on the weekends.  They told me to come back after my medicine ran out, which would have been Saturday.  I told this to my vice principal and he said that I'd have to go Monday since they wouldn't be open.  It's funny but scary.  Sure hope I don't break my bone at like 8 pm on Friday.  Goodness.

After 2.5 hours of waiting in line, I got to see the doctor.  She cleaned my ear out and gave me something to get medicine.  The whole ordeal, doctor visit plus medicine, cost me around $35ish.  That's cheaper than some people's copay in the states I think.  My vice principal noted how expensive it is in Japan, but I told him that my doctor visit alone in the states was twice what I paid overall for that.

医者【いしゃ】 (isha) doctor; physician

Poker, 3 Day Weekend, Basketball Game

One of the things that I'm happy I'm in Japan for is the ability to play online poker again.  I'll probably never be able to stop playing.  Being back on Full Tilt is awesome.  Had a bit of a bad start but am back and playing decently well.

We get a 3 day weekend this week.  Not exactly the 5 day weekend I might get back in the states for Thanksgiving but good enough!  Planning to go down to Ishinomaki on Saturday morning, then to Sendai for the evening for dinner.  It should be pretty fun, and we're planning to go clubbing afterwards, just the Kesennuma people.  My neighbor said it best, that I don't stand a chance with the girls if the room is full of white guys, and he's right.

I went to a basketball game last weekend where Sendai played Yokohama.  Sendai was ahead for the entire game until the end when Yokohama came back and made it exciting.  Sendai ended up winning by 3 points.  It's funny because when the opposite team shoots a free throw, the home team BOOs them!  I never got over that and laughed each time they did that.  Good times.

My car has some problems, although I think I didn't explain them well, and they are going to try and fix the wrong things.  Sigh... I need better Japanese.

野次る【やじる】 (yajiru) to jeer (at); to hoot; to boo; to catcall; to heckle

Survey asks: What makes Japanese citizens feel distinctly Japanese?

I read an article that can be found here that talked about what made Japanese people feel Japanese.  Some of the answers made sense, such as eating rice and miso soup for breakfast, putting natto on rice and drinking Japanese sake.  There were some responses though that were pretty egotistical and funny.  Here they are:

—When I wait in line without complaining. (Female, 31)

—The joy of drinking water right out of the faucet. (Female, 39)

—Even if I’m dealing with a difficult or unreasonable situation, I never show my true colors and keep my feelings to myself.  (Female, 24)

—When I get irritated with people who are unable to read a situation or pick up on the mood of a conversation. (Female, 30)

The comments from sore readers were much better though.  Here are some of the good ones:

--Complimenting his fellow gaijin friend/coworker/stranger for such amazing skills to handle chopsticks.

--When I smoke irregardless of who is sitting nearby.

-- When I pretend to be asleep on the Tokyo Subway and refuse to offer my seat for pregnant women.

--the only words in my vocabulary are sugoi, kawaii and oishii

--Surprised nobody mentioned the four seasons, which only happen in Japan.

--My girlfriend came over the other day and said "Make me feel like a Japanese woman!"

I told her to do unpaid overtime.

大和魂【やまとだましい】 (yamato/damashii) the Japanese spirit

Bunkasai, Sendai Night Out

On October 28th my schools had their Culture Festival, or Bunkasai in Japanese.  Both my middle schools have theirs on the same day so I can only go to one of them, which sucks because I'd really like to see them both.  I went to Niitsuki this year and the kids did the usual of singing and putting on plays.

This picture is of a bunch of kids doing Taiko, which is the name of those drums that you see.  Very cool performance.  The kids that write me letters were performing in this, although I can only see one of them here.  I like watching Taiko performances, especially when the people performing are close to me.  For a video of this, you can watch it here.  I'd like to learn Taiko but I'm definitely too lazy for that.

The school has an all member chorus thing going on where they all sing a few songs.  Afterwards they break into their respective classes to compete against each other for the top prize of a trophy that no one actually gets to take home.  It was fun watching and they actually sang pretty well for the most part.  Video here.



Last Friday a few of us went to Sendai to hang out.  3 of us walked into a bar and sat down talking to 3 girls.  The bar tender told us to get out if we couldn't follow his rules of having fun drinking, but we think honestly he was just jealous.  After we actually did leave, one of the girls that another ALT was trying to hook up with took off.  Worst part was was that he paid for the girls' bill which was 7,800 yen (about $85) and ended up getting nothing out of the night, but that was his fault for being dumb.  The bar owner followed us out and yelled at us to "fuck off," "you got a problem with me?" and to "bring it on" if we wanted to fight.  I would have egged him on a bit more, but if he actually did come running at me for a fight, and the police got involved, I would have been toast.  The Japanese justice system ALWAYS sides with the Japanese before the foreigners, no matter who was in the right.  The best revenge for that?  I got the number of the best one and now we are talking through phone messages.  Not sure anything will happen (she is 3 hours away from me), but it's nice to kind of flirt a little.

かかってこい！ kakatte/koi: Bring it on!