This morning I woke up late around 11am. I ate my breakfast of rice balls and got ready for the day. It was about 12p and no naoko. Around 1210 I decide to go to her room. She says to meet in the tatami room. We get in there and I’m being shy with clothes. I don’t know why because we’ve seen each other naked several times. This time I have on more clothes with bra and underwear. So I learned that you put on the undershirt first and the tie goes thru the arm hole and looped thru the bag string. Wrap around front and back and tie in the front. Then the underskirt goes over top the bottom of the undershirt.
Then you put on the kimono, and I realized after watching naoko that my kimono was made for a much smaller girl. There is supposed to be all this extra fabric to be folded over. And I don’t have that much extra L. Oh well. So learn that the right side is folded first and higher than the left. You must tie it with a thin fabric and tie it tight. Then you smooth out the wrinkles and fluff out the extra. Then you tie the rest. Then you put on the obi. You wrap it around twice and then leave the rest for the bow.
I think it turned out quite nice. I am glad that I bought the under garments. Makes it more complete. Then I asked how to clean. She said dry cleaning once a year and I could iron it with a cloth on top. I’m going to go to dinner without the cleaning. I’m going to spray it with wrinkle releaser to freshen it up. She showed me how to fold it and I noticed that she put her yukata back in a nice cloth. I’ll have to see about that.
By this time it was 115 and I was late. Whoops! So I rush to take off and grab my things. I see toon and it looks like she’s barely wearing anything. Maybe I’m hating, but her shirt/dress is really short. She’s skinny as a rail so it doesn’t matter, but dang! And we are off. On such a rainy day. We get to shimbashi and look for the yurikamome. It takes me in a loop around the wing mall. Then I finally notice that it goes up the escalator. We make it to the yurikamome and get in the train. We see taka 2 standing there. Funny to be on the same compartment.
We get to the odaiba and see everyone. Furu was the last to come. We get to muscle park and look at the games available. Chinatsu said that there were games like sasuke. We found it. We bought some tickets and waited in line. There were four events. The bicycle cross, the hanging by your fingernails, and the salmon ladder where you need to move the bar from the bottom to the top, and the sliding bar. We saw a guy complete it perfectly. taka, Brandon, hiroto, and myself were the only ones from our group going to try it. I have to! It’s ninja warrior! So I ask toon to videotape my disaster. The bicycle is much harder than it actually looks. I barely made it a third of the way. Worse on the hanging and then squat for the ladder. Then I made it all the way across the sliding bar, but fell before I could catch the block. But it was fun anyway!
Then we played a soccer and Frisbee game. Then we played a fitness challenge. You had to balance, corrdination and timed hitting targets. We were worried about the coordination because when we saw it earlier it was in Japanese. But we found out we could do it in English. It was left hand, right hand, or both hands, left foot, right foot, or both feet. But you could hear the other machines and it was hard. That was fun. You got points along the way and I ended up in the 60 year old range.
Then we went to dinner at the Chinese buffet. It was really good. I got pasta, meatballs, green beans, dumplings, rice, curry, ice cream and coffee. Then we took some pictures outside with rainbow bridge in the background. We went back downstairs to play some more but we went looking around the mall. We went back to collect the rest and I got a sasuke papa strap and we were off. Schedule over. Toon and I headed back to the asakusa line and that random guy I never met went with us. He talked for a while. Then we saw yuka get on and she talked to us about the day. That same green jumper. Why? I came home and showered and was getting things in my room together. I need to pack!
I called Brandon to figure out some plans and I got a knock on the door. I was telling him how I need someone to help me tell ban san that i’m leaving soon. In my head I was thinking that I’ll need toon to speak English to, her to talk thai to maira, and maria to speak Japanese to ban san. and as luck would have it, all three were at my doorstep. I told Brandon I would call him back. too funny. I said that I was leaving Tuesday around 9am. She said it was ok if I left a little before. Then she said that I need to clean up before I left, I needed to vacuum. Toon kept accidently talking in thai to me. It was a humorous situation. Then ban san left and I asked if there was a time limit for the vaccum. They said 5pm. Great. We never get home before 5p. so I will be vaccuming at 7am in just a few short hours.
So I procrastinated some more and cleaned up a little and then I worked on Brandon and my presentation. I wanted to do it because I didn’t want to use the same one. Brandon was ok with that, but not me. So I did it. There was really no time for us to do it together. We’ve been really busy. Everytime we try to use the computer someone is always trying to talk to us. But I think he should have done more because he has internet at ken’s house and I don’t. oh well. And then I finished but I wanted to write by blog. By the way, tomorrow night’s entry will be the last for a few days. I’m going to Kyoto and Osaka, and won’t be taking the laptop with me. Too much weight. Need to travel light. Oyasumi nasai!
“You should change your pen. Get a new pen. I like my pen, it is not broken” -- toon
mamonaku – as soon as? I hear that on the train all the time.
Monday, June 30, 2008
June 28
Today we are meeting at 1045 at hamamatsucho. I told toon last night we should leave at 1020. I woke up late at 10am. But I get cleaned up, dressed, and make up in time. I knock on her door and she’s not ready. I head downstairs and then she comes. We are late. As we are walking I’m always ahead. I keep turning back and motioning for her to catch up. We get to the station and miss the train. We catch the next one and then walk to hamamatsucho. We get there at exactly 1045, but I was walking fast. I see taka and Brandon. We are still waiting on yoshi. I’m just glad that I’m not the last one there. Yoshi comes and he says that he had a cold yesterday. We head to akihabara.
We get there and walk toward some vending machines. We get odenkan. It is oden or ramen in a can. You can get it hot or cold. I wanted ramen since I hadn’t had any yet. Then we walk to the maid café. We wait in line and eat our ramen. Brandon got ramen like me, but when we opened it up there was pork in there. So taka switched with him for the oden. We get inside and wait for the bar to open up. The tables are meant for 4. the girls are all in maid outfits and when you get seated they all say in unison ‘thanks for coming back master’ or something like that. You get to sit for one hour and you can only order one time. You can order to play a game or take pictures. You can’t take pictures with your own camera, but they have a Polaroid-ish. I ordered a berry parfait. All of the girls were very cute except one or two. We played a game with one of the maids. A dog bone game. You roll the dice to see which game you play and we got the cat but it was broken. Then we played the dog. You pick a card and pick up the color and how many bones it says. I lost. Then we took pictures. We got honey and she was really cute. It was a very fun experience.
Then we went to a comic book store. We get to the third floor and it’s all yowi. Boys that like boys. Perfect. The boys were grossed out but I took pictures. We saw a donki and went in because toon had never seen one. She found the make-up and was kinda upset because it was cheaper than the makeup she bought. Whatever. Then we left and went to the gachipon center. Capsules capsules everywhere. I got an alice figure, red riding hood, kapibara, maido pin, hellsing integra (from the new series), and some others I cant’ think of. I think we walked a bit more and then went to the station to head to harajuku.
We started walking down takeshita street and it was ridiculously crowded. We found a daiso, a 100yen shop. I found some more notebooks and those slim folders I like. We were waiting for toon so I went to look at the stockings. There are several stores. We also had some crepes. I got blueberries and ice cream and after I got mine, toon saw that they had apples and cinnamon. Of course. The display was after the register. Nice. Then we walked to shibuya station and met with chinatsu.
We walked to dinner at the lockup. It was very dark inside and there were some things banging in cages. We get to the line and see people being handcuffed and led away. So we put Brandon as the leader and he got handcuffed. The rooms are all set up like jail cells. We get inside and they closed the gate. Funny. We ordered salad, manja rice, fries, beer. Then the lights went out and we heard gun shots and banging and screaming. Then the black light and sirens came on. You could smell the cap guns. It was funny. Then we ordered fun drinks. Yoshi got a chemistry set, taka got a syringe full of red. Then we started playing Russian roulette with the food. We ordered shue cream puffs, , takoyako, and soba. 2 of each item had a lot of wasabi inside. I got lucky and never had wasabit. Yoshi and toon each had one in the cream puffs and takoyako, and then she picked for taka and Brandon and each of them got the wasabi soba. It was a really fun night. Then we went to the drug store so I could buy more astringent. It was a little hard explaining what I needed but we figured it out. Then we headed home. Yoshi was going back to school and we went with him. We really needed to book the Osaka ryokan. And back home I went.
Oyasumi nasai.
We get there and walk toward some vending machines. We get odenkan. It is oden or ramen in a can. You can get it hot or cold. I wanted ramen since I hadn’t had any yet. Then we walk to the maid café. We wait in line and eat our ramen. Brandon got ramen like me, but when we opened it up there was pork in there. So taka switched with him for the oden. We get inside and wait for the bar to open up. The tables are meant for 4. the girls are all in maid outfits and when you get seated they all say in unison ‘thanks for coming back master’ or something like that. You get to sit for one hour and you can only order one time. You can order to play a game or take pictures. You can’t take pictures with your own camera, but they have a Polaroid-ish. I ordered a berry parfait. All of the girls were very cute except one or two. We played a game with one of the maids. A dog bone game. You roll the dice to see which game you play and we got the cat but it was broken. Then we played the dog. You pick a card and pick up the color and how many bones it says. I lost. Then we took pictures. We got honey and she was really cute. It was a very fun experience.
Then we went to a comic book store. We get to the third floor and it’s all yowi. Boys that like boys. Perfect. The boys were grossed out but I took pictures. We saw a donki and went in because toon had never seen one. She found the make-up and was kinda upset because it was cheaper than the makeup she bought. Whatever. Then we left and went to the gachipon center. Capsules capsules everywhere. I got an alice figure, red riding hood, kapibara, maido pin, hellsing integra (from the new series), and some others I cant’ think of. I think we walked a bit more and then went to the station to head to harajuku.
We started walking down takeshita street and it was ridiculously crowded. We found a daiso, a 100yen shop. I found some more notebooks and those slim folders I like. We were waiting for toon so I went to look at the stockings. There are several stores. We also had some crepes. I got blueberries and ice cream and after I got mine, toon saw that they had apples and cinnamon. Of course. The display was after the register. Nice. Then we walked to shibuya station and met with chinatsu.
We walked to dinner at the lockup. It was very dark inside and there were some things banging in cages. We get to the line and see people being handcuffed and led away. So we put Brandon as the leader and he got handcuffed. The rooms are all set up like jail cells. We get inside and they closed the gate. Funny. We ordered salad, manja rice, fries, beer. Then the lights went out and we heard gun shots and banging and screaming. Then the black light and sirens came on. You could smell the cap guns. It was funny. Then we ordered fun drinks. Yoshi got a chemistry set, taka got a syringe full of red. Then we started playing Russian roulette with the food. We ordered shue cream puffs, , takoyako, and soba. 2 of each item had a lot of wasabi inside. I got lucky and never had wasabit. Yoshi and toon each had one in the cream puffs and takoyako, and then she picked for taka and Brandon and each of them got the wasabi soba. It was a really fun night. Then we went to the drug store so I could buy more astringent. It was a little hard explaining what I needed but we figured it out. Then we headed home. Yoshi was going back to school and we went with him. We really needed to book the Osaka ryokan. And back home I went.
Oyasumi nasai.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
June 27
This morning we left a little after 8am. We got to the hamamatsucho and I got a coffee. I drank half of it. Brandon got there and ate his breakfast. We went up to the platform to wait for our train. I slept a little bit and we got there. First we saw a pt interview. They do this before they get admitted. Then we saw chemothereapy and the outpt clinic. Then we went back to the pharmacy. It was only 11am. So kadota sensei asked us what our purpose was here in japan. She said mainly sight seeing. We always have to make up some bs answer. Well our university had an exchange program with keio university and we thought it would be really interesting to see how pharmacy is in japan. Ehhh! This is the typical answer. Then we talked about what we want to do, pharmacists thinking. How clinical hospital people look down on community pharmacy. Then she let us go for lunch.
I left Brandon and toon to go the ufg bank. I get there and they say they don’t do exchange and the closest place is yokohama, 30 minutes away. Great. So I go back to the birds and find toon looking at a display case. We decide on tendon which is tempura in a rice bowl. It was good. i like tempura much more now. We leave and go down to the grocery store. I found some of those peanut butter sandwiches. And we tried to get an atm to work but they were all in Japanese. We found a hanko storage box and I bought some hair things that don’t really work in my hair. Typical. Then we were walking back and we saw the post office and what looked like another bank. Sweet! I exchanged the rest of my money. It took almost 30 minutes. Toon waited with me.
We get back and I say I’m sorry. Kadota sensei said it was ok. We went up to the 6th floor and watched while a group counseling was in session about cataract surgery. They do cataract surgery twice a week and have many patients. They get advised by a nurse on what to expect before during and after surgery and then a pharmacist comes and explains all of the medications that they will be taking.
We head back downstairs and go with kagaya sensei to the nst meeting. They were all finished when we got there. The doctor then came back to the pharmacy with jellies for us to try. They are used for pts with dysphagia, difficulty swallowing. It happens in many older pts, stroke pts. We tried a salty soy flavor, apple jelly, and potato soup. then we had some tea. We went to go watch an actual test being run. The man was 92 and had trouble swallowing. They x-rayed his throat and we sat the food go in, some chewing and sliding down the esophagus and some food getting stuck in the pocket that goes to the lungs. His right side of his throat was stronger so in order to swallow he’ll need to turn to the left. It was really cool to watch.
Then we went back to the pharmacy and kagaya sensei said that he may not see us on Monday. It was time to go. we went to the station and just missed the train. We caught the next one and met chinatsu at shinagawa station. Toon got on the phone again. She took all my 100 yen coins. We went to the restaurant and met yoshiyama-sensei. He is the original professor that was alice’s preceptor and he wanted to meet us. It was really fun. I had some beer and tried some sake. The one he brought out was licorice tasting. Not great. We went back to school and I was going to update the blog and email but we got talked to. Taka looked up bus stops for us in Kyoto but it’s all in Japanese. Hmmmmm… then we needed to decide if we wanted akiyoshi’s student to meet up with us in Osaka. Then we find out that on july first we are having lunch with matsuyama sensei and akiyoshi sensei. We thought we would be gone by that time. Uh huh.
Madonna – I’m sorry, she says gomennasai. Macura said she said daijobu, but I didn’t hear it.
Bedtime.
I left Brandon and toon to go the ufg bank. I get there and they say they don’t do exchange and the closest place is yokohama, 30 minutes away. Great. So I go back to the birds and find toon looking at a display case. We decide on tendon which is tempura in a rice bowl. It was good. i like tempura much more now. We leave and go down to the grocery store. I found some of those peanut butter sandwiches. And we tried to get an atm to work but they were all in Japanese. We found a hanko storage box and I bought some hair things that don’t really work in my hair. Typical. Then we were walking back and we saw the post office and what looked like another bank. Sweet! I exchanged the rest of my money. It took almost 30 minutes. Toon waited with me.
We get back and I say I’m sorry. Kadota sensei said it was ok. We went up to the 6th floor and watched while a group counseling was in session about cataract surgery. They do cataract surgery twice a week and have many patients. They get advised by a nurse on what to expect before during and after surgery and then a pharmacist comes and explains all of the medications that they will be taking.
We head back downstairs and go with kagaya sensei to the nst meeting. They were all finished when we got there. The doctor then came back to the pharmacy with jellies for us to try. They are used for pts with dysphagia, difficulty swallowing. It happens in many older pts, stroke pts. We tried a salty soy flavor, apple jelly, and potato soup. then we had some tea. We went to go watch an actual test being run. The man was 92 and had trouble swallowing. They x-rayed his throat and we sat the food go in, some chewing and sliding down the esophagus and some food getting stuck in the pocket that goes to the lungs. His right side of his throat was stronger so in order to swallow he’ll need to turn to the left. It was really cool to watch.
Then we went back to the pharmacy and kagaya sensei said that he may not see us on Monday. It was time to go. we went to the station and just missed the train. We caught the next one and met chinatsu at shinagawa station. Toon got on the phone again. She took all my 100 yen coins. We went to the restaurant and met yoshiyama-sensei. He is the original professor that was alice’s preceptor and he wanted to meet us. It was really fun. I had some beer and tried some sake. The one he brought out was licorice tasting. Not great. We went back to school and I was going to update the blog and email but we got talked to. Taka looked up bus stops for us in Kyoto but it’s all in Japanese. Hmmmmm… then we needed to decide if we wanted akiyoshi’s student to meet up with us in Osaka. Then we find out that on july first we are having lunch with matsuyama sensei and akiyoshi sensei. We thought we would be gone by that time. Uh huh.
Madonna – I’m sorry, she says gomennasai. Macura said she said daijobu, but I didn’t hear it.
Bedtime.
June 26
This morning was an early morning. I woke up at 730am and was ready to go at 8am. It’s better if we go early incase we are a few minutes behind. We got to the station first and then akiyoshi-sensei came. He asked if we ate breakfast and I said a little bit. I was eating some protein bar as we walked to the station. I asked if he ate breakfast and he said yes at tully’s coffee. What time did you get there?? He said about 8am. Whoa!!! Crazy! He told us before that he has a 1hr train ride. He has to wake up so early. Brandon came a few minutes later and we went up to the platform. Take-san explained to us that we have to take the kehin-tohoku line to ofuna. Only certain trains. We had to be careful.
We got on the 843 train and were off. It takes about an hour to get there. He has two cell phones. He said he would talk to us about it later. Funny guy. He has secrets. I really want to know why it’s a secret that he has a girlfriend. We got to the hospital and akiyoshi-sensei went in first and introduced himself and then we went in. we met kagaya sensei and kadota sensei. Kagaya sensei is the director of the hospital. Then akiyoshi had to get back to the university. kagaya sensei told us that he studied in America at Michigan and Kansas 20 years ago. He said his daughter did exchange program for high school and went to university in Kansas. He said she came back very direct like an American. Japanese people have hesitation in their answers and are very indirect people. They take the long roundabout way to say things.
We had some coffee and then went to the dispensary and saw the powders. One of the pharmacists demonstrated the weighing of the powders and how there is a chip in the bottom of a bowl so the packaging computer knows which product and how much to separate. Then we saw the liquid machine that did the same thing. Next was the iv machine that selected the ampules and vials. It even prints the label and bags the medicine. The pharmacist then puts it into the carts for the wards.
Next was lunch time and they sent us out alone to the shopping mall that is really close. Funny. This is the first to do that. But my stomach was acting funny and we settled on a pasta restaurant. I only got a cearsar salad. i didn’t want to pay a lot for something I wasn’t really going to eat.
We head back and see the anticancer agents and kadota sensei showed us around the hospital. They used to do outpt rx but now only inpt. So it went from 1100-1200 per day, to only 400 perday. It is good because they get to focus more on clinical work. They interview inpatients when they arrive and get med history and fm hx, social hx, allergies, and all that jazz. They have different clinics for peds, dermatology, urology, internal meds, ent, neurology. They can make an appointment or wait. Er only has about 12 pts a week. We saw the crash carts and headed back to the pharmacy. We sat down to talk with the 2 masters course students. That was a huge waste of time. They should have sent us home, but I guess they wanted to practice English. It was mostly us talking. We talked about where we went in japan already, where we want to go, what we like to eat, macha, sushi, thai language, Japanese, where they think we should go. rotations.
