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!