June 30

Woke up around 730am to leave at 8am. Got ready and waited for toon. we got to the station and waited for Brandon. We got to saiseikai and I tried to go to the post office, but there was a line like at the bank. So I said forget it. First thing was apresentation about the clinical pathway. We were supposed to know it because they got it from us. I’m sure we have but it wasn’t specifically termed. The man talked us thru the time line for pcl and what happens with the patient and who talks to them. They said they were trying to make many pathways and had a contest the first year and the winning team including him won 30,000 yen divided by 6 people, which is 5000 yen per person. Then over the time the prize money went down to only 500 yen per person. He said cheap hospital. Then we went to the ward and saw a man that had gotten his foot amputated because he was diabetic and didn’t go to the hospital about it for 9 years. Crazy. Then we saw a pharmacist counseling about the catheter test. he had done his research and thought he was getting the pcl.

Then it was lunch time. Yesterday kadota sensei asked what we wanted. We said anything was ok. She asked again today. They got us sushi. It was delicious. And mister donut. Then Brandon and I presented but it was too soon for the next lunch break so toon waited