We left after 5p and caught the 517 train home. I fell asleep on and off. It has been the coldest day since I have arrived. It was rainy and gloomy. The sun never came out. Poor toon is so skinny so she was very cold. She said her professor said that she would not need a coat because it is summer. She said her grandmother told her to take one coat but she said no I will not need. On the way home she grabbed onto my arm to get some warmth and I was rubbing her shoulder. I told her she needed to eat more. She said nooooo. We get back and toon is having dinner with maria and saiko. We go to the room and everyone has eaten. We need to get cracking on Osaka. So we go to 711 for dinner. I got some rice balls in the shape of triangles and an anko pancake. With some sprite for my stomach. We went back up and Brandon researched what we would do in Osaka. He couldn’t find a good guide so he made it himself. We’ll be there for 3 days. tomorrow night is dinner with yoshiyama and chinatsu.
Yesterday toon got a little nauseous after the ride. So on the way home I offered her some pepto bismol. I said It was a little minty. She put it in her mouth and said “not mint, tastes like balm.” We couldn’t’ understand at first but then she rubbed her leg. She said it tastes like balm, but ok, feel better. Hehe. I couldn’t stop laughing. Then it was gone and she said it was fast acting. She started chewing some gum and said it was better than balm. On the way home we starting laughing because we realized that matsuyama sensei’s favorite word was however. He starts out with by the way. Then moves closer and says however. Very deep. It was so funny.
Oyasumi nasai!
We got on the 843 train and were off. It takes about an hour to get there. He has two cell phones. He said he would talk to us about it later. Funny guy. He has secrets. I really want to know why it’s a secret that he has a girlfriend. We got to the hospital and akiyoshi-sensei went in first and introduced himself and then we went in. we met kagaya sensei and kadota sensei. Kagaya sensei is the director of the hospital. Then akiyoshi had to get back to the university. kagaya sensei told us that he studied in America at Michigan and Kansas 20 years ago. He said his daughter did exchange program for high school and went to university in Kansas. He said she came back very direct like an American. Japanese people have hesitation in their answers and are very indirect people. They take the long roundabout way to say things.
We had some coffee and then went to the dispensary and saw the powders. One of the pharmacists demonstrated the weighing of the powders and how there is a chip in the bottom of a bowl so the packaging computer knows which product and how much to separate. Then we saw the liquid machine that did the same thing. Next was the iv machine that selected the ampules and vials. It even prints the label and bags the medicine. The pharmacist then puts it into the carts for the wards.
Next was lunch time and they sent us out alone to the shopping mall that is really close. Funny. This is the first to do that. But my stomach was acting funny and we settled on a pasta restaurant. I only got a cearsar salad. i didn’t want to pay a lot for something I wasn’t really going to eat.
We head back and see the anticancer agents and kadota sensei showed us around the hospital. They used to do outpt rx but now only inpt. So it went from 1100-1200 per day, to only 400 perday. It is good because they get to focus more on clinical work. They interview inpatients when they arrive and get med history and fm hx, social hx, allergies, and all that jazz. They have different clinics for peds, dermatology, urology, internal meds, ent, neurology. They can make an appointment or wait. Er only has about 12 pts a week. We saw the crash carts and headed back to the pharmacy. We sat down to talk with the 2 masters course students. That was a huge waste of time. They should have sent us home, but I guess they wanted to practice English. It was mostly us talking. We talked about where we went in japan already, where we want to go, what we like to eat, macha, sushi, thai language, Japanese, where they think we should go. rotations.
We left after 5p and caught the 517 train home. I fell asleep on and off. It has been the coldest day since I have arrived. It was rainy and gloomy. The sun never came out. Poor toon is so skinny so she was very cold. She said her professor said that she would not need a coat because it is summer. She said her grandmother told her to take one coat but she said no I will not need. On the way home she grabbed onto my arm to get some warmth and I was rubbing her shoulder. I told her she needed to eat more. She said nooooo. We get back and toon is having dinner with maria and saiko. We go to the room and everyone has eaten. We need to get cracking on Osaka. So we go to 711 for dinner. I got some rice balls in the shape of triangles and an anko pancake. With some sprite for my stomach. We went back up and Brandon researched what we would do in Osaka. He couldn’t find a good guide so he made it himself. We’ll be there for 3 days. tomorrow night is dinner with yoshiyama and chinatsu.
Yesterday toon got a little nauseous after the ride. So on the way home I offered her some pepto bismol. I said It was a little minty. She put it in her mouth and said “not mint, tastes like balm.” We couldn’t’ understand at first but then she rubbed her leg. She said it tastes like balm, but ok, feel better. Hehe. I couldn’t stop laughing. Then it was gone and she said it was fast acting. She started chewing some gum and said it was better than balm. On the way home we starting laughing because we realized that matsuyama sensei’s favorite word was however. He starts out with by the way. Then moves closer and says however. Very deep. It was so funny.
Oyasumi nasai!
June 25
i never went to sleep again last night. So I’ve been up since 4am. Great. I went to school early to see chinatsu and I was up anyway. I ironed my other shirts before I left. I tried to write some emails but the keyboard was giving my trouble. Every time I tried to type in English it changed it to Japanese. So I gave up. By that time, chinatsu and mari hosoda was there. I asked chinatsu where I should go in odaiba and she said joypolis, but that it wasn’t on the schedule. Why not? She did not know. i said I wanted to go. even Brandon assumed we were going to joypolis. Then matsuyama sensei and Brandon.
We left to meet at daimon and saw toon and then inside the station we saw mari and miho. We went to the nihon tv staion and saw some school kids and some boy dressed in drag with a blonde afro wig.. strange. We saw the giant clock and on the way to tsuziri we saw this giant turtle dome. It was a fountain that spewed water. We waited for the show and it was steam for a while and then only short bursts. No pattern or music. We went to tsujiri a famous sweet shop restaurant. Yumi met us there. She is really quiet and shy and has an old lady feel to her. We ate cold macha flavored soba. I am not a fan of cold soba. So I didn’t finish all of it. Then we had a really expensive parfait of agar, vanilla ice cream, matcha castella (pound cake), matcha ice cream, and more matcha castella, and matcha whipped cream. It was delicious minus the agar.
Then yuka and mari hosoda came and we were off. We got to odaiba using the yurikamome line and went to the planetarium first. It was 500yen and for half of it, it was sleepy time because I didn’t’ have much sleep. Then we went to joypolis. It was great because we didn’t need to wait in long lines because it was a weekday. We rode every ride on the 3rd floor. These are mainly 3d attractions. You sit down and there’s a big screen and your “cart” moves. It was really cool first was the wild wing where it simulates a cart being pulled by an airplane. Air rushing, windy, and some water splashes. Very cool! Then was wild jungle brothers, riding in a jeep thru the jungle. Then was wild river, going thru rapids. By this time the parfait was making my stomach feel weird on top of the bouncing around. I chewed some pepto bismol. Then we went into the room of living dolls. It was pitch dark and you walk along the wall to a stopping point the lights come on and there are two people, one standing really close to me and the other crouched down on the floor. Brandon said it was scary. You put on these headphones and you see all these creepy dalls everywhere and a big one in the front of the room. You sit down at a table. It was in Japanese but it was still creepy as hell. It really felt like someone was right behind me and breathing on my neck, moving behind me, talking in my ear. I kept shivering and the hairs on my neck were up! We took a little drink break and I got some gingerale. The cure all for everything. Then we did the dark chapel, it was like a video game with 3d glasses. Then we did imabikisou, a walk thru horror, but not really scary. The other girls were though. Then we did prison break. We went with another group of 4 and the girls were very skiddish and screaming. It was like we had to run from the guards. Brandon got knocked down , or rather pulled down by one of the girls. It was too funny.
We went to the 2nd floor and did the power sled, simulated bob sledding, the jungle shooting game, killing big bugs, and then the burnout running. It was like a track meet. By this time mari had to leave for another appointment and yuka had to leave to go back to class. We left joypolis ourselves to eat dinner. We went to ootoya and I had grilled chicken with rice, and radish. It was ok. Then we went to the ferris wheel. It’s like the London eye. We came back to joypolis so I could ride the only jet coaster. Not really that bad. It twists around and drops fast. Toon went with me and got naseous. Eeeee! I felt bad. We found some capsule machines and then we left. We caught the train back and toon went home. We went to school so we could book the Kyoto ryokan. While we were on the computer taka came in and said he had a present. He gave us our hankos! We were so surprised because we just asked them to do that on Monday. Crazy fast. It is really cool though. We were super excited! I feel important now. Everytime I write to one of them I will stamp my name! I know it’s silly but I love it!
We printed out some maps and it was time for me to catch the train. I asked naoko this morning if she could show me how to wear the kimono on Sunday. She said ok. Yay! I’m excited to wear it to dinner with Brandon and akiyoshi sensei.
I got asked if I played sports yesterday by fukui sensei. She said that I must because my skin was so dark. I said yes I like to be outside and I usually run a lot at home. I think that was a messed up question. I know the culture here is mostly to have whiter skin, but damn. This is my normal summer skin. Brandon and I were talking and he said that she must have assumed that because that is their culture to want whiter skin that I would too. Even if I tried I would not be pale. But I like my tan skin anyway!
Brandon told me today that before macura and I arm wrestled, saito sensei was telling macura that he needed to be more like me. Powerful and strong. That’s why we arm wrestled. Saito sensei said that night that everyone here was round but macura was square. Kinda odd. Chinatsu was translating for Brandon J
Tis all, I must wake up very early tomorrow. Wish me luck. Oyasumi nasai!
We left to meet at daimon and saw toon and then inside the station we saw mari and miho. We went to the nihon tv staion and saw some school kids and some boy dressed in drag with a blonde afro wig.. strange. We saw the giant clock and on the way to tsuziri we saw this giant turtle dome. It was a fountain that spewed water. We waited for the show and it was steam for a while and then only short bursts. No pattern or music. We went to tsujiri a famous sweet shop restaurant. Yumi met us there. She is really quiet and shy and has an old lady feel to her. We ate cold macha flavored soba. I am not a fan of cold soba. So I didn’t finish all of it. Then we had a really expensive parfait of agar, vanilla ice cream, matcha castella (pound cake), matcha ice cream, and more matcha castella, and matcha whipped cream. It was delicious minus the agar.
Then yuka and mari hosoda came and we were off. We got to odaiba using the yurikamome line and went to the planetarium first. It was 500yen and for half of it, it was sleepy time because I didn’t’ have much sleep. Then we went to joypolis. It was great because we didn’t need to wait in long lines because it was a weekday. We rode every ride on the 3rd floor. These are mainly 3d attractions. You sit down and there’s a big screen and your “cart” moves. It was really cool first was the wild wing where it simulates a cart being pulled by an airplane. Air rushing, windy, and some water splashes. Very cool! Then was wild jungle brothers, riding in a jeep thru the jungle. Then was wild river, going thru rapids. By this time the parfait was making my stomach feel weird on top of the bouncing around. I chewed some pepto bismol. Then we went into the room of living dolls. It was pitch dark and you walk along the wall to a stopping point the lights come on and there are two people, one standing really close to me and the other crouched down on the floor. Brandon said it was scary. You put on these headphones and you see all these creepy dalls everywhere and a big one in the front of the room. You sit down at a table. It was in Japanese but it was still creepy as hell. It really felt like someone was right behind me and breathing on my neck, moving behind me, talking in my ear. I kept shivering and the hairs on my neck were up! We took a little drink break and I got some gingerale. The cure all for everything. Then we did the dark chapel, it was like a video game with 3d glasses. Then we did imabikisou, a walk thru horror, but not really scary. The other girls were though. Then we did prison break. We went with another group of 4 and the girls were very skiddish and screaming. It was like we had to run from the guards. Brandon got knocked down , or rather pulled down by one of the girls. It was too funny.
We went to the 2nd floor and did the power sled, simulated bob sledding, the jungle shooting game, killing big bugs, and then the burnout running. It was like a track meet. By this time mari had to leave for another appointment and yuka had to leave to go back to class. We left joypolis ourselves to eat dinner. We went to ootoya and I had grilled chicken with rice, and radish. It was ok. Then we went to the ferris wheel. It’s like the London eye. We came back to joypolis so I could ride the only jet coaster. Not really that bad. It twists around and drops fast. Toon went with me and got naseous. Eeeee! I felt bad. We found some capsule machines and then we left. We caught the train back and toon went home. We went to school so we could book the Kyoto ryokan. While we were on the computer taka came in and said he had a present. He gave us our hankos! We were so surprised because we just asked them to do that on Monday. Crazy fast. It is really cool though. We were super excited! I feel important now. Everytime I write to one of them I will stamp my name! I know it’s silly but I love it!
We printed out some maps and it was time for me to catch the train. I asked naoko this morning if she could show me how to wear the kimono on Sunday. She said ok. Yay! I’m excited to wear it to dinner with Brandon and akiyoshi sensei.
I got asked if I played sports yesterday by fukui sensei. She said that I must because my skin was so dark. I said yes I like to be outside and I usually run a lot at home. I think that was a messed up question. I know the culture here is mostly to have whiter skin, but damn. This is my normal summer skin. Brandon and I were talking and he said that she must have assumed that because that is their culture to want whiter skin that I would too. Even if I tried I would not be pale. But I like my tan skin anyway!
Brandon told me today that before macura and I arm wrestled, saito sensei was telling macura that he needed to be more like me. Powerful and strong. That’s why we arm wrestled. Saito sensei said that night that everyone here was round but macura was square. Kinda odd. Chinatsu was translating for Brandon J
Tis all, I must wake up very early tomorrow. Wish me luck. Oyasumi nasai!
June 24
Hai! I’m am very drunk and tired tonight. I drank the mos t out of any night in japan. I had so much fun tonight.
But first I must go thru the rest od the day. Thi9s morning I woke up around 10am and noticed that toon was not awake yet.. she came to my room and said that she still hd a migraine and that she would meet us at the hospital. Cool. So I left to meet Brandon ata the convenie to eat lunch really quick
---So yea I fell asleep and now it’s 4am. I’ll continue—
I had some curry and rice and we left for the university. it was really close. We get to the 6th floor and see macura in his lab and he doesn’t look too happy. We go the m1 classroom and see everyone. They are always surprised to see us. J funny. Chinatsu tells us that she just told macura about having to go to the hospital early this afternoon and he had plans to eat lunch with a friend. He comes to the room and I say gomenasai (I’m sorry). So did chinatsu, but he said daijobu (ok). We make our way to tawanawai hospital via asakusa line to takanawadai. On the way we stop at a convenie so macura could eat.
We get to the hospital and see toon already there. Good. We meet kuni and go to get changed. we meet the boss. We all go to the surgery room. Toon is first and she and macura put on lead vests because there are constant xrays going on. Her patient was getting a pci. Percutaneous something. And then it was brandon’s turn with kuni. It sucks having to stand in the same spot for so long. Then it was my turn and kuni went with me. It was pretty cold in there.
I’m tired of toon. girls that use there cuteness to get attention makes me want to gag. I think people think her thai accent is cute. Of course it is different. But it takes forever for her to get words out sometimes. She puts her hands to her mouth and thinks. Whatever. Someone please tell me how to say that in Japanese. I didn’t really talk much this morning, just in a mood and too many things going thru my head.
We watched most of the 4th surgery which was a pacemaker implantation. It was after 5p when we went to the roof and had breaktime with coffee and tea. Kuni went and got me a sweet coffee. J we were going to see the patients, but we left for the restaurant. Seki-san, a grade 4 undergrad student is doing his rotation at the hospital and he came with us. So it was me, b, toon, chinatsu, matsuyama sensei, fukui sensei, kuni, and macura. Saito sensei was going to join us later.
We get to the restaurant and on the bench it is matsuyama sensei, b, me, chinatsu. And across from us are fukui sensei, toon, macura, kuni, and seki. We ordered beers, ceasar salad, French fries, and salmon with bread and some spread. Saito sensei came and he sat next to me, then chinatsu. Then came mussels. And they were actually good. Then more French fries with hot dogs and sausage, and fish with green beans and rice pilaf-ish. It was all delicious. Saito sensei odered wine and I had two glasses… then we movied to the bar for coffee and dessert. I had a pear dessert and chinatsu got banana bread. Matsuyama sensei order apricot and sent the other half to chinatsu. I also got a bailey’s coffee. Just because I wanted it. Maybe not such a good idea.
Conversation was random all night long. Saito sensei talked about how he liked to go fishing. Macura said that tradition in college dinners in Sweden is to sit boy girl boy girl to have a girl in front of you, and to either side. The lady to your left is your lady for the night kind of. You toast her first, then the right, and then in front of you. He also spoke Swedish earlier at the hospital. It sounds very happy. He also said that I looked really beautiful with my hair down. It was really random, but a nice compliment.
When we were at the bar chinatsu and I finally got to talk. She said that they had an m1 meeting after toronomon hospital and yuka cried. I said I saw. I told her that I needed to talk with her later. A-to-de. About toon. she said that saito sensei was always talking so she didn’t get a chance. She said that yuka, her, miho, and someone else went to English conversation school and that was very surprising. Yuka should be so much better. Then it was time to go and I arm wrestled macura. Saito sensei said that I was his type of girl because I was strong and powerfull. I told them earlier that I used to play rugby. Macura made me think I had a chance then he slammed my arm down.
Once I stood up I started feeling the alcohol more. And needed to sit down for a second. I told chinatsu that I was a bit drunk. She said that yoshi and taka always try to get her to drink more because she can hold her own. On the way home we talked about toon, and she told me that she liked ken. They had been spending time together before he left and he didn’t notice she liked him. We also talked about yuka and how she dresses kind of weird. She said yoshi says the same thing. Her high voice. She thinks toon and yuka have the same personality type. Me and her. And Brandon and kuni.
They walked us back to the dorm and asked how to get to the station. I said it would be easier to show them and we walk them back. I go to the store to get some water. And toon says we are going to be late. What?? I look at my watch and it is almost 11. shit! I don’t want to be late again. I tell her have to run. “no running, I’m tired” sukoshi (just a little). we jogged it back. and we actually mad it. Se see mrs ban and run to the shower. We see mr ban and he gets our of our way thank goodness. I see saiko getting dressed and say we are very late. She just laughed. I dropped my sponge in my room when I thru it in the bucket. I didn’t need to wash my hair so I was super quick. I went back to my room and felt so tired all over. I took some ibuprofen and drank my fiber drink and water. I started typing my drunk message at the top when toon knocked on my door. She said that since I was going early to talk with chinatsu she was not going with me. I said to meet at 10am at daimon then. I think her jig is up. She understands more than she lets on. But whatever.
I fell asleep and when I woke up for a bit I dragged myself up to take out my contacts and take my Sudafed. I knocked out for a couple of hours. When I woke up again I noticed that my red back with inuyasha and rurouni kenshin was ripped! L very sad. I liked that bag. I’ll have to cut out the front and back or something. We asked chinatsu o-ne-ga-i-shi-masu. Please please please come with us to odaiba. But it is important for the others to talk with us. I understand.
Dang, it’s 5am. Oyasumi nasai.!
But first I must go thru the rest od the day. Thi9s morning I woke up around 10am and noticed that toon was not awake yet.. she came to my room and said that she still hd a migraine and that she would meet us at the hospital. Cool. So I left to meet Brandon ata the convenie to eat lunch really quick
---So yea I fell asleep and now it’s 4am. I’ll continue—
I had some curry and rice and we left for the university. it was really close. We get to the 6th floor and see macura in his lab and he doesn’t look too happy. We go the m1 classroom and see everyone. They are always surprised to see us. J funny. Chinatsu tells us that she just told macura about having to go to the hospital early this afternoon and he had plans to eat lunch with a friend. He comes to the room and I say gomenasai (I’m sorry). So did chinatsu, but he said daijobu (ok). We make our way to tawanawai hospital via asakusa line to takanawadai. On the way we stop at a convenie so macura could eat.
We get to the hospital and see toon already there. Good. We meet kuni and go to get changed. we meet the boss. We all go to the surgery room. Toon is first and she and macura put on lead vests because there are constant xrays going on. Her patient was getting a pci. Percutaneous something. And then it was brandon’s turn with kuni. It sucks having to stand in the same spot for so long. Then it was my turn and kuni went with me. It was pretty cold in there.
I’m tired of toon. girls that use there cuteness to get attention makes me want to gag. I think people think her thai accent is cute. Of course it is different. But it takes forever for her to get words out sometimes. She puts her hands to her mouth and thinks. Whatever. Someone please tell me how to say that in Japanese. I didn’t really talk much this morning, just in a mood and too many things going thru my head.
We watched most of the 4th surgery which was a pacemaker implantation. It was after 5p when we went to the roof and had breaktime with coffee and tea. Kuni went and got me a sweet coffee. J we were going to see the patients, but we left for the restaurant. Seki-san, a grade 4 undergrad student is doing his rotation at the hospital and he came with us. So it was me, b, toon, chinatsu, matsuyama sensei, fukui sensei, kuni, and macura. Saito sensei was going to join us later.
We get to the restaurant and on the bench it is matsuyama sensei, b, me, chinatsu. And across from us are fukui sensei, toon, macura, kuni, and seki. We ordered beers, ceasar salad, French fries, and salmon with bread and some spread. Saito sensei came and he sat next to me, then chinatsu. Then came mussels. And they were actually good. Then more French fries with hot dogs and sausage, and fish with green beans and rice pilaf-ish. It was all delicious. Saito sensei odered wine and I had two glasses… then we movied to the bar for coffee and dessert. I had a pear dessert and chinatsu got banana bread. Matsuyama sensei order apricot and sent the other half to chinatsu. I also got a bailey’s coffee. Just because I wanted it. Maybe not such a good idea.
Conversation was random all night long. Saito sensei talked about how he liked to go fishing. Macura said that tradition in college dinners in Sweden is to sit boy girl boy girl to have a girl in front of you, and to either side. The lady to your left is your lady for the night kind of. You toast her first, then the right, and then in front of you. He also spoke Swedish earlier at the hospital. It sounds very happy. He also said that I looked really beautiful with my hair down. It was really random, but a nice compliment.
When we were at the bar chinatsu and I finally got to talk. She said that they had an m1 meeting after toronomon hospital and yuka cried. I said I saw. I told her that I needed to talk with her later. A-to-de. About toon. she said that saito sensei was always talking so she didn’t get a chance. She said that yuka, her, miho, and someone else went to English conversation school and that was very surprising. Yuka should be so much better. Then it was time to go and I arm wrestled macura. Saito sensei said that I was his type of girl because I was strong and powerfull. I told them earlier that I used to play rugby. Macura made me think I had a chance then he slammed my arm down.
Once I stood up I started feeling the alcohol more. And needed to sit down for a second. I told chinatsu that I was a bit drunk. She said that yoshi and taka always try to get her to drink more because she can hold her own. On the way home we talked about toon, and she told me that she liked ken. They had been spending time together before he left and he didn’t notice she liked him. We also talked about yuka and how she dresses kind of weird. She said yoshi says the same thing. Her high voice. She thinks toon and yuka have the same personality type. Me and her. And Brandon and kuni.
They walked us back to the dorm and asked how to get to the station. I said it would be easier to show them and we walk them back. I go to the store to get some water. And toon says we are going to be late. What?? I look at my watch and it is almost 11. shit! I don’t want to be late again. I tell her have to run. “no running, I’m tired” sukoshi (just a little). we jogged it back. and we actually mad it. Se see mrs ban and run to the shower. We see mr ban and he gets our of our way thank goodness. I see saiko getting dressed and say we are very late. She just laughed. I dropped my sponge in my room when I thru it in the bucket. I didn’t need to wash my hair so I was super quick. I went back to my room and felt so tired all over. I took some ibuprofen and drank my fiber drink and water. I started typing my drunk message at the top when toon knocked on my door. She said that since I was going early to talk with chinatsu she was not going with me. I said to meet at 10am at daimon then. I think her jig is up. She understands more than she lets on. But whatever.
I fell asleep and when I woke up for a bit I dragged myself up to take out my contacts and take my Sudafed. I knocked out for a couple of hours. When I woke up again I noticed that my red back with inuyasha and rurouni kenshin was ripped! L very sad. I liked that bag. I’ll have to cut out the front and back or something. We asked chinatsu o-ne-ga-i-shi-masu. Please please please come with us to odaiba. But it is important for the others to talk with us. I understand.
Dang, it’s 5am. Oyasumi nasai.!
June 23
Ok so this morning I woke up at 9am to do a load of laundry and iron my clothes. I put in my clothes and did my morning routine. I started ironing my clothes and was eating my breakfast (yogurt and juice). The iron here is a little different. They are very energy efficient and so you plug in the base of the iron and it charges up the iron. So the iron is cordless. It sounds really neat, but sometimes the iron takes a while to heat up. The first time is fast, you use it until there is no heat and then you put it back on the charger. It beeps when ready. I think this is a good idea, but it is nice to just have the heat continuously. So I get done ironing and getting ready. I go to get the clothes out of the washer and when I open it up it is still full of water. I drained it but the clothes were still wet. I think it went thru the wash cycle but it’s didn’t spin out the water. Great! So I run it through again.
It’s time to go and I go to toon’s door and knock. She says ok and comes outside. She gets outside and fumbles in her purse for her key. why isnt’ it ready? I don’t know. We get downstairs and change shoes. I wait at the door and I notice she put on her new sandles. I’m like ummm. She says she is going to buy new shoes at the school store. Ok. We start walking to the station and toon is super slow. Everytime I look back she is playing with her phone. I’m annoyed. I want to leave her ass. She walks like she has no plans and all the time in the world. She’s pretty spacey. We get to the station and I hear the train and tell her we need to catch this. No talking. I don’t know what to say.
We get to school and still no talking. I tried to use yumi’s computer but it is slow as shit so I go to the lab room. And she’s just sitting there. Chinatsu is working on her reports. Toon is playing on her phone. she comes over at 1140 to say she is going down stairs to be on the phone. i said she might want to mention that she needs to buy shoes. And she said she told chinatsu yesterday. I said maybe you should ask again, she might have forgotten. When I get into the lab I update the journal and check email. And Brandon has asked kana to make a hanko for us. We thought we would need to go to a place, but they had a catalogue to order from. Brandon’s last name, neely, when written in kanji means kind and good. Kana wrote out my first and last name. smith, sumi is clear and su is child. And kimlee, kin(m) is gold, and lee had 3 kanji: good, pear, or peach. I thought for a bit. I liked gold peach. I was debating whether or not to get my family name, but realized that my family name wouldn’t be my family name forever. So I decided to go with kimlee in kanji. Gold peach sounds fun to me!
It was now lunch time and mari and naoko came in to get Brandon and i. we start walking and I’m like where is toon. They said she already went down to the cafeteria, but I didn’t see her. I got fish, rice, and miso soup. yum. Halfway through I saw toon and mari coming from a corner of the cafeteria and then mari came to the table and toon went out. I don’t know why she didn’t just get in line. Mari thought she didn’t want to eat. She finally came back down and taka and kana helped her get food. I knew she would eat slow. Good thing she wasn’t at our table. Our table was done and decided to go up. The café was getting crowded.
We get upstairs and matsuyama sensei wanted me to come and look at his email to dr eckel. We asked him about our evaluation and he was emailing for login and password. I told him that he should email kim leadon instead. And she was also the person to talk about for the clerkship program. He said he was going to be in nc in September. Cool.
It was time to go back to the dorm to get my clothes out of the laundry. I walk as fast as I can to the station, get to sengakuji, and walk fast to the dorm. I get out clothes and hang them up and run out. I follow naoko’s directions. I told chinatsu that on Saturday naoko wouldn’t talk to me. She asked naoko to give me a map and hoped she would talk to me. It took about 10 minutes to get to the hospital. I was sweating up a storm.
We get there and meet the boss man. Saito-sensei. He kind of looks like sato-san from karate kid part 2. funny. We go change into our coats and shoes. Back to long coats and sneakers. We get back to the office and we meet miss fusako the chief of pharmacy and Suzuki-san. we actually saw him last week because he came to the university to do a lecture. His first name is kuni. The boss man doesn’t speak much English so we had three translators. Kind of. Chinatsu and kuni were good. Miss fusako not so much. They explained how many beds the hospital had and regular statistics. They have a lot of nurses.
We go to the ward and meet the nurses. I’m getting tired of toon. She’s real slow any time we walk somewhere. And the smile she gives is getting annoying. I know she’s doing it in a cutsie way. And when she doesn’t know anything she smiles that same smile. And when she introduces herself she says my name is tooooon. Really nasally. Come on now. No one knows what you say when you say it like that. Even I had trouble. And then one of us with say toon. Normally. Annoying.
We each picked a patient that we will watch have an operation. Cardiology patients. Mine is getting a CAG. Coronary angiography. They all need catheters. Japanese doesn’t have the –th- sound so they say ka-te-- te-ru. We visit my patient and he has many risk factors: smoker, dm, hyperlipidemia. We meet brandon’s pt, but toon’s is no where to be found. Toon’s been really quiet all day. Moreso than normal. We go back up the nurses station for a meeting and meet dr araki. He kind of has a lisp, but his English is good, but very quiet. Hard to hear sometimes. We meet the patients again to tell them about medication. Then It’s about that time and we head back to the bosses office. Brandon and I joked earlier that it was the like the boss at the end of a level in a video game. Kuni bought us green tea or coffee. I asked for the sweetest one and got the gold coffee boss. The boss got the silver boss espresso. And he even pointed to the can and said boss! And smiled. It was funny. Boss by the way is a coffee brand. They had some questions about things in America. Then he told us about dinner the next night. Everyone always asks if you drink alcohol. Everyone has to explain that Brandon does not drink and that he doesn’t like it. I of course do. And they are like ok. They don’t even wait to ask until you go to a restaurant or bar. It is just a generally conversation piece. Everyone here is big on drinking beer. Interesting.
We leave the hospital and we ask toon what she is doing. I asked if she wanted to go home or back to the university. she says she wants to go to the dorm because she has a headache. I showed her directions on how to get home. Chinatsu, b, and I went to the station and went back to school. Everyone already ate so we went out and started walking down daimon st. on the way we started talking about toon. I told him why I was getting tired of her. And he was equally pissed especially because of the long long wait for her to try on make up. It was rude and ridicoulous. Why shop for something that you can buy at home. Brandon said it was ok that I wanted to get my collar because that is something I can only get here. It’s different. That really wound him up. And I completely understand. That was bullshit. You don’t shop like that when there are 5 other people waiting on you to finish.
We went to dinner at Miami garden. We usually passed it by because the pizza was so expensive, but we saw they had a nice pasta selection. We went inside and went to the 2nd floor and walked down the spiral staircase only to find there was a door to the first floor from outside. And we asked the guy for an English menu and he just asked if we wanted smoking. We said no and we went to the 3rd floor. The menu had English under the Japanese. Yes! I got a soy sause based pasta with tuna. Yum! I love soy sauce! We kept talking and said that she was not allowed to travel with us. That would be awful. We want to go back to ueno and ginza but Brandon doesn’t want her to go with us. I don’t really want her with us either. She just slows us down.
We go the convenie and get some anko pancakes. We go back to school to research Kyoto and talk with akiyoshi sensei. He showed us his hanko and it has four kanji. A-ki-yo-shi. When separate a-means nothing, ki means fire, yo is woman, shi is child but when aki is together it means fall or autumn, and yoshi means love or like. So his name means fall in love. That is really cool. He said that chinatsu means “1000 summers.” And we added “of the ninja.” It was after 10 when we left. I needed to head back to take a shower not so crowded. Naoko even came in when I was there and didn’t say a word. She’s so weird. I was looking over the gift page and remembered that we need to bring something for saito-sensei because he is taking us out to dinner. I call Brandon to ask him to bring a notebook, and we talked some more about toon. we just don’t understand. Oh well. It’s late. Oyasumi nasai.
It’s time to go and I go to toon’s door and knock. She says ok and comes outside. She gets outside and fumbles in her purse for her key. why isnt’ it ready? I don’t know. We get downstairs and change shoes. I wait at the door and I notice she put on her new sandles. I’m like ummm. She says she is going to buy new shoes at the school store. Ok. We start walking to the station and toon is super slow. Everytime I look back she is playing with her phone. I’m annoyed. I want to leave her ass. She walks like she has no plans and all the time in the world. She’s pretty spacey. We get to the station and I hear the train and tell her we need to catch this. No talking. I don’t know what to say.
We get to school and still no talking. I tried to use yumi’s computer but it is slow as shit so I go to the lab room. And she’s just sitting there. Chinatsu is working on her reports. Toon is playing on her phone. she comes over at 1140 to say she is going down stairs to be on the phone. i said she might want to mention that she needs to buy shoes. And she said she told chinatsu yesterday. I said maybe you should ask again, she might have forgotten. When I get into the lab I update the journal and check email. And Brandon has asked kana to make a hanko for us. We thought we would need to go to a place, but they had a catalogue to order from. Brandon’s last name, neely, when written in kanji means kind and good. Kana wrote out my first and last name. smith, sumi is clear and su is child. And kimlee, kin(m) is gold, and lee had 3 kanji: good, pear, or peach. I thought for a bit. I liked gold peach. I was debating whether or not to get my family name, but realized that my family name wouldn’t be my family name forever. So I decided to go with kimlee in kanji. Gold peach sounds fun to me!
It was now lunch time and mari and naoko came in to get Brandon and i. we start walking and I’m like where is toon. They said she already went down to the cafeteria, but I didn’t see her. I got fish, rice, and miso soup. yum. Halfway through I saw toon and mari coming from a corner of the cafeteria and then mari came to the table and toon went out. I don’t know why she didn’t just get in line. Mari thought she didn’t want to eat. She finally came back down and taka and kana helped her get food. I knew she would eat slow. Good thing she wasn’t at our table. Our table was done and decided to go up. The café was getting crowded.
We get upstairs and matsuyama sensei wanted me to come and look at his email to dr eckel. We asked him about our evaluation and he was emailing for login and password. I told him that he should email kim leadon instead. And she was also the person to talk about for the clerkship program. He said he was going to be in nc in September. Cool.
It was time to go back to the dorm to get my clothes out of the laundry. I walk as fast as I can to the station, get to sengakuji, and walk fast to the dorm. I get out clothes and hang them up and run out. I follow naoko’s directions. I told chinatsu that on Saturday naoko wouldn’t talk to me. She asked naoko to give me a map and hoped she would talk to me. It took about 10 minutes to get to the hospital. I was sweating up a storm.
We get there and meet the boss man. Saito-sensei. He kind of looks like sato-san from karate kid part 2. funny. We go change into our coats and shoes. Back to long coats and sneakers. We get back to the office and we meet miss fusako the chief of pharmacy and Suzuki-san. we actually saw him last week because he came to the university to do a lecture. His first name is kuni. The boss man doesn’t speak much English so we had three translators. Kind of. Chinatsu and kuni were good. Miss fusako not so much. They explained how many beds the hospital had and regular statistics. They have a lot of nurses.
We go to the ward and meet the nurses. I’m getting tired of toon. She’s real slow any time we walk somewhere. And the smile she gives is getting annoying. I know she’s doing it in a cutsie way. And when she doesn’t know anything she smiles that same smile. And when she introduces herself she says my name is tooooon. Really nasally. Come on now. No one knows what you say when you say it like that. Even I had trouble. And then one of us with say toon. Normally. Annoying.
We each picked a patient that we will watch have an operation. Cardiology patients. Mine is getting a CAG. Coronary angiography. They all need catheters. Japanese doesn’t have the –th- sound so they say ka-te-- te-ru. We visit my patient and he has many risk factors: smoker, dm, hyperlipidemia. We meet brandon’s pt, but toon’s is no where to be found. Toon’s been really quiet all day. Moreso than normal. We go back up the nurses station for a meeting and meet dr araki. He kind of has a lisp, but his English is good, but very quiet. Hard to hear sometimes. We meet the patients again to tell them about medication. Then It’s about that time and we head back to the bosses office. Brandon and I joked earlier that it was the like the boss at the end of a level in a video game. Kuni bought us green tea or coffee. I asked for the sweetest one and got the gold coffee boss. The boss got the silver boss espresso. And he even pointed to the can and said boss! And smiled. It was funny. Boss by the way is a coffee brand. They had some questions about things in America. Then he told us about dinner the next night. Everyone always asks if you drink alcohol. Everyone has to explain that Brandon does not drink and that he doesn’t like it. I of course do. And they are like ok. They don’t even wait to ask until you go to a restaurant or bar. It is just a generally conversation piece. Everyone here is big on drinking beer. Interesting.
We leave the hospital and we ask toon what she is doing. I asked if she wanted to go home or back to the university. she says she wants to go to the dorm because she has a headache. I showed her directions on how to get home. Chinatsu, b, and I went to the station and went back to school. Everyone already ate so we went out and started walking down daimon st. on the way we started talking about toon. I told him why I was getting tired of her. And he was equally pissed especially because of the long long wait for her to try on make up. It was rude and ridicoulous. Why shop for something that you can buy at home. Brandon said it was ok that I wanted to get my collar because that is something I can only get here. It’s different. That really wound him up. And I completely understand. That was bullshit. You don’t shop like that when there are 5 other people waiting on you to finish.
We went to dinner at Miami garden. We usually passed it by because the pizza was so expensive, but we saw they had a nice pasta selection. We went inside and went to the 2nd floor and walked down the spiral staircase only to find there was a door to the first floor from outside. And we asked the guy for an English menu and he just asked if we wanted smoking. We said no and we went to the 3rd floor. The menu had English under the Japanese. Yes! I got a soy sause based pasta with tuna. Yum! I love soy sauce! We kept talking and said that she was not allowed to travel with us. That would be awful. We want to go back to ueno and ginza but Brandon doesn’t want her to go with us. I don’t really want her with us either. She just slows us down.
We go the convenie and get some anko pancakes. We go back to school to research Kyoto and talk with akiyoshi sensei. He showed us his hanko and it has four kanji. A-ki-yo-shi. When separate a-means nothing, ki means fire, yo is woman, shi is child but when aki is together it means fall or autumn, and yoshi means love or like. So his name means fall in love. That is really cool. He said that chinatsu means “1000 summers.” And we added “of the ninja.” It was after 10 when we left. I needed to head back to take a shower not so crowded. Naoko even came in when I was there and didn’t say a word. She’s so weird. I was looking over the gift page and remembered that we need to bring something for saito-sensei because he is taking us out to dinner. I call Brandon to ask him to bring a notebook, and we talked some more about toon. we just don’t understand. Oh well. It’s late. Oyasumi nasai.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
June 22
Today we were supposed to meet Brandon at 1145 at daimon to go eat at yoshinoya. I go knock on toon’s door at 1030 and she asked me to wait a moment. Ok. About 5 min later, we head downstairs and then se forgot her little sweater. So she goes back for it. It’s know almost 1140. and she walks slow. We get to daimon and it’s about 1155. and Brandon is no where in sight. I wore my rainbows and I should have wore my crocs because it started raining after we got out the door. I called Brandon and he was at hamamatscho exit instead. I said sorry that we were late. We saw maria while we were waiting. She had a karate test. then Brandon came and we went to yoshi noya.
Yoshi noya is famous for guy (beef). A problem for both Brandon and toon. So we used our limitied jaapanese to ask what was gyu or buta (pork). Brandon got eel, toon got salmon with pork and I got beef. It was good. And it came with rice and miso soup. yum. We go to the convenie and wait around for a while. We head to hamamatsucho and wait. Yoko and yuka came shortly after. We head for ikebukuro. Yoko and yuka’s English isn’t that great and they rely on their jisho (dictionary) a lot. So conversation was a little limited.
Chinatsu told us that she would meet us at the station at 145, but then we find out that she won’t meet us until 3pm. Oh no! so we head for sunshine city in the rain and on the way we see some old women painted up like geisha and they were advertising for something. There were so many people and with umbrellas. It was crazy trying to navigate without getting poked in the eye.
We get to sunshine city and find some maps. They did not know where they were going. So we go to namjatown. A cat character attraction. We have to pay 300yen to get in where ice cream city is. We get there and the crowd is crazy. I get a strawberry cone. It was tasty. Then they tried to ask what we wanted to do and it was hard to explain that we would rather stay inside than go shopping. By that time chinatsu came but it took a long time for her to come back.
We go outside to meet her and do some shopping. We found a stationary store and I bought some cute stickers. They call them seals here. I bought hiragana letters. Toon wanted make-up and I needed some body wash. We found some funny supplements that had pictures of what they did. Toon was taking a really long time so Brandon and yoko went to totoro store and chinatsu and I went to look for stockings. She told me that she asked yoko and yuka to make a detailed schedule, but they didn’t. and she didn’t know how well their English was. And I told her what happened yesterday with naoko and mari. It was very hard trying to talk. I asked questions that weren’t really answered. So I gave up on buying zouri and socks, and purse. It was going to be too difficult to get it across.
Then we were finished and couldn’t find Brandon and yoko. We finally get back together and decide to go to the aquarium. But all the shows are sold out because it was so rainy. There is usually an outside aquarium, but no one wants to stand in the rain for an aquarium. So we went back to namjatown and walked thru a ghost house. It measured how much your pulse was at the beginning and at the end. The more it changed the weaker your heart was supposed to be. I was 19. L oh well.
We leave and start to head to dinner. We were told we were going to a japanese buffet. But it was too far away and we found a closer place. It was called coco blanco. A middle eastern looking place. We ordered things to share. It came with a bread and tomato sauce appetizer. We got salad and risotto and chicken. When the meals came they were very small. So we ordered more. Tuna, spaghetti, and pizza. All small. It was really funny. We talked about how nakashima sensei was supposed to be doing the schedule for Brandon, me and toon. But it seems that chinatsu has been doing the scheduling. And toon actually belongs to nakashima’s lab and her m1 students. They are supposed to do her schedule for july. Right now it’s the three of us. But when we leave she will be by herself.
We leave dinner and go to burger king for dessert. I got an espresso ice cream. It was good. The espresso was really strong though. We left for the game center and chinatsu tried to get toys with the ufo catcher but no luck. We started walking back and when we were on the platform I noticed the time. It was 1020. crap. It takes 30 mintues from ikebukuro back to hamamatsucho. So they told us to get off at shinagawa and walk the way home. So we do this and I’m walking really fast to the main light. My fast walk is a little run for toon. And she’s getting out of breath. Not good. So we get to the light and wait. I’m trying to just walk fast and she is behind. We need to move faster. And we are almost there and she is walking really slow. We get to the dorm and the gate is closed. Crap. We try our key and no luck. I called the dorm and no luck. The number doesn’t work. And I call naoko and no answer. Great. We are talking and then ban san comes out. We say sumimasen but that really isn’t right. He motions for the key and then he laughs a little and motions us to come in. we say thank you and again. Thank goodness he let us in. yuka said that her and her friends thought that ban san got enjoyment out of being mean to them. She said he didn’t agree with her lifestyle. She wore her weird big doll clothes again. We ran upstairs to take a shower. I get out with buckets and toon is at her door. She can’t find her key. i reach into a little pocket and find it. I run to the shower and get started. I bought soap today but didn’t bring it with me. Whatever. Wash hair and use regular soap. Toon comes in and she’s washing fast too. I’m getting done and I feel water on me. I still had soap on me and she got it off for me. I couldn’t’ help but laugh. I live in crazy town!
When we first got to namjatown we got a flyer that had all the custard available. There was some from places all over japan. Many many! I saw a boob shaped custard and asked Brandon if he wanted it and he said those are not for eating! Hilarious!
Chinatsu wanted to get the same souvenir so we got pens with the ghost cat on it. So did toon.
And yesterday at asakusa I overheard some people taking. I heard “what the fuck I’m going to buy this.” I turned around and they were Japanese but spoke English well. The girl kept saying that phrase because one guy didn’t get it. She said it was just an expression. I kept turning around because I was debating whether or not to correct her. And then the other guy noticed I was turning around and told them to stop saying it. Too funny!
Good night!
Yoshi noya is famous for guy (beef). A problem for both Brandon and toon. So we used our limitied jaapanese to ask what was gyu or buta (pork). Brandon got eel, toon got salmon with pork and I got beef. It was good. And it came with rice and miso soup. yum. We go to the convenie and wait around for a while. We head to hamamatsucho and wait. Yoko and yuka came shortly after. We head for ikebukuro. Yoko and yuka’s English isn’t that great and they rely on their jisho (dictionary) a lot. So conversation was a little limited.
Chinatsu told us that she would meet us at the station at 145, but then we find out that she won’t meet us until 3pm. Oh no! so we head for sunshine city in the rain and on the way we see some old women painted up like geisha and they were advertising for something. There were so many people and with umbrellas. It was crazy trying to navigate without getting poked in the eye.
We get to sunshine city and find some maps. They did not know where they were going. So we go to namjatown. A cat character attraction. We have to pay 300yen to get in where ice cream city is. We get there and the crowd is crazy. I get a strawberry cone. It was tasty. Then they tried to ask what we wanted to do and it was hard to explain that we would rather stay inside than go shopping. By that time chinatsu came but it took a long time for her to come back.
We go outside to meet her and do some shopping. We found a stationary store and I bought some cute stickers. They call them seals here. I bought hiragana letters. Toon wanted make-up and I needed some body wash. We found some funny supplements that had pictures of what they did. Toon was taking a really long time so Brandon and yoko went to totoro store and chinatsu and I went to look for stockings. She told me that she asked yoko and yuka to make a detailed schedule, but they didn’t. and she didn’t know how well their English was. And I told her what happened yesterday with naoko and mari. It was very hard trying to talk. I asked questions that weren’t really answered. So I gave up on buying zouri and socks, and purse. It was going to be too difficult to get it across.
Then we were finished and couldn’t find Brandon and yoko. We finally get back together and decide to go to the aquarium. But all the shows are sold out because it was so rainy. There is usually an outside aquarium, but no one wants to stand in the rain for an aquarium. So we went back to namjatown and walked thru a ghost house. It measured how much your pulse was at the beginning and at the end. The more it changed the weaker your heart was supposed to be. I was 19. L oh well.
We leave and start to head to dinner. We were told we were going to a japanese buffet. But it was too far away and we found a closer place. It was called coco blanco. A middle eastern looking place. We ordered things to share. It came with a bread and tomato sauce appetizer. We got salad and risotto and chicken. When the meals came they were very small. So we ordered more. Tuna, spaghetti, and pizza. All small. It was really funny. We talked about how nakashima sensei was supposed to be doing the schedule for Brandon, me and toon. But it seems that chinatsu has been doing the scheduling. And toon actually belongs to nakashima’s lab and her m1 students. They are supposed to do her schedule for july. Right now it’s the three of us. But when we leave she will be by herself.
We leave dinner and go to burger king for dessert. I got an espresso ice cream. It was good. The espresso was really strong though. We left for the game center and chinatsu tried to get toys with the ufo catcher but no luck. We started walking back and when we were on the platform I noticed the time. It was 1020. crap. It takes 30 mintues from ikebukuro back to hamamatsucho. So they told us to get off at shinagawa and walk the way home. So we do this and I’m walking really fast to the main light. My fast walk is a little run for toon. And she’s getting out of breath. Not good. So we get to the light and wait. I’m trying to just walk fast and she is behind. We need to move faster. And we are almost there and she is walking really slow. We get to the dorm and the gate is closed. Crap. We try our key and no luck. I called the dorm and no luck. The number doesn’t work. And I call naoko and no answer. Great. We are talking and then ban san comes out. We say sumimasen but that really isn’t right. He motions for the key and then he laughs a little and motions us to come in. we say thank you and again. Thank goodness he let us in. yuka said that her and her friends thought that ban san got enjoyment out of being mean to them. She said he didn’t agree with her lifestyle. She wore her weird big doll clothes again. We ran upstairs to take a shower. I get out with buckets and toon is at her door. She can’t find her key. i reach into a little pocket and find it. I run to the shower and get started. I bought soap today but didn’t bring it with me. Whatever. Wash hair and use regular soap. Toon comes in and she’s washing fast too. I’m getting done and I feel water on me. I still had soap on me and she got it off for me. I couldn’t’ help but laugh. I live in crazy town!
When we first got to namjatown we got a flyer that had all the custard available. There was some from places all over japan. Many many! I saw a boob shaped custard and asked Brandon if he wanted it and he said those are not for eating! Hilarious!
Chinatsu wanted to get the same souvenir so we got pens with the ghost cat on it. So did toon.
And yesterday at asakusa I overheard some people taking. I heard “what the fuck I’m going to buy this.” I turned around and they were Japanese but spoke English well. The girl kept saying that phrase because one guy didn’t get it. She said it was just an expression. I kept turning around because I was debating whether or not to correct her. And then the other guy noticed I was turning around and told them to stop saying it. Too funny!
Good night!
June 21
I wake up around 930 and get ready. me, naoko, and toon left the dorm at 1030a to go to the station. We get to hamamatsucho and see kana. Then mari comes. And then toon wants to get on the phone. But we aren’t really going to use hamamatsucho. The phone is inside the gate. So toon starts to use it while leaning over the gate. They are asking where Brandon is. It’s not even 11am yet. Brandon gets there and I tell toon that he’s here. She didn’t make her call yet. They wanted to take us to a bookstore to find a guide book to Kyoto, but I said that we could find everything on the internet. So we head back into daimon and go to asakusa.
We ate lunch at a soba restaurant where we had to take off our shoes. I like mine hot. It was ok. Nothing fancy.
We get to asakusa and there are so many people. There are so many shops. I go into a kimono shop to see how much the collar would be for under the kimono. It takes a while but I decide to get just the plain collar. Then the lady said that I could not get the color without this other cloth to go over it. There was this man that spoke English but he had a greasy feel. Like a car salesman. So then I’m like ok, I’ll get the top. Then she said that the top needed a bottom slip. Then we found a set for 5000 yen. I got it in purple, two ties, and the obi board to keep the shape. Cool!
Then I wanted to look around for a purse, fan, and getta. But that didn’t happen. The getta I wanted are for a yukata. There are different shoes you wear with a kimono and socks. And the getta I wanted weren’t in my size. And the purse I wanted was for a yukata and matched my kimono too much. Naoko wasn’t much help because she can’t seem to talk to me. She doesn’t know any of the words that will help. I should have gotten the shoes and socks there, but it is so difficult to talk to naoko. And kana left early because she needed to go to work. And the fans that I like were really expensive.
I got some gifts for peoples and we ate this really tasty fried bun with anko inside. Yum. Then we headed for the temple. Sensoji? Temple and shrine. Naoko got her booked stamped by the priests. We saw a man and his baboon? Doing tricks. I video taped some of it. We went back down thru the street. We left and went to ueno to eat sweets. Called anmitsu. I got macha with anko and red beans and mochi. There was this agar nastiness. Gelatinous gross! Then we started walking down the street and saw the shopping street. Toon really wanted to go. we played this game like guitar hero but with 3 buttons to push. While they were playing toon tried to find a phone. Always trying to find a phone. We found a place to take our picture in a booth and then we found a shoe store. It took forever. Then Brandon found a tea shop and bought a macha set. He was very excited. There wasn’t’ much time left and we went to go eat dinner. We went to torizou. It was yakitori style. It was all really delicious. It was 2000 yen each. We shared certain things like salad, the omelet..
Then we came home and I tried to put on my kimono and It looked really bad. I think I’m too big. Naoko said she would help me but that hasn’t happened yet. Oh well. I’m tired.
We ate lunch at a soba restaurant where we had to take off our shoes. I like mine hot. It was ok. Nothing fancy.
We get to asakusa and there are so many people. There are so many shops. I go into a kimono shop to see how much the collar would be for under the kimono. It takes a while but I decide to get just the plain collar. Then the lady said that I could not get the color without this other cloth to go over it. There was this man that spoke English but he had a greasy feel. Like a car salesman. So then I’m like ok, I’ll get the top. Then she said that the top needed a bottom slip. Then we found a set for 5000 yen. I got it in purple, two ties, and the obi board to keep the shape. Cool!
Then I wanted to look around for a purse, fan, and getta. But that didn’t happen. The getta I wanted are for a yukata. There are different shoes you wear with a kimono and socks. And the getta I wanted weren’t in my size. And the purse I wanted was for a yukata and matched my kimono too much. Naoko wasn’t much help because she can’t seem to talk to me. She doesn’t know any of the words that will help. I should have gotten the shoes and socks there, but it is so difficult to talk to naoko. And kana left early because she needed to go to work. And the fans that I like were really expensive.
I got some gifts for peoples and we ate this really tasty fried bun with anko inside. Yum. Then we headed for the temple. Sensoji? Temple and shrine. Naoko got her booked stamped by the priests. We saw a man and his baboon? Doing tricks. I video taped some of it. We went back down thru the street. We left and went to ueno to eat sweets. Called anmitsu. I got macha with anko and red beans and mochi. There was this agar nastiness. Gelatinous gross! Then we started walking down the street and saw the shopping street. Toon really wanted to go. we played this game like guitar hero but with 3 buttons to push. While they were playing toon tried to find a phone. Always trying to find a phone. We found a place to take our picture in a booth and then we found a shoe store. It took forever. Then Brandon found a tea shop and bought a macha set. He was very excited. There wasn’t’ much time left and we went to go eat dinner. We went to torizou. It was yakitori style. It was all really delicious. It was 2000 yen each. We shared certain things like salad, the omelet..
Then we came home and I tried to put on my kimono and It looked really bad. I think I’m too big. Naoko said she would help me but that hasn’t happened yet. Oh well. I’m tired.
June 20th
Today was the last day at kawakita hospital. I woke up late and had to get ready in 20 minutes. Amazingly enough, I got it done. Toon and I left at 830 and went to university. we left soon after with chinatsu. She said that yesterday when kaga sensei was lecturing, she introduced kana, but she wanted chinatsu to come with us today. Kaga sensei told the whole class that chinatsu came to the hospital on Monday and Wednesday and will come on Friday. Oh my! We met Brandon at hamamatsucho and were off.
We all needed something to drink and I got some coffee at asagaya station. We got to the hospital and first thing we talked about narcotic medications. They only lock up narcotics. They consider most stimulants as narcotics. The only “stimulants” are selegiline. Interesting. We tried to explain the class system in the united states. Then we talked about diabetes education. Pharmacists in japan are not allowed to counsel the technique of giving a subq insulin shot. They can only counsel on the actual medication and side effects. Weird! And chinatsu checked her blood glucose for the first time.
Then it was time for lunch. We went with ueda san and kawai san and I got curry. Yum! We went back for the meeting and were waiting for it to start. Then kaga sensei came in and announced to everyone that we could go to the back. she was talking to chinatsu and then I said ima (now)? And everyone laughed. So we gathered our things and left for the bank. On the way we found getta (wooden shoes) for Brandon. Then we went to the bank. It took entirely too long to exchange the money. Everyone thinks I speak Japanese. We had to get back by 2pm to go to the rehabilitation center.
We get back and had to wait for 30 minutes. We left for the center and we rode in a van that was going there to drop something off. I showed kaga sensei my prescription bottle. It’s very different than in japan. They put everything in a bag. We got there and toured the facility. The also have a garden on the top floor and cool road for practice. They even have a tatami room. I asked what the purpose was and most people are old and like the old style. But most can’t bend down that far and you cant use a chair so it is mostly used as staff meeting room. Funny!
So we got back down to the lobby and had coffee and pudding. Kaga sensei bought everything again. She wanted a caramel pudding and Brandon and I took the only two. She tried to trade with Brandon and he almost had a fit. So then she saw that I had it and I said dozou (please you take it). And she did. We switched. No problem. We talked about writing prescriptions and ccp. Then it was time to leave and we had to take a taxi. But you can only put 4 people in a taxi so we needed two. We waited for about 10 minutes and kaga sensei had to give chinatsu money for the taxi. Kaga sensei and toon rode in the first one. We were laughing so hard because we were worried about toon! She would be left alone with kaga sensei and she would only talk in Japanese. The pharmacist we came to visit told chinatsu that everyone thinks she is very energetic with such a high voice. She is very eccentric. Her facial expressions are hilarious. We caught the next cab and headed back. we were laughing the whole time. Poor toon. We got back and they were not back yet. We said that toon was held hostage. And chinatsu didn’t know, so we looked it up in the jisho (dictionary). She couldn’t stop laughing once she read what it was! She said she was being held hostage because she must say thank you to kaga sensei. And Brandon said we were held hostage everyday. About 5 minutes later, we heard her in the hallway. We saw her and then saw toon trailing behind. Kaga sensei walks so fast! She put us in the library to work on our presentation. Chinatsu had to go back to class L
Before I forget. Oneday we were supposed to get a lecture with saito san. Kaga sensei couldn’t find her and she walked up behind another girl and looked in her face and was like “saito?” but it wasn’t her and she kept walking in search. hilarious! She is too funny.
So we fiddled on the internet and then the pharmacists starting coming into the library. I helped the guy set up the screen projector. And then Brandon and I presented. I think it was ok, nothing special. I showed everyone my prescription bottle. They were all intrigued. In japan you can’t have more than 2 refills. You must return to the doctor. But here it is free to go to the doctor. Then toon gave her presentation. I thought it was much better done than ours. But shikatanai.
We took a picture with the whole pharmacy and then gave kaga sensei her presents. The keychain and cookies. Then we walked out with kaga sensei and then Brandon realized that he left his wallet. What? I couldn’t believe that he left it. And then we were almost to the station and I told him he forgot his getta, because he put them in the corner of the break room. So he and matsuyama sensei ran, and I mean ran back to get them. We ate at an Italian restaurant in asagaya station. Spiga genma. Matsuyama sensei asked if I drank beer and I said yes. It’s kinda fun to drink with a professor. I know it’s not really that special. But I think it’s cool. We had some salad and Brandon and I ordered linguine chicken with pumpkin. It was really good. We were about to leave and I asked for a picture of all of us. Then we headed out for the station. Matsuyama sensei rode with us until Shinjuku. We got back to hamamatsucho and it was too late to go back to university. we stopped at the family mart so Brandon could get macha and I got some yogurt and fiber.
Back home. I took my shower and then toon came in after me. Naoko was in there too. She stopped to talk to both of us on her way out. We are meeting at 1030a to leave for asakusa. I want to find getta. A fan, a cord to tie my obi, and the under shirt, and socks. I finally wrote out all of my pictures in my notebook. I need to remember these things!
Oyasumi nasai!
We all needed something to drink and I got some coffee at asagaya station. We got to the hospital and first thing we talked about narcotic medications. They only lock up narcotics. They consider most stimulants as narcotics. The only “stimulants” are selegiline. Interesting. We tried to explain the class system in the united states. Then we talked about diabetes education. Pharmacists in japan are not allowed to counsel the technique of giving a subq insulin shot. They can only counsel on the actual medication and side effects. Weird! And chinatsu checked her blood glucose for the first time.
Then it was time for lunch. We went with ueda san and kawai san and I got curry. Yum! We went back for the meeting and were waiting for it to start. Then kaga sensei came in and announced to everyone that we could go to the back. she was talking to chinatsu and then I said ima (now)? And everyone laughed. So we gathered our things and left for the bank. On the way we found getta (wooden shoes) for Brandon. Then we went to the bank. It took entirely too long to exchange the money. Everyone thinks I speak Japanese. We had to get back by 2pm to go to the rehabilitation center.
We get back and had to wait for 30 minutes. We left for the center and we rode in a van that was going there to drop something off. I showed kaga sensei my prescription bottle. It’s very different than in japan. They put everything in a bag. We got there and toured the facility. The also have a garden on the top floor and cool road for practice. They even have a tatami room. I asked what the purpose was and most people are old and like the old style. But most can’t bend down that far and you cant use a chair so it is mostly used as staff meeting room. Funny!
So we got back down to the lobby and had coffee and pudding. Kaga sensei bought everything again. She wanted a caramel pudding and Brandon and I took the only two. She tried to trade with Brandon and he almost had a fit. So then she saw that I had it and I said dozou (please you take it). And she did. We switched. No problem. We talked about writing prescriptions and ccp. Then it was time to leave and we had to take a taxi. But you can only put 4 people in a taxi so we needed two. We waited for about 10 minutes and kaga sensei had to give chinatsu money for the taxi. Kaga sensei and toon rode in the first one. We were laughing so hard because we were worried about toon! She would be left alone with kaga sensei and she would only talk in Japanese. The pharmacist we came to visit told chinatsu that everyone thinks she is very energetic with such a high voice. She is very eccentric. Her facial expressions are hilarious. We caught the next cab and headed back. we were laughing the whole time. Poor toon. We got back and they were not back yet. We said that toon was held hostage. And chinatsu didn’t know, so we looked it up in the jisho (dictionary). She couldn’t stop laughing once she read what it was! She said she was being held hostage because she must say thank you to kaga sensei. And Brandon said we were held hostage everyday. About 5 minutes later, we heard her in the hallway. We saw her and then saw toon trailing behind. Kaga sensei walks so fast! She put us in the library to work on our presentation. Chinatsu had to go back to class L
Before I forget. Oneday we were supposed to get a lecture with saito san. Kaga sensei couldn’t find her and she walked up behind another girl and looked in her face and was like “saito?” but it wasn’t her and she kept walking in search. hilarious! She is too funny.
So we fiddled on the internet and then the pharmacists starting coming into the library. I helped the guy set up the screen projector. And then Brandon and I presented. I think it was ok, nothing special. I showed everyone my prescription bottle. They were all intrigued. In japan you can’t have more than 2 refills. You must return to the doctor. But here it is free to go to the doctor. Then toon gave her presentation. I thought it was much better done than ours. But shikatanai.
We took a picture with the whole pharmacy and then gave kaga sensei her presents. The keychain and cookies. Then we walked out with kaga sensei and then Brandon realized that he left his wallet. What? I couldn’t believe that he left it. And then we were almost to the station and I told him he forgot his getta, because he put them in the corner of the break room. So he and matsuyama sensei ran, and I mean ran back to get them. We ate at an Italian restaurant in asagaya station. Spiga genma. Matsuyama sensei asked if I drank beer and I said yes. It’s kinda fun to drink with a professor. I know it’s not really that special. But I think it’s cool. We had some salad and Brandon and I ordered linguine chicken with pumpkin. It was really good. We were about to leave and I asked for a picture of all of us. Then we headed out for the station. Matsuyama sensei rode with us until Shinjuku. We got back to hamamatsucho and it was too late to go back to university. we stopped at the family mart so Brandon could get macha and I got some yogurt and fiber.
Back home. I took my shower and then toon came in after me. Naoko was in there too. She stopped to talk to both of us on her way out. We are meeting at 1030a to leave for asakusa. I want to find getta. A fan, a cord to tie my obi, and the under shirt, and socks. I finally wrote out all of my pictures in my notebook. I need to remember these things!
Oyasumi nasai!
June 19
My stomach hurts. Uuughhh! So anyway toon and I left for keio university and we were a few minutes behind. Clayton had actually been trying to call me but my phone was dead. I talked for a few minutes and then it was done. We arrived at 5 to 9a and left for hamamatsucho with taka-san. M2 student. We met Brandon at the station and we were off. We got on an earlier train so it was nice and cool and there weren’t that many people. We stopped at a convenie and I got a coffee. Yum! We went to the hospital and we were greeted by kaga-sensei. She took us to the dispensary room and it was explained to us. It was very similar to the other main dispensary room like the other hospitals. Taka-san’s English is ok, but he has a lot of trouble I think. he’s going to Thailand next month for his rotation. I like this hospital the best so far. It’s pace is better.
At about 11am it was time for free time. We went to the library and kaga-sensei told us that we needed to make a thank you letter to mr. kawakita and write about our impression of the hospital. We asked if we could go to the bank and she said we would have time tomorrow. Then ueda-san and another guy picked us up for lunch at 12p. I had oyakodon – same as Tuesday night’s dinner.
Then we left for the meeting and then we had 30 minutes to wait. i asked ueda-san why some girls wore shoes that don’t really fit their feet and she said that she didn’t know. She’s not that young! She’s funny. I told Brandon that this would have been a good time to go to the bank, but everyone loves to run our schedule. So we waited.
Then at 130 we got shown to the clean bench room and the chemo hood. There is an air shower you have to get into before you mix chemo drugs. They even have a special suit that they wear. This hospital does not have an oncology pharmacist. they have a boss of the area. It takes a long time to becomes a specialized pharmacist. also they have a rotation of sections. So every pharmacist knows how to work everything. They switch every 2 months. And they don’t get paid extra to work with chemo drugs. In Thailand they do.
Then we left for the library and wrote our letter. We got done by 4pm. And toon offered to type. I said sure. It took forever. Almost an hour and the letter was short. It was painful. Peck-peck-peck. Oh well. I just know to not let her type anything else for me. She told me in the morning that she had a boyfriend in Thailand of two months. We left around 5p for Shinjuku station. We walked to the keio plaza hotel and waited in the lobby. Toon found a phone to call home. She was there for about 5 minutes and taka-san said he found some seats. I went to tell her that we would be sitting around the corner. And when I pointed in that direction we saw macura and kaga-sensei. She got off the phone and we went downstairs to the restaurant.
We sat down and we were asked what to drink. They looked at me and asked me what I wanted. Kaga-sensei asked if I wanted beer and I looked at macura. I said if kaga-sensei drank I would drink. Then no answer. I asked him what he was getting and he said he was getting beer. So If he was, sure, why not. And kaga-sensei order herself a half pint J we got served several courses. Very colorful food and easy to share with everyone. That is theme for food here. Get many dishes to share with everyone. We had salad, tofu, soup, sashimi, rice soup, and tea. It was all delicious. We took a picture before we left and headed back for the station.
Kaga-sensei left for the hospital and macura went his way for home. The rest of us went to oedo line headed back for school. Brandon asked to stop for a bathroom. I needed to pee really bad too and knew I wasn’t going make it back to school. I walk in and there are only the ones on the floor. I’m like noooooo! And come back out. I’m laughing trying to tell toon what’s wrong. I said I haven’t pee’d like that much and I like to sit down. She was laughing and was telling me what to do. I couldn’t help but laugh. She’s like you face it and sit down. You have to sit down. Oh my goodness! So I got back in and it smells funny. I pulled up my pants legs and had to squat. Oh well. I heard her telling them what happened. Brandon said he knew it was me because he heard me laughing.
We went back to school to finish up our presentation. Toon was also working. She got done and went down to the lobby to call home. We finished up and were talking (typing) about how yuka and naoko are punks and that if we have to go with them this weekend it is going to suck. And they never tell us the schedule. So then we were about to leave when mari came in and so did miho. She told us that things had changed for the weekend and the next hospital. So they were planning things. We are still going to odaiba, yay! Miho also wanted to discuss our plans for july. She asked where we wanted to go. We talked about that for a while and then I noticed the time and we had to leave. We got to the first floor and toon was still on the phone. Funny. She got off and we headed for the train. At our station I stopped by the convenie to get my fiber mini and when I came back she was on the phone again. Funny. We went home and she said that she could not shower or sleep. The shower thing really bothers her.
I took my shower, and clayton called a little while later.
Oh, and before I forget. The girls here don’t really shave their nether regions. It is major bush. I can’t help but see it when I go to the shower. It’s just kind of there. So whatever!
Time for bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day!
At about 11am it was time for free time. We went to the library and kaga-sensei told us that we needed to make a thank you letter to mr. kawakita and write about our impression of the hospital. We asked if we could go to the bank and she said we would have time tomorrow. Then ueda-san and another guy picked us up for lunch at 12p. I had oyakodon – same as Tuesday night’s dinner.
Then we left for the meeting and then we had 30 minutes to wait. i asked ueda-san why some girls wore shoes that don’t really fit their feet and she said that she didn’t know. She’s not that young! She’s funny. I told Brandon that this would have been a good time to go to the bank, but everyone loves to run our schedule. So we waited.
Then at 130 we got shown to the clean bench room and the chemo hood. There is an air shower you have to get into before you mix chemo drugs. They even have a special suit that they wear. This hospital does not have an oncology pharmacist. they have a boss of the area. It takes a long time to becomes a specialized pharmacist. also they have a rotation of sections. So every pharmacist knows how to work everything. They switch every 2 months. And they don’t get paid extra to work with chemo drugs. In Thailand they do.
Then we left for the library and wrote our letter. We got done by 4pm. And toon offered to type. I said sure. It took forever. Almost an hour and the letter was short. It was painful. Peck-peck-peck. Oh well. I just know to not let her type anything else for me. She told me in the morning that she had a boyfriend in Thailand of two months. We left around 5p for Shinjuku station. We walked to the keio plaza hotel and waited in the lobby. Toon found a phone to call home. She was there for about 5 minutes and taka-san said he found some seats. I went to tell her that we would be sitting around the corner. And when I pointed in that direction we saw macura and kaga-sensei. She got off the phone and we went downstairs to the restaurant.
We sat down and we were asked what to drink. They looked at me and asked me what I wanted. Kaga-sensei asked if I wanted beer and I looked at macura. I said if kaga-sensei drank I would drink. Then no answer. I asked him what he was getting and he said he was getting beer. So If he was, sure, why not. And kaga-sensei order herself a half pint J we got served several courses. Very colorful food and easy to share with everyone. That is theme for food here. Get many dishes to share with everyone. We had salad, tofu, soup, sashimi, rice soup, and tea. It was all delicious. We took a picture before we left and headed back for the station.
Kaga-sensei left for the hospital and macura went his way for home. The rest of us went to oedo line headed back for school. Brandon asked to stop for a bathroom. I needed to pee really bad too and knew I wasn’t going make it back to school. I walk in and there are only the ones on the floor. I’m like noooooo! And come back out. I’m laughing trying to tell toon what’s wrong. I said I haven’t pee’d like that much and I like to sit down. She was laughing and was telling me what to do. I couldn’t help but laugh. She’s like you face it and sit down. You have to sit down. Oh my goodness! So I got back in and it smells funny. I pulled up my pants legs and had to squat. Oh well. I heard her telling them what happened. Brandon said he knew it was me because he heard me laughing.
We went back to school to finish up our presentation. Toon was also working. She got done and went down to the lobby to call home. We finished up and were talking (typing) about how yuka and naoko are punks and that if we have to go with them this weekend it is going to suck. And they never tell us the schedule. So then we were about to leave when mari came in and so did miho. She told us that things had changed for the weekend and the next hospital. So they were planning things. We are still going to odaiba, yay! Miho also wanted to discuss our plans for july. She asked where we wanted to go. We talked about that for a while and then I noticed the time and we had to leave. We got to the first floor and toon was still on the phone. Funny. She got off and we headed for the train. At our station I stopped by the convenie to get my fiber mini and when I came back she was on the phone again. Funny. We went home and she said that she could not shower or sleep. The shower thing really bothers her.
I took my shower, and clayton called a little while later.
Oh, and before I forget. The girls here don’t really shave their nether regions. It is major bush. I can’t help but see it when I go to the shower. It’s just kind of there. So whatever!
Time for bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day!
June 18
Today toon and I went to school together. We got there about 15 til 9a. we had to just sit around. Brandon decided that he wasn’t going to come to university anymore and will wait for us at hamamatsucho. At 9am we left with chinatsu and went to hamamatsucho. We arrived at the hospital around 10am and asked for kaga sensei at the front desk. She came and we changed into our white coats.
Our first lecture was the stock management. How medications are ordered and what is kept track of. I’m always so sleepy. Many medications need separate prescriptions and need an inventory. It was interesting to learn that narcotic medications are ordered by the doctor and there is a pharmacist that is the narcotics manager to keep track of inventory. That was done at 11a and we went to the little library and kaga sensei wanted to explain things in more detail. Then it was time for lunch.
Ueda-san picked us up for lunch and we went to the cafeteria. We had clam spaghetti. It was tasty. And then we went to the staff meeting at 1245p. afterwards we went to the injection dispensary room. It’s actually more work for the person translating than us. They have to listen and then relate that message to us. Brandon and I were so tired. I kept yawning and had to try really hard to keep myself awake. The pharmacist explaining things was so quiet and a small voice.
We went back to the library and kaga sensei wanted to have a lecture about medication safety. On our schedule it said free time, but not really free time. The lecture was 2 hours. And poor chinatsu had to explain everything to us. We were again very sleepy and she noticed. So we took a little break and had some green tea and coffee. There is actually a sweet coffee pre-made. It has maple and honey in it. Yay! I must find this. I drank mine really quick. It was delicious. The talk was interesting but way too long. The schedule for the day was over. We asked chinatsu how to say star. And it is hoshi. I kept saying iga-sensei to her and she was like, no no no. then at the end of the day I said in Japanese that chinatsu was a star. She thought it was really funny because it doesn’t really translate. I just wanted to say that she was doing a really good job.
We left and on the way went to a convenie. Brandon asked her which were energy drinks and found a su-pa one. And a bottle just of caffeine. That was different. We left and headed back to hamamatsucho. Brandon wanted to go to the pokemon center and we asked when dinner was. Chinatsu had to call every M1 student and finally got ahold of saori-san. We didn’t understand what the big deal was. It would have taken 5 minutes to get to pokemon center and then we could have gotten ourselves back to school. We saw dr. matsuyama on the way to the station for an appointment and then saori came. They wanted to us to come back to the university and then on the way we could go by there. Then saori was trying to call taka-san and see if he could come now. It really wasn’t that much trouble. I leaned over to toon and said they didn’t think we could manage on our own. And she said she thought it was good that we had so many people that cared about us.
So we went to the pokemon store and I got a washcloth of the bird and some stickers. Brandon bought a cookie tin and a folder. We headed back to the university and I went to check my email. The m1 students were having a conference about us. Our schedule has changed yet again. Monday I was supposed to go to odaiba and then on Tuesday I was going to senpo takanawa hospital and then on Wednesday we where going to shiodome. Monday was brandon’s day at the hospital and Wednesday was toon’s. but now we have to go to the hospital on both days. but they haven’t really told us. Yet. Miho came by and gave me a sweet that she got at the hot springs. It was a delicious snack. She even made us green tea to go with it. I can drink hot green tea much better than cold or store bought in a bottle. I don’t know why. The sweet had an orangey flavor and was delicious.
So we leave for dinner. Saori, taka, me, b, and toon. We are going to ryogoku to eat chan-gou, sumo wrestler’s dinner food. It is brought uncooked in a bowl and you cook it on the gas stove eye on your table. It was good. We got a seafood bowl with spicy soup and chicken with miso soup. and we got yaki-tori. Yum! We were almost done and when I was waiting for the bathroom the server asked me to wait in Japanese: chotou mate. Then he said in English please wait a moment. I said I understood chotou mate and said I understand in Japanese. He asked where I was from. America-jin des. Then a man leaving said that I looked Japanese and I said that I was Korean but that I was adopted.
We left and on the way to the subway we found a 100yen store. Yay! I found some cute bookends, sheep and hedgehogs. Some funny notebooks, and gift bags. Toon and I went back home and I did a load of laundry and took my shower. I had to wash some of the darker undies by hand. It was a light colored load. I ate my peanut butter sandwich and it was good. I haven’t had peanut butter in a long time. It was really creamy and fluffy if that makes sense. But still good.
Yesterday on the way home from the hospital we saw an old man walking a bicycle and then fall over onto a plant. I just stared at him. Then toon ran over to help. So we all tried to help and keep him steady. He said to macura that he hadn’t eaten that day but he lived close by. Basically he didn’t want our help but we were concerned and watched him for a while. He tried to get back on his back several times and then just started walking again.
And a couple of days ago, yoshi got us to try umeboshi. A pickled something. It was soo sour. I never need to eat one again. He just wanted to see the look on our face.
Time for bed!
Our first lecture was the stock management. How medications are ordered and what is kept track of. I’m always so sleepy. Many medications need separate prescriptions and need an inventory. It was interesting to learn that narcotic medications are ordered by the doctor and there is a pharmacist that is the narcotics manager to keep track of inventory. That was done at 11a and we went to the little library and kaga sensei wanted to explain things in more detail. Then it was time for lunch.
Ueda-san picked us up for lunch and we went to the cafeteria. We had clam spaghetti. It was tasty. And then we went to the staff meeting at 1245p. afterwards we went to the injection dispensary room. It’s actually more work for the person translating than us. They have to listen and then relate that message to us. Brandon and I were so tired. I kept yawning and had to try really hard to keep myself awake. The pharmacist explaining things was so quiet and a small voice.
We went back to the library and kaga sensei wanted to have a lecture about medication safety. On our schedule it said free time, but not really free time. The lecture was 2 hours. And poor chinatsu had to explain everything to us. We were again very sleepy and she noticed. So we took a little break and had some green tea and coffee. There is actually a sweet coffee pre-made. It has maple and honey in it. Yay! I must find this. I drank mine really quick. It was delicious. The talk was interesting but way too long. The schedule for the day was over. We asked chinatsu how to say star. And it is hoshi. I kept saying iga-sensei to her and she was like, no no no. then at the end of the day I said in Japanese that chinatsu was a star. She thought it was really funny because it doesn’t really translate. I just wanted to say that she was doing a really good job.
We left and on the way went to a convenie. Brandon asked her which were energy drinks and found a su-pa one. And a bottle just of caffeine. That was different. We left and headed back to hamamatsucho. Brandon wanted to go to the pokemon center and we asked when dinner was. Chinatsu had to call every M1 student and finally got ahold of saori-san. We didn’t understand what the big deal was. It would have taken 5 minutes to get to pokemon center and then we could have gotten ourselves back to school. We saw dr. matsuyama on the way to the station for an appointment and then saori came. They wanted to us to come back to the university and then on the way we could go by there. Then saori was trying to call taka-san and see if he could come now. It really wasn’t that much trouble. I leaned over to toon and said they didn’t think we could manage on our own. And she said she thought it was good that we had so many people that cared about us.
So we went to the pokemon store and I got a washcloth of the bird and some stickers. Brandon bought a cookie tin and a folder. We headed back to the university and I went to check my email. The m1 students were having a conference about us. Our schedule has changed yet again. Monday I was supposed to go to odaiba and then on Tuesday I was going to senpo takanawa hospital and then on Wednesday we where going to shiodome. Monday was brandon’s day at the hospital and Wednesday was toon’s. but now we have to go to the hospital on both days. but they haven’t really told us. Yet. Miho came by and gave me a sweet that she got at the hot springs. It was a delicious snack. She even made us green tea to go with it. I can drink hot green tea much better than cold or store bought in a bottle. I don’t know why. The sweet had an orangey flavor and was delicious.
So we leave for dinner. Saori, taka, me, b, and toon. We are going to ryogoku to eat chan-gou, sumo wrestler’s dinner food. It is brought uncooked in a bowl and you cook it on the gas stove eye on your table. It was good. We got a seafood bowl with spicy soup and chicken with miso soup. and we got yaki-tori. Yum! We were almost done and when I was waiting for the bathroom the server asked me to wait in Japanese: chotou mate. Then he said in English please wait a moment. I said I understood chotou mate and said I understand in Japanese. He asked where I was from. America-jin des. Then a man leaving said that I looked Japanese and I said that I was Korean but that I was adopted.
We left and on the way to the subway we found a 100yen store. Yay! I found some cute bookends, sheep and hedgehogs. Some funny notebooks, and gift bags. Toon and I went back home and I did a load of laundry and took my shower. I had to wash some of the darker undies by hand. It was a light colored load. I ate my peanut butter sandwich and it was good. I haven’t had peanut butter in a long time. It was really creamy and fluffy if that makes sense. But still good.
Yesterday on the way home from the hospital we saw an old man walking a bicycle and then fall over onto a plant. I just stared at him. Then toon ran over to help. So we all tried to help and keep him steady. He said to macura that he hadn’t eaten that day but he lived close by. Basically he didn’t want our help but we were concerned and watched him for a while. He tried to get back on his back several times and then just started walking again.
And a couple of days ago, yoshi got us to try umeboshi. A pickled something. It was soo sour. I never need to eat one again. He just wanted to see the look on our face.
Time for bed!
June 17
Today I went to the university and noticed that toon had left very early. She got to school at 830am. Brandon was late and called macura. Macura didn’t get his answer because he was on the train and then Brandon didn’t answer back for the same reason. I called him at 9am and he said he was at hamamatsucho station. So macura, toon, and I walked down to meet him. We got on the train and macura asked if we knew where we were going and I said yes. He said he was useless then.
We get to the hospital and ask the front desk to let kaga sensei know that we had arrived. She comes with her mask on. She had been coughing a lot yesterday and said she had the cold that was running around the hospital. She coughed on Brandon and he bought vitamin c drops last night! We put on our white coats and took macura san somewhere. She came back for us and we went down to the manufacturing room. Another pharmacist explained to us what they made and how they autoclaved things. They did that about 3 times a week.
Then we came back to the pharmacy staff room. Kaga sensei said we were going to the housing for the aged. She barely let us grab our money out of our bags. On the way to the station we stopped at a sweet shop and got a gift for the place. We got on the train and went one station. Then we got on a bus and walked to the place. It is connected to kawakita hospital. They have an elevator that you need a code in order to operate. They don’t want the old folk to get out! So we toured the different floors. One floor was for people over 90 and one floor was healthy but with alzheimers. Most have their own room, but share bathroom. The really special have their own bathroom. Kaga sensei said hello to nearly everyone she saw.
We were done with the tour and we sat down and had the treats she bought. She bought a bigger package for the director and one for us. It was anko, red bean paste, in between two little pancakes. Anko is actually good. It took me a while to like it. Then we walked to the shrine and toon took some pictures for us. We walked to get the bus and went back to the station. There is a posh shopping mall and we went to the 5th floor for lunch. We ate at a tempura place. We sat at the bar and saw a tank of live shrimp. We got rice, miso soup, and shrimp, fish, yam, pepper tempura. It was really good. They had macha (dark green tea) salt. It was tasty. When we were done, kaga sensei paid for us. That was super nice of her. Then she asked if we wanted macha or coffee. We went to a place that served macha. It came with anko inside of a gellied ball. It was actually good. But I was so full that I couldn’t finish the macha.
We went back to the hospital and waited in the break room for about 10 minutes. I almost fell asleep. Then we spent some time in the drug information room. I was really sleepy and it was taking a long time for macura to translate what they said in Japanese. So I was falling asleep a little bit and yawning a lot. I felt bad. I stood up eventually to wake up. She told us that they have a database of questions that have been asked. When it gives the answer it gives the citation at the bottom. When we were done we went back to the break room and then kaga sensei told us that we were done.
Thursday night we are going to dinner with her at Shinjuku. She invited macura san. We left and went back to keio. Brandon and I worked on our presentation a bit and toon left because she had dinner plans with maria. Then yoshi came in and said it was time to go to dinner. Macura was going with us. They said they found a ramen shop. On the way out of the university we found hiroto san, and two of his friends. We went to the mita line and changed for the Shinjuku line. We were waiting in line when I told Brandon to ask again if things had been and pork. Taka looked on the website and they said they didn’t use pork but they use the pork bone in everything. Sooooo, we couldn’t’ eat there. Hiroto and his friends takeshi and machan stayed and we left to find another. We couldn’t find one and ate a soba place. I got rice with chicken and egg. It’s called parent and child. We came back and printed our presentation. Then I wanted to go home and Brandon wanted them to translate the fortune paper. So we stayed and it was about 930 when we left. I got home about 10. I was really tired tonight. We walked all over the place.
Toon and I are going to go to school together in the morning and probably every morning. She’s really sweet. Time for bed.
We get to the hospital and ask the front desk to let kaga sensei know that we had arrived. She comes with her mask on. She had been coughing a lot yesterday and said she had the cold that was running around the hospital. She coughed on Brandon and he bought vitamin c drops last night! We put on our white coats and took macura san somewhere. She came back for us and we went down to the manufacturing room. Another pharmacist explained to us what they made and how they autoclaved things. They did that about 3 times a week.
Then we came back to the pharmacy staff room. Kaga sensei said we were going to the housing for the aged. She barely let us grab our money out of our bags. On the way to the station we stopped at a sweet shop and got a gift for the place. We got on the train and went one station. Then we got on a bus and walked to the place. It is connected to kawakita hospital. They have an elevator that you need a code in order to operate. They don’t want the old folk to get out! So we toured the different floors. One floor was for people over 90 and one floor was healthy but with alzheimers. Most have their own room, but share bathroom. The really special have their own bathroom. Kaga sensei said hello to nearly everyone she saw.
We were done with the tour and we sat down and had the treats she bought. She bought a bigger package for the director and one for us. It was anko, red bean paste, in between two little pancakes. Anko is actually good. It took me a while to like it. Then we walked to the shrine and toon took some pictures for us. We walked to get the bus and went back to the station. There is a posh shopping mall and we went to the 5th floor for lunch. We ate at a tempura place. We sat at the bar and saw a tank of live shrimp. We got rice, miso soup, and shrimp, fish, yam, pepper tempura. It was really good. They had macha (dark green tea) salt. It was tasty. When we were done, kaga sensei paid for us. That was super nice of her. Then she asked if we wanted macha or coffee. We went to a place that served macha. It came with anko inside of a gellied ball. It was actually good. But I was so full that I couldn’t finish the macha.
We went back to the hospital and waited in the break room for about 10 minutes. I almost fell asleep. Then we spent some time in the drug information room. I was really sleepy and it was taking a long time for macura to translate what they said in Japanese. So I was falling asleep a little bit and yawning a lot. I felt bad. I stood up eventually to wake up. She told us that they have a database of questions that have been asked. When it gives the answer it gives the citation at the bottom. When we were done we went back to the break room and then kaga sensei told us that we were done.
Thursday night we are going to dinner with her at Shinjuku. She invited macura san. We left and went back to keio. Brandon and I worked on our presentation a bit and toon left because she had dinner plans with maria. Then yoshi came in and said it was time to go to dinner. Macura was going with us. They said they found a ramen shop. On the way out of the university we found hiroto san, and two of his friends. We went to the mita line and changed for the Shinjuku line. We were waiting in line when I told Brandon to ask again if things had been and pork. Taka looked on the website and they said they didn’t use pork but they use the pork bone in everything. Sooooo, we couldn’t’ eat there. Hiroto and his friends takeshi and machan stayed and we left to find another. We couldn’t find one and ate a soba place. I got rice with chicken and egg. It’s called parent and child. We came back and printed our presentation. Then I wanted to go home and Brandon wanted them to translate the fortune paper. So we stayed and it was about 930 when we left. I got home about 10. I was really tired tonight. We walked all over the place.
Toon and I are going to go to school together in the morning and probably every morning. She’s really sweet. Time for bed.
June 16
So today we met toon, a Thailand student that will be at keio university for 45 days. she thought I was Japanese and showed me katakana to see how to say her name. her real name is really long. Warinworradee jongprasert. Toon is a nickname, as in cartoon. We left for hamamatsucho a little after 9am. We got to kawakita general hospital about 5 til 10a. it’s a much smaller hospital. I think it is more my speed.
It was an interesting day. The preceptor. Dr. kaga, whose name I really didn’t know until midway through the day, is a strange one. She has a very high pitched voice and seemed to get louder on the phone. She greeted everyone she saw basically. She talked too fast even for chinatsu to catch everything. She walks very fast for a lady in her 50’s. and she makes sudden stops and changes direction. We got an overview of most of the hospital. And even an outpatient clinic.
We had lunch in the cafeteria with a pharmacist who studied in Canada for 1.5 years. She said that she’s been back in japan for 2 years and can’t remember how to speak English. It uses different muscles and since she hasn’t been speaking she has forgotten words. Compeletely understandable. I had rice with pork kimchee and miso soup.
We went back to have a staff meeting and to view different wards in the hospital. We saw a garden up on the 5th floor, where you can smoke. The hospital is a friendly hospital and has a sun on it’s logo for warmth. They have a green line for environment. They are very into saving the environment. Then we went to jun-me-gu shrine that was close to the hospital. Then we went to the dialysis clinic. When we got there it was about 3pm. We weren’t supposed to meet the doctor until 340p. we waited in the break room and had some black tea. Not really good, then she offered coffee. It was instant but the water was way too hot. And there was no cream or sugar.
Oh, dr. kaga did not speak much English. Just Japanese. She would speak and have chinatsu to translate. After we heard a presentation about he hospital she asked if we knew kanji. She explained Japanese thought that was a printed poster on the wall. To act we have to think much, deliberation, 3 steps to consider – prepare, act, complete, endure – hard to act soon, must endure, do not give up. This is a thought of japan as a whole. We don’t have something like that in America.
Finally we got to go home and we made chinatsu late for class. We asked for what the yen shop was. She told us that it was only for check cashing. We are retards. We thought it was the 100yen shop. Oh well. We get back and I check email and about 6 we go to dinner with taka and yoshi. He is wearing his geta and you can hear him when he walks. I got karoke – fried potato cakes, salad, rice, and miso soup. delicious.
We go back upstairs and work on our presentation and tell take about the yen shop. He got a good laugh at that. We left and went walking and found Tokyo bay/harbor. They have ferries. We walked back and went to a convenie. I found some peanut butter sandwiches with no crust and some spicy potato sticks. I bought a fiber drink with 10,000mg fiber. I thought that was a lot, but when I got home I realized it wasn’t. there’s only 2g fiber per 100ml. in a 500 ml bottle. The other bottles I was buying was 6g fiber in 100ml. I got jiped. Oh well. I found the iron and ironed my shirt. Yay! Time for bed!
It was an interesting day. The preceptor. Dr. kaga, whose name I really didn’t know until midway through the day, is a strange one. She has a very high pitched voice and seemed to get louder on the phone. She greeted everyone she saw basically. She talked too fast even for chinatsu to catch everything. She walks very fast for a lady in her 50’s. and she makes sudden stops and changes direction. We got an overview of most of the hospital. And even an outpatient clinic.
We had lunch in the cafeteria with a pharmacist who studied in Canada for 1.5 years. She said that she’s been back in japan for 2 years and can’t remember how to speak English. It uses different muscles and since she hasn’t been speaking she has forgotten words. Compeletely understandable. I had rice with pork kimchee and miso soup.
We went back to have a staff meeting and to view different wards in the hospital. We saw a garden up on the 5th floor, where you can smoke. The hospital is a friendly hospital and has a sun on it’s logo for warmth. They have a green line for environment. They are very into saving the environment. Then we went to jun-me-gu shrine that was close to the hospital. Then we went to the dialysis clinic. When we got there it was about 3pm. We weren’t supposed to meet the doctor until 340p. we waited in the break room and had some black tea. Not really good, then she offered coffee. It was instant but the water was way too hot. And there was no cream or sugar.
Oh, dr. kaga did not speak much English. Just Japanese. She would speak and have chinatsu to translate. After we heard a presentation about he hospital she asked if we knew kanji. She explained Japanese thought that was a printed poster on the wall. To act we have to think much, deliberation, 3 steps to consider – prepare, act, complete, endure – hard to act soon, must endure, do not give up. This is a thought of japan as a whole. We don’t have something like that in America.
Finally we got to go home and we made chinatsu late for class. We asked for what the yen shop was. She told us that it was only for check cashing. We are retards. We thought it was the 100yen shop. Oh well. We get back and I check email and about 6 we go to dinner with taka and yoshi. He is wearing his geta and you can hear him when he walks. I got karoke – fried potato cakes, salad, rice, and miso soup. delicious.
We go back upstairs and work on our presentation and tell take about the yen shop. He got a good laugh at that. We left and went walking and found Tokyo bay/harbor. They have ferries. We walked back and went to a convenie. I found some peanut butter sandwiches with no crust and some spicy potato sticks. I bought a fiber drink with 10,000mg fiber. I thought that was a lot, but when I got home I realized it wasn’t. there’s only 2g fiber per 100ml. in a 500 ml bottle. The other bottles I was buying was 6g fiber in 100ml. I got jiped. Oh well. I found the iron and ironed my shirt. Yay! Time for bed!
Monday, June 16, 2008
June 15 – tokyo disney land!
So today I woke up at 630 to meet naoko at the lobby. I put makeup on this morning because I forgot that it had uv sunscreen protection. We get to daimon and I call Brandon. He says he’s at a2, the normal exit, but I we were walking toward b2, the hamamatsucho exit. He walked down and met us, and then we met mari. And off we went on the yamanote line toward Tokyo station. Then we got off and switched for the keiyou line. It took about 30 minutes to get there. We met kana when we got off. They called saori and she must have been sleeping.
We bought tickets for 5400 yen, which is cheaper than at Disney world. We walked through the main gate and saw many characters. We took a picture with chip or dale and the queen of hearts. We got a fast pass for buzz light year and went off to splash mountain. It was in Japanese and not much of the story. I videotaped a bit. It was a fun ride. I love the drop at the end. Instead of buying the expensive photos we took pictures of them. J Next we got giant turkey legs and waited for the river boat. Mari went and got us fast passes for thunder mountain. When we got finished we went to the shooting range. For 200 yen you can shoot 10 times, if you get all of them you can win a badge. I got zero. So did Brandon, kana, and naoko. Mari was a pro and got 8/10.
Then we went to pirates of the carribean. I was like the one at home but Johnny depp only popped up twice. I think then we ate lunch at the waffle shop. I got a mickey shaped waffle with strawberry and blueberry sauce. It was delicious. Then we went to ride the tea cups. We saw alice and took pictures with her. Kana was first. Then I think she was excited to hear English and talked to Brandon and I and took a photo. She had the bluest eyes. She was very in character. Then I took a picture with tweedle dee and tweedle dum. We saw prince john and the friar but they wouldn’t take pictures. Kana and I rode the teacups. I had never ridden it before and I thought it was a slow kids ride. Once we got close enough to see I realized you could make it go fast. And we did! It was a lot of fun. Brandon, naoko, and mari went to get fast passes for haunted mansion.
I think it was time for buzz lightyear so we rode that. You had to shoot at the targets and try to get a high score. I was bad. We saw it’s a small world after all and every hour and some other intervals we would see the people come out. The first time we saw it was 9am but we missed it. Then we went on the micro adventures. It was a 3D award show for wayne szelinski from honey I shrunk the kids. This was after the 2nd movie. All the characters from the family were there except the girl. It was in Japanese so I wore headphones to hear the English. It was cool.
Then we saw the afternoon parade. Earlier we saw people just sitting down on the sidewalk and street. I thought they were just resting, but they were getting seats for the parade. It was really cool. I got many pictures. Then I think it was time for thunder mountain. That was fun, but we were afraid to keep our hands in the air because things looked low. Afterwards mari and I got a cinnamon churros. I love cinnamon. It was delicious. Naoko left for the dorm because she had a headache for over an hour. Then we went to it’s a small world after all. I don’t remember going on it before, and I really liked it. It was so colorful. I loved all the costumes. Then we tried for pooh’s hunny hut but the line was over 100 minutes. So we went to toon town and saw roger rabbit fountain. We saw mickey’s house and I was videiotaping the clock when the doors came open and all these character’s came out.. then we rode on gadget’s go coaster. By this point my feet really hurt but we pushed on. This cart was so small, Brandon had a hard time fitting.
Then we left to go find the special 25th anniversary key, but when we got there they were sold out. Kana and mari bought a custard to get a special mug and Brandon bought a cake for a plate. We wanted to go to the chiba shop and on the way found a shot glass store. I got a cup with tinkerbell with the key and saying 25th anniversary with Tokyo Disney land. One word could be engraved for free. I just got my name written. We left it there and I came back about 5 minutes. It’s really nice. Then we went to find curry popcorn. The line was too long. So we went to ride the haunted mansion. It was closed when I went before. It was really cool.
When we got out we waited in line for the curry popcorn and it was delicious. Then we decided to eat at the queen of hearts banquet hall. It was really themed out. I loved all of it. I think I’ve just realized that it might be my favorite. I got the heart shaped ba-ga with a souvenir cup with strawberry crème. It was tasty. On the way out we saw the night parade started early. So we finished watching and then went to the gift shops. It was crazy. People everywhere. It took a while to find things that I liked. I got some postcards, I thought was a hanky with alice and a drawstring bag with the white rabbit. I wanted to get a tin of cookies but I couldn’t see what was inside. I was afraid of what I might find. So no tin. We left and headed for the train. I don’t think the students think we can make it on our own. So mari walked us down into daimon even though she told us that she took the next station at tamachi. We rode the asakusa line together. She got off at mita. I walked leisurely home because my feet hurt and stopped at the convenie for my fibe-mini. On for morning and night. I’m trying to stay healthy. Oyasumi-nasai!
We bought tickets for 5400 yen, which is cheaper than at Disney world. We walked through the main gate and saw many characters. We took a picture with chip or dale and the queen of hearts. We got a fast pass for buzz light year and went off to splash mountain. It was in Japanese and not much of the story. I videotaped a bit. It was a fun ride. I love the drop at the end. Instead of buying the expensive photos we took pictures of them. J Next we got giant turkey legs and waited for the river boat. Mari went and got us fast passes for thunder mountain. When we got finished we went to the shooting range. For 200 yen you can shoot 10 times, if you get all of them you can win a badge. I got zero. So did Brandon, kana, and naoko. Mari was a pro and got 8/10.
Then we went to pirates of the carribean. I was like the one at home but Johnny depp only popped up twice. I think then we ate lunch at the waffle shop. I got a mickey shaped waffle with strawberry and blueberry sauce. It was delicious. Then we went to ride the tea cups. We saw alice and took pictures with her. Kana was first. Then I think she was excited to hear English and talked to Brandon and I and took a photo. She had the bluest eyes. She was very in character. Then I took a picture with tweedle dee and tweedle dum. We saw prince john and the friar but they wouldn’t take pictures. Kana and I rode the teacups. I had never ridden it before and I thought it was a slow kids ride. Once we got close enough to see I realized you could make it go fast. And we did! It was a lot of fun. Brandon, naoko, and mari went to get fast passes for haunted mansion.
I think it was time for buzz lightyear so we rode that. You had to shoot at the targets and try to get a high score. I was bad. We saw it’s a small world after all and every hour and some other intervals we would see the people come out. The first time we saw it was 9am but we missed it. Then we went on the micro adventures. It was a 3D award show for wayne szelinski from honey I shrunk the kids. This was after the 2nd movie. All the characters from the family were there except the girl. It was in Japanese so I wore headphones to hear the English. It was cool.
Then we saw the afternoon parade. Earlier we saw people just sitting down on the sidewalk and street. I thought they were just resting, but they were getting seats for the parade. It was really cool. I got many pictures. Then I think it was time for thunder mountain. That was fun, but we were afraid to keep our hands in the air because things looked low. Afterwards mari and I got a cinnamon churros. I love cinnamon. It was delicious. Naoko left for the dorm because she had a headache for over an hour. Then we went to it’s a small world after all. I don’t remember going on it before, and I really liked it. It was so colorful. I loved all the costumes. Then we tried for pooh’s hunny hut but the line was over 100 minutes. So we went to toon town and saw roger rabbit fountain. We saw mickey’s house and I was videiotaping the clock when the doors came open and all these character’s came out.. then we rode on gadget’s go coaster. By this point my feet really hurt but we pushed on. This cart was so small, Brandon had a hard time fitting.
Then we left to go find the special 25th anniversary key, but when we got there they were sold out. Kana and mari bought a custard to get a special mug and Brandon bought a cake for a plate. We wanted to go to the chiba shop and on the way found a shot glass store. I got a cup with tinkerbell with the key and saying 25th anniversary with Tokyo Disney land. One word could be engraved for free. I just got my name written. We left it there and I came back about 5 minutes. It’s really nice. Then we went to find curry popcorn. The line was too long. So we went to ride the haunted mansion. It was closed when I went before. It was really cool.
When we got out we waited in line for the curry popcorn and it was delicious. Then we decided to eat at the queen of hearts banquet hall. It was really themed out. I loved all of it. I think I’ve just realized that it might be my favorite. I got the heart shaped ba-ga with a souvenir cup with strawberry crème. It was tasty. On the way out we saw the night parade started early. So we finished watching and then went to the gift shops. It was crazy. People everywhere. It took a while to find things that I liked. I got some postcards, I thought was a hanky with alice and a drawstring bag with the white rabbit. I wanted to get a tin of cookies but I couldn’t see what was inside. I was afraid of what I might find. So no tin. We left and headed for the train. I don’t think the students think we can make it on our own. So mari walked us down into daimon even though she told us that she took the next station at tamachi. We rode the asakusa line together. She got off at mita. I walked leisurely home because my feet hurt and stopped at the convenie for my fibe-mini. On for morning and night. I’m trying to stay healthy. Oyasumi-nasai!
June 14
This morning I was having a dream about tuck everlasting. At first I was watching the Japanese version of the movie, but then it changed to American characters but not the ones from the movie. And it ended better with the couple staying young together and swimming in an ocean. I was still waking up when I felt my bed shaking a little. it wasn’t rough, just a little rocking. I thought I was still dreaming. Then I get a call from Brandon and he said he was going to be late because his apartment was shaking because of the earthquake. Crazy! He said he was feeling nauseous from it. So I got up and got ready and found the ironing board in the mini kitchen. Sweet. I left after Brandon said he was on his way.
We met at the daimon station nearest hammamatsucho jr line and off to yokohama we went. We decided to go to the ramuen museum for lunch. It was 300 yen to get in, and it was neat inside. Unfortunately we couldn’t read all of the ticket machines. And because Brandon doesn’t eat pork or beef it was really hard to discern what did or didn’t have those two items. Nearly every picture looked like it had pork. No good. So we decided to leave. We found a Chinese restaurant with A, B, C, D lunch menu with pictures. Easy enough it was chicken, cabbage, carrot, with rice, and egg drop soup. it was ok. It came with this white fruit. I thought it was pears and was excited because I hadn’t had any in a long time, and when I took my first bite it was this weird gelatinous yuck! So we left and it was 700 yen a piece. Brandon put down his in coin and I only had a 1000 yen note. But he picked up 200 yen and put it in my hand so we only turned in 1500 yen. But I only got back 20 yen. I didn’t realize it until we got back down stairs and I was irritated. he shouldn’t have picked up the money. And there was no way I could tell them they didn’t give me correct change. I was irritated but had to get over it or have a terrible day.
We left and started walking to china town. We made it there and found a person dressed up as kung fu panda. We took our picture with him and walked around. China town was huge. Our goal was to take a picture of each of the 9 gates around china town. We went looking in many shops and I bought too many souvenirs. We found some bubble tea, but it was just iced. I got mango and it was pretty good. Nice and cold. Brandon was mad that there was no bootleg stuff. Just souvenirs and many food shops. Lots of steamy buns. We are supposed to go there for dinner at the end of the month. So we were told not to eat there.
We left after we found the last gate, so we think. Some of the gates had different things written on them, so after I checked we have 10 gates. Eeee! One too many. So I’m not really sure if we missed one or not. We headed toward minato-mirai where the brick warehouse was. We were going to eat at the queen’s bund but it was too expensive. We decided to get cheap fish and chips and we got macha for dessert at nana’s green tea. I like the green tea ice cream but it wasn’t sweet enough so I added sugar syrup. A little better. We were going to look at the shops on the 2nd floor but everything was closed down.
So we decided to go find the landmark tower. We were on a deadline. It was after 830 and the tower closed at 1000 and I needed to be back at the dorm by 11pm. We made it to the tower, but we were in the hotel. We went to the 68th floor because 69 didn’t register. We found a matre’d and asked him where it was. He called to see if it was open and he led us all the way there. From one end to the other. It was really nice of him. It was 1000yen to get in. we went up in the elevator which is that fastest in japan? To the 69th floor. And the view was awesome. All the lights in the city was twinkling. It was really cool. It was around 940 and we found the gift shop but It was closing. It was too bad because we probably would have bought something.
So we decided to make a run for it. We found the minato-mirai station and switched at yokohama. It was really confusing because it just said jr line and I wasn’t sure if it had our line, the keihin-tohoku line. But we found it and rode it back. It pulled into hamamatsucho around 1035 and I ran to daimon and the subway for asakusa line. I got to my platform at 1040. BUT the next train wasn’t coming until 1049p. great! So it finally came and when it stopped at sengakuji I ran for it. I had to make it back by 11 or my key wouldn’t work. I made it, whew! I went to my room and grabbed all my shower crap and got in there. There were only 2 girls there. One was naoko. There’s no one here tonight it seems like, either that or everyone came home early. Naoko came by saying that I should meet her in the lobby at 7am. So early. But it’s good because we want to be there by 8am I think. so I will retire and get some sleep!
We met at the daimon station nearest hammamatsucho jr line and off to yokohama we went. We decided to go to the ramuen museum for lunch. It was 300 yen to get in, and it was neat inside. Unfortunately we couldn’t read all of the ticket machines. And because Brandon doesn’t eat pork or beef it was really hard to discern what did or didn’t have those two items. Nearly every picture looked like it had pork. No good. So we decided to leave. We found a Chinese restaurant with A, B, C, D lunch menu with pictures. Easy enough it was chicken, cabbage, carrot, with rice, and egg drop soup. it was ok. It came with this white fruit. I thought it was pears and was excited because I hadn’t had any in a long time, and when I took my first bite it was this weird gelatinous yuck! So we left and it was 700 yen a piece. Brandon put down his in coin and I only had a 1000 yen note. But he picked up 200 yen and put it in my hand so we only turned in 1500 yen. But I only got back 20 yen. I didn’t realize it until we got back down stairs and I was irritated. he shouldn’t have picked up the money. And there was no way I could tell them they didn’t give me correct change. I was irritated but had to get over it or have a terrible day.
We left and started walking to china town. We made it there and found a person dressed up as kung fu panda. We took our picture with him and walked around. China town was huge. Our goal was to take a picture of each of the 9 gates around china town. We went looking in many shops and I bought too many souvenirs. We found some bubble tea, but it was just iced. I got mango and it was pretty good. Nice and cold. Brandon was mad that there was no bootleg stuff. Just souvenirs and many food shops. Lots of steamy buns. We are supposed to go there for dinner at the end of the month. So we were told not to eat there.
We left after we found the last gate, so we think. Some of the gates had different things written on them, so after I checked we have 10 gates. Eeee! One too many. So I’m not really sure if we missed one or not. We headed toward minato-mirai where the brick warehouse was. We were going to eat at the queen’s bund but it was too expensive. We decided to get cheap fish and chips and we got macha for dessert at nana’s green tea. I like the green tea ice cream but it wasn’t sweet enough so I added sugar syrup. A little better. We were going to look at the shops on the 2nd floor but everything was closed down.
So we decided to go find the landmark tower. We were on a deadline. It was after 830 and the tower closed at 1000 and I needed to be back at the dorm by 11pm. We made it to the tower, but we were in the hotel. We went to the 68th floor because 69 didn’t register. We found a matre’d and asked him where it was. He called to see if it was open and he led us all the way there. From one end to the other. It was really nice of him. It was 1000yen to get in. we went up in the elevator which is that fastest in japan? To the 69th floor. And the view was awesome. All the lights in the city was twinkling. It was really cool. It was around 940 and we found the gift shop but It was closing. It was too bad because we probably would have bought something.
So we decided to make a run for it. We found the minato-mirai station and switched at yokohama. It was really confusing because it just said jr line and I wasn’t sure if it had our line, the keihin-tohoku line. But we found it and rode it back. It pulled into hamamatsucho around 1035 and I ran to daimon and the subway for asakusa line. I got to my platform at 1040. BUT the next train wasn’t coming until 1049p. great! So it finally came and when it stopped at sengakuji I ran for it. I had to make it back by 11 or my key wouldn’t work. I made it, whew! I went to my room and grabbed all my shower crap and got in there. There were only 2 girls there. One was naoko. There’s no one here tonight it seems like, either that or everyone came home early. Naoko came by saying that I should meet her in the lobby at 7am. So early. But it’s good because we want to be there by 8am I think. so I will retire and get some sleep!
June 13 – Friday the 13th
I woke up earlier today, around 715 because I needed to meet Brandon at the shimbashi station at 835. I left the dorm (ryou) around 810. I caught the 820 train and got to shimbashi. The fan guy hadn’t set up his stand yet, but I saw Brandon waiting by kita sweets. We headed off for the ginza line. It was packed as usual, a sardine can full of people. And I got shoved around by people. We got to toranomon a little early and changed in the locker room. We met itou sensei and then met with a guy who I never fully heard his name. we went to an endocrine metabolism meeting and they talked about dm patients and the medication regimens. They translated after each pt for us. We left after an hour and went back to the pharmacy. The pharmacist explained the way they handle diabetes in japan. He went through some powerpoints that he had prepared. Around 1115 he said he was finished and we went to lunch.
We were trying to look for something familiar that had picture menus, but no luck. We found jonathon’s diner. I got chicken, rice, potatoes, and corn with the drink bar. Drink bar has fountain sodas, coffee, and teas. Brandon got some shrimp pasta with salad and drink bar, he loves the drink bar. He goes through liquid like crazy. There was a drink that looked like a macha (green tea) frappachino. But we weren’t sure how to make it. Every time we went to the drink bar we hoped to find someone making it, but never did. We stayed long enough for two cups of coffee. On the way back we saw a stationary store and I bought some cute paper and envelopes.
We got back around 120p and decided it would be a good time to give hayashi sensei our gift. We went by the reception close to his office and they said he was busy, so we said we would come back later. We went a few doors down to the main pharmacy area and met itou-sensei. He said he was very sorry that hayashi sensei could not meet with us. He already knew that we tried to visit hayashi. Weird. Word travels too fast. Anyway, itou-sensei had an appointment with someone else and we went with uchida sensei to the 13th floor. More hematology. We met a nurse who studied abroad in Australia for a year. it’s really quite close. About 7-8 hours by plane.
It was after 330 and we headed back to the pharmacy. Uchida sensei said that the doctors wanted to have dinner with us but they are very busy. They wanted to drink with us and take us out for yakitori. Chicken and green onion kababs. Ne-gi-ma. We thought that would be pretty cool. We get back to the pharmacy and itou sensei says that schedule is over for the week and they would miss us. We took some pictures and left.
We walked back and went to the classroom. Only yoshi-nori was there. We talked with him and then the other student came back. We told them that we found a men’s yukata for a good price and they thought I left off a zero. We said we found it an uni qlo and they were excited. Yoshi wanted one too so off we went. Mari hosoda, miho, yoshi, b, and me. We got there by the asakusa line to higashi-ginza. Brandon and yoshi tried them on and Brandon couldn’t decide which one to get. And also, he told me after the fact, that he got felt up by the girl who tied his obi. Hahahhaha! He decided on the white yukata, but the getta (wooden shoes) did not fit his feet. Miho said I could wait to see if there were any getta that I liked in asakusa or ueno, if not I could buy the ones at uni qlo. We headed back because they had class at 630.
We went upstairs to see the schedule for Tokyo Disney land and they asked if we would be able to order at the cafeteria. We headed down with them and were halfway to the cafeteria when Brandon said he’d rather have something else. We went to mos burger and I got a spicy cheeseburger with fries, onion rings, and a coke. It wasn’t really spicy, but it was good. The fries do not compare to mcdonalds at all. Brandon got this weird rice bun burger. But it was too small for him. We left and went to the am/pm convenie and got some ice cream. We went back to school and got our bags. We went to the lab and were going to look up options for tomorrow’s outing because it was not planned. We got take san to help us. We edited a couple of lines of his paper for him. We told us about this pleasure land. It looked really fun. But we decided to go to yokohama for the day. We are going to the ramen noodle museum, the brick warehouse, china town, and the tower building. It should be fun. Oyasumi nasai!
We were trying to look for something familiar that had picture menus, but no luck. We found jonathon’s diner. I got chicken, rice, potatoes, and corn with the drink bar. Drink bar has fountain sodas, coffee, and teas. Brandon got some shrimp pasta with salad and drink bar, he loves the drink bar. He goes through liquid like crazy. There was a drink that looked like a macha (green tea) frappachino. But we weren’t sure how to make it. Every time we went to the drink bar we hoped to find someone making it, but never did. We stayed long enough for two cups of coffee. On the way back we saw a stationary store and I bought some cute paper and envelopes.
We got back around 120p and decided it would be a good time to give hayashi sensei our gift. We went by the reception close to his office and they said he was busy, so we said we would come back later. We went a few doors down to the main pharmacy area and met itou-sensei. He said he was very sorry that hayashi sensei could not meet with us. He already knew that we tried to visit hayashi. Weird. Word travels too fast. Anyway, itou-sensei had an appointment with someone else and we went with uchida sensei to the 13th floor. More hematology. We met a nurse who studied abroad in Australia for a year. it’s really quite close. About 7-8 hours by plane.
It was after 330 and we headed back to the pharmacy. Uchida sensei said that the doctors wanted to have dinner with us but they are very busy. They wanted to drink with us and take us out for yakitori. Chicken and green onion kababs. Ne-gi-ma. We thought that would be pretty cool. We get back to the pharmacy and itou sensei says that schedule is over for the week and they would miss us. We took some pictures and left.
We walked back and went to the classroom. Only yoshi-nori was there. We talked with him and then the other student came back. We told them that we found a men’s yukata for a good price and they thought I left off a zero. We said we found it an uni qlo and they were excited. Yoshi wanted one too so off we went. Mari hosoda, miho, yoshi, b, and me. We got there by the asakusa line to higashi-ginza. Brandon and yoshi tried them on and Brandon couldn’t decide which one to get. And also, he told me after the fact, that he got felt up by the girl who tied his obi. Hahahhaha! He decided on the white yukata, but the getta (wooden shoes) did not fit his feet. Miho said I could wait to see if there were any getta that I liked in asakusa or ueno, if not I could buy the ones at uni qlo. We headed back because they had class at 630.
We went upstairs to see the schedule for Tokyo Disney land and they asked if we would be able to order at the cafeteria. We headed down with them and were halfway to the cafeteria when Brandon said he’d rather have something else. We went to mos burger and I got a spicy cheeseburger with fries, onion rings, and a coke. It wasn’t really spicy, but it was good. The fries do not compare to mcdonalds at all. Brandon got this weird rice bun burger. But it was too small for him. We left and went to the am/pm convenie and got some ice cream. We went back to school and got our bags. We went to the lab and were going to look up options for tomorrow’s outing because it was not planned. We got take san to help us. We edited a couple of lines of his paper for him. We told us about this pleasure land. It looked really fun. But we decided to go to yokohama for the day. We are going to the ramen noodle museum, the brick warehouse, china town, and the tower building. It should be fun. Oyasumi nasai!
June 12
This morning I got up and felt really groggy. I didn’t take my Sudafed. So I get to school about 1040. we are supposed to meet at 11am to go to tsukiji fish market and have sushi for lunch. I get there and I ask how yuka was doing. They said she was ok. They were looking up things to do at Tokyo Disney. There is an ice cream city really close I think and it looks delicious. I showed them shamu at sea world. I asked what they’re favorite character was and naoko said pooh, chinatsu said pooh and stich, and kana said pooh, stich, and ariel. I said that I had seen the little mermaid many times and she said she had a little. i was confused because I wasn’t sure how you could like a character if you hadn’t seen the movie. She said ariel was very pretty. Fair enough.
It was going on 1120 and I was like where is Brandon? He came in around 1130 and the time just passed him by. We (saori, both taka, b, and me ) headed out for tsukiji. Brandon and I had read in our guide books that you couldn’t go to the actual auction but you could see giant fish being carted off. So we were kind of confused that we were going for lunch. We ended up at a restaurant. Not the actual fish market. Um.. ok. We ordered tuna and eel in a rice bowl with miso soup. It was delicious. It came with wasabi and you add soy sauce to the little dish, and poor it over the rice bowl. Very tasty. It came with salmon fish eggs and they tasted better spread out. The only problem is that they are high in cholesterol. Oh well. Taka got another rice bowl and taka got a sushi plater. Saori also got a sushi platter, and this egg yam stuff. It was gross looking. It’s an egg in a jar that has been steamed. It was very runny. She would get a spoonful and it was dripping slime it looked like. Yuck! It was about 1230 and we paid and left. They didn’t think we had enough time so we took a cab minus saori because it only fit 4 people. We got to the hospital and it was 1200 yen. Brandon and I were trying to pay and both taka’s said no and told us to get out of the cab. Takayuki paid. We tried to pay him back and they said no. so they left us at the hospital.
We went down to the locker room and changed and went to meet itou-sensei. We got there and he explained more oncology to us. It’s after lunch and it’s so hot down there. I got very sleepy. He was explaining the cancer regimens to use and at first I thought he was saying resumes. They use folfox and folfiri as well. But they change the regimens from the research. I think they figure out what works best in the hospital and make a new regimen. Then we went upstairs to surgery and it was about oncology. The removal of tumors. Every day. It’s a bunch of crap. I don’t think I would want to do oncology. Not for me. It was about 330 when we went back to the basement and the schedule was over. Cool. We left and went back to keio. We stopped at a convenie and I got an aquarius drink. It tastes like grapefruit juice.
We got back inside and were talking with yoshi about his program. We always notice that he is never in class when the others are. He is doing a focus on research and rheumatoid arthritis. He only needs 9 hours for his major and the others need 22. ahhhhh… they were talking about this green alge guy marokaori? I’m tyring to get an idea of what each person likes. Miho and the others came back and we asked her if anyone was coming with us in the morning. She went and checked with take-san and yes we are going by ourselves. She looked up the trains for us and what time we should meet. We were leaving and I said that Brandon was musukashi-san. Mr. difficult and miho laughed. She’s sweet.
We went down to the cafeteria and got fried potatoes for dinner. It’s like a potato cake with vegetables inside. One was edamame and the other was corn. They were good. And of course it came with rice and miso soup. they went to class and we went to shimbashi to look for the 100 yen store. But to no avail. They advertised for it on two huge signs but it wasn’t there. Great. So we walked around and ended up in the ginza district. Very upscale shops. Gucci, tiffany. Brooks brothers. We found a shop with yukatas (like a kimono) . males were 3900 yen and women’s 4900 yen. If we don’t find better ones in asakusa or ueno we may go back to that store.
We took the train back to daimon and went to mos burger. I got a strawberry shake and b got a green tea iced drink. We just sat down when we saw take-san walking by. Brandon went out and jumped him! It was funny watching his reaction. He came back with Brandon and we were talking about tomorrow. He wanted to make sure we could get to the hospital on time. He said he went to tsukishima with his girlfriend and ate manja. He said he would like to go out to dinner with us one night. Top secret! He’s really funny and nice. We were talking about the slurping with soup and how it’s ok in japan but not in the us. He said that by slurping it showed that you like the meal and enjoyed it. I said that it made sense and he’s like ah ha – it made sense. J he went on his way and we went to a convenie. I found a tiny fiber drink. Only 6g, but it’s something. I get no fiber here. We went on our separate trains and I went to the convenie by the dorm. I can’t help it, I like snacks. I got a chocolate sandwich with no crusts. I was hoping it was peanut butter but no luck. I also got a melon bread. It was really good. I only at a little bit. I still have a strawberry bread that I will eat for breakfast.
I showered and saw maria on the way out. She introduced me to her roommate I think saiko. Sounds like psycho. Kind of funny. But here I am. We still haven’t figured out what to do for Saturday. And I didn’t iron tonight because my clothes are still wet. Oyasumi nasai (good night).
It was going on 1120 and I was like where is Brandon? He came in around 1130 and the time just passed him by. We (saori, both taka, b, and me ) headed out for tsukiji. Brandon and I had read in our guide books that you couldn’t go to the actual auction but you could see giant fish being carted off. So we were kind of confused that we were going for lunch. We ended up at a restaurant. Not the actual fish market. Um.. ok. We ordered tuna and eel in a rice bowl with miso soup. It was delicious. It came with wasabi and you add soy sauce to the little dish, and poor it over the rice bowl. Very tasty. It came with salmon fish eggs and they tasted better spread out. The only problem is that they are high in cholesterol. Oh well. Taka got another rice bowl and taka got a sushi plater. Saori also got a sushi platter, and this egg yam stuff. It was gross looking. It’s an egg in a jar that has been steamed. It was very runny. She would get a spoonful and it was dripping slime it looked like. Yuck! It was about 1230 and we paid and left. They didn’t think we had enough time so we took a cab minus saori because it only fit 4 people. We got to the hospital and it was 1200 yen. Brandon and I were trying to pay and both taka’s said no and told us to get out of the cab. Takayuki paid. We tried to pay him back and they said no. so they left us at the hospital.
We went down to the locker room and changed and went to meet itou-sensei. We got there and he explained more oncology to us. It’s after lunch and it’s so hot down there. I got very sleepy. He was explaining the cancer regimens to use and at first I thought he was saying resumes. They use folfox and folfiri as well. But they change the regimens from the research. I think they figure out what works best in the hospital and make a new regimen. Then we went upstairs to surgery and it was about oncology. The removal of tumors. Every day. It’s a bunch of crap. I don’t think I would want to do oncology. Not for me. It was about 330 when we went back to the basement and the schedule was over. Cool. We left and went back to keio. We stopped at a convenie and I got an aquarius drink. It tastes like grapefruit juice.
We got back inside and were talking with yoshi about his program. We always notice that he is never in class when the others are. He is doing a focus on research and rheumatoid arthritis. He only needs 9 hours for his major and the others need 22. ahhhhh… they were talking about this green alge guy marokaori? I’m tyring to get an idea of what each person likes. Miho and the others came back and we asked her if anyone was coming with us in the morning. She went and checked with take-san and yes we are going by ourselves. She looked up the trains for us and what time we should meet. We were leaving and I said that Brandon was musukashi-san. Mr. difficult and miho laughed. She’s sweet.
We went down to the cafeteria and got fried potatoes for dinner. It’s like a potato cake with vegetables inside. One was edamame and the other was corn. They were good. And of course it came with rice and miso soup. they went to class and we went to shimbashi to look for the 100 yen store. But to no avail. They advertised for it on two huge signs but it wasn’t there. Great. So we walked around and ended up in the ginza district. Very upscale shops. Gucci, tiffany. Brooks brothers. We found a shop with yukatas (like a kimono) . males were 3900 yen and women’s 4900 yen. If we don’t find better ones in asakusa or ueno we may go back to that store.
We took the train back to daimon and went to mos burger. I got a strawberry shake and b got a green tea iced drink. We just sat down when we saw take-san walking by. Brandon went out and jumped him! It was funny watching his reaction. He came back with Brandon and we were talking about tomorrow. He wanted to make sure we could get to the hospital on time. He said he went to tsukishima with his girlfriend and ate manja. He said he would like to go out to dinner with us one night. Top secret! He’s really funny and nice. We were talking about the slurping with soup and how it’s ok in japan but not in the us. He said that by slurping it showed that you like the meal and enjoyed it. I said that it made sense and he’s like ah ha – it made sense. J he went on his way and we went to a convenie. I found a tiny fiber drink. Only 6g, but it’s something. I get no fiber here. We went on our separate trains and I went to the convenie by the dorm. I can’t help it, I like snacks. I got a chocolate sandwich with no crusts. I was hoping it was peanut butter but no luck. I also got a melon bread. It was really good. I only at a little bit. I still have a strawberry bread that I will eat for breakfast.
I showered and saw maria on the way out. She introduced me to her roommate I think saiko. Sounds like psycho. Kind of funny. But here I am. We still haven’t figured out what to do for Saturday. And I didn’t iron tonight because my clothes are still wet. Oyasumi nasai (good night).
June 11
So we had to get to the university very early this morning. They said 830 then they said 820. I left the dorm at 745 and was going to get there early to use the computer. I got to keio and there is a wall with lights when a professor is in or not. There were 3 lights on. And when I got to the 6th floor, it was darkness. And when I went to the lab it was locked. So from now on I know that no one gets there that early. Ok, so I wait by the elevators. And around 815 yuka comes and she like oh I’m sorry I’m late. No no, you’re fine. We are walking to the lab and she says “where is Brandon?” “I’m sure he is coming.” “didn’t you meet?” “no, we come separate.” We get to the room and she asked about kamakura. I said it was very fun. She said she has never been. She wanted to go but she went to her grandmothers. It’s 820a. “where is Brandon?” I’m sure he is on his way. A few minutes “where is he?” I call and no answer. “we need to leave.” “we need to wait for Brandon.” “toronomon hospital is very strict.” I say nothing. A few minutes. “we need to leave.” “we need to wait for Brandon.” “but we need to leave.” “we have to wait for Brandon.” I call him and he’s at the elevator. “good, because she is trying to leave you.” We walk 5 mintues to hamamatsucho and get on the train. We go to shimbashi and change to the ginza line to toranomon. We are confused as to why we didn’t take the subway. It would be much easier to take asakusa line to ginza. But whatever. We get there with 5 mintues. We go to the locker room to change into our coats and shoes. Then yuka just leaves. I’ll be right back. I said we should go together. We get out in the hallway and she is gone. We almost go into the pharmacy but wait outside. Then we see itou-sensei and say that we have an M1 student, but she must have gone to the bathroom. He gets a call about shimomura (yuka) and he is gone for like 20 minutes. He takes us to the room and I ask about her. He said that it’s ok, she is going back to the university because we don’t need a translator. But then he gets out his dictionary. Umm… ok.
So he gives us this paper to read about why hospitals need clinical pharmacist to reduce costs. It’s kinda interesting. And when we are done he asks what we think. We say it’s a good paper and necessary. And that’s it. I was expecting a discussion. Then we go upstairs and check vanc levels for way too long. It’s about 1130 and we are dying. Very sleepy and bored. He says that we are going to lunch with hayashi sensei. He kinda looks like farva from super troopers. But the asian version. And hayashi looks like an American actor but I can’t place him. I asked itou sensei if the M1 student was coming, because they were told to come for lunch. He said oh no don’t worry we called. They don’t seem to want to tell us the whole story.
So we go to the japan tobacco building and eat sushi. I actually ate the orange fish egss. It was ok, probably don’t need to eat it again. I like tuna the best. Something else we had was very chewy. I don’t like chewy or slimy. It was very good. We had miso soup too. Then we walked and saw the American embassy. We also saw hotel kamura. Which was supposed to be this very expensive hotel and it looked pretty busted. Maybe it’s nicer inside. We were almost back to the hospital when we saw starbucks. We went across and I got a dark mocha frap and Brandon got a macha frap. It was delicious. Hayashi was really nice and payed for lunch and starbucks. The coffee here just isn’t sweet enough for me. But the starbucks blend was perfect.
We got back inside and itou sensei had to switch with a pharmacist so they could go eat lunch. He told us to wait in an upstairs room. We called miho to see if kana was coming, because we weren’t sure if she came already. We wanted to make sure that they knew where we were. Then itousensei came and got us. We ended up going with igarashi sensei and ushida sensei to the 13th floor to round with the ict (infectious control) team. All this damn rounding. Really a pain, not sure if it suits. Dr. aroka was really funny. He made the afternoon not so bad. Itou sensei told us earlier that he didn’t drink much and dr aroka said that maybe he liar. HA! And we asked what was on the 14th floor. Oh nothing it is a secret room. J he smiled a lot and made jokes. We finished about 330ish and headed back down to the pharmacy. Itou sensei said that schedule was finished. Yay!
On the way out of the hospital we saw kana coming toward us. We thanked her for coming to get us and she said we needed to come back and explain and be explained to. She asked what happened with Brandon this morning. So everyone knows that he was a little late. We get back to the room and everyone was very interested in what happened. We said we were very confused. They kept saying sorry. Yuka looked unhappy. We explained that they didn’t really tell us much and that’s why we called miho to see if kana was coming. We didn’t want to leave at lunchtime if she supposed to meet us. They said they were sorry, and that hayahsi called matsuyama and said they didn’t need an interpretor. So next two days it is with no one. Great! Next week they only want one extra student and the last one they don’t want any either. Then they said the needed to have a meeting. They let us stay in the room for a while and then saori told us to come with her and she took us to the lab. She gave use some Japanese snacks and asked if we needed to use the computer. They just wanted to talk about us without us being in the room. One of the snacks were kakip. It sounds awful, but it is delicious. It even says so on the package. It’s a cracker with some spicy flavor with peanuts.
Miho comes in and asks if are hungry and we are about to leave when take-san wants to talk with us. He asked what happened to Brandon this morning. Brandon tried to explain that we usually come to the room and sit around for a while before leaving. I don’t think he got it. Then take san explained that they thought the meeting time was the leaving time. And we should have been there on time. I explained that yuka tried to leave Brandon. I think he got it. I hope so.
We went to get our money and we saw that yuka was crying and kana was with her. We left quickly. Brandon didn’t even notice. We went to dinner. It was cold chicken with fat all over it L I ate the miso soup and rice. And miho noticed I didn’t eat my dinner. I said it was hard to eat. We left and came back upstairs. They all had class and they asked if we new how to get back to the lab. Funny. We get back and yuka is still crying, but her and kana leave for class. We work on our project a bit and we see take leaving. He says he has an appointment. Brandon whispered de-to- and he said no no no, with a boy. Uh-huh. We we finished up a bit with our presentation and then left for hamakucho to big camera. We looked around and then left to find ice cream around maori. No luck. We are walking back and end up at shimbashi and find bread with ice cream in the middle. It’s small but tasty. We eat that and keep walking. We find a 100 yen shop but of course it is closed. We then keep walking and we ended up back at hamamatsucho. It took about 25 mintues. But I was tired of walking. I get some more kakep and he gets and protein gel.
Back home. I shower and ask maria to help with laundry. I tell her that she can come over after I shower. We talk for a bit. She speaks Malaysia, thai, Japanese, and now English. That’s really cool.
But time for bed.
So he gives us this paper to read about why hospitals need clinical pharmacist to reduce costs. It’s kinda interesting. And when we are done he asks what we think. We say it’s a good paper and necessary. And that’s it. I was expecting a discussion. Then we go upstairs and check vanc levels for way too long. It’s about 1130 and we are dying. Very sleepy and bored. He says that we are going to lunch with hayashi sensei. He kinda looks like farva from super troopers. But the asian version. And hayashi looks like an American actor but I can’t place him. I asked itou sensei if the M1 student was coming, because they were told to come for lunch. He said oh no don’t worry we called. They don’t seem to want to tell us the whole story.
So we go to the japan tobacco building and eat sushi. I actually ate the orange fish egss. It was ok, probably don’t need to eat it again. I like tuna the best. Something else we had was very chewy. I don’t like chewy or slimy. It was very good. We had miso soup too. Then we walked and saw the American embassy. We also saw hotel kamura. Which was supposed to be this very expensive hotel and it looked pretty busted. Maybe it’s nicer inside. We were almost back to the hospital when we saw starbucks. We went across and I got a dark mocha frap and Brandon got a macha frap. It was delicious. Hayashi was really nice and payed for lunch and starbucks. The coffee here just isn’t sweet enough for me. But the starbucks blend was perfect.
We got back inside and itou sensei had to switch with a pharmacist so they could go eat lunch. He told us to wait in an upstairs room. We called miho to see if kana was coming, because we weren’t sure if she came already. We wanted to make sure that they knew where we were. Then itousensei came and got us. We ended up going with igarashi sensei and ushida sensei to the 13th floor to round with the ict (infectious control) team. All this damn rounding. Really a pain, not sure if it suits. Dr. aroka was really funny. He made the afternoon not so bad. Itou sensei told us earlier that he didn’t drink much and dr aroka said that maybe he liar. HA! And we asked what was on the 14th floor. Oh nothing it is a secret room. J he smiled a lot and made jokes. We finished about 330ish and headed back down to the pharmacy. Itou sensei said that schedule was finished. Yay!
On the way out of the hospital we saw kana coming toward us. We thanked her for coming to get us and she said we needed to come back and explain and be explained to. She asked what happened with Brandon this morning. So everyone knows that he was a little late. We get back to the room and everyone was very interested in what happened. We said we were very confused. They kept saying sorry. Yuka looked unhappy. We explained that they didn’t really tell us much and that’s why we called miho to see if kana was coming. We didn’t want to leave at lunchtime if she supposed to meet us. They said they were sorry, and that hayahsi called matsuyama and said they didn’t need an interpretor. So next two days it is with no one. Great! Next week they only want one extra student and the last one they don’t want any either. Then they said the needed to have a meeting. They let us stay in the room for a while and then saori told us to come with her and she took us to the lab. She gave use some Japanese snacks and asked if we needed to use the computer. They just wanted to talk about us without us being in the room. One of the snacks were kakip. It sounds awful, but it is delicious. It even says so on the package. It’s a cracker with some spicy flavor with peanuts.
Miho comes in and asks if are hungry and we are about to leave when take-san wants to talk with us. He asked what happened to Brandon this morning. Brandon tried to explain that we usually come to the room and sit around for a while before leaving. I don’t think he got it. Then take san explained that they thought the meeting time was the leaving time. And we should have been there on time. I explained that yuka tried to leave Brandon. I think he got it. I hope so.
We went to get our money and we saw that yuka was crying and kana was with her. We left quickly. Brandon didn’t even notice. We went to dinner. It was cold chicken with fat all over it L I ate the miso soup and rice. And miho noticed I didn’t eat my dinner. I said it was hard to eat. We left and came back upstairs. They all had class and they asked if we new how to get back to the lab. Funny. We get back and yuka is still crying, but her and kana leave for class. We work on our project a bit and we see take leaving. He says he has an appointment. Brandon whispered de-to- and he said no no no, with a boy. Uh-huh. We we finished up a bit with our presentation and then left for hamakucho to big camera. We looked around and then left to find ice cream around maori. No luck. We are walking back and end up at shimbashi and find bread with ice cream in the middle. It’s small but tasty. We eat that and keep walking. We find a 100 yen shop but of course it is closed. We then keep walking and we ended up back at hamamatsucho. It took about 25 mintues. But I was tired of walking. I get some more kakep and he gets and protein gel.
Back home. I shower and ask maria to help with laundry. I tell her that she can come over after I shower. We talk for a bit. She speaks Malaysia, thai, Japanese, and now English. That’s really cool.
But time for bed.
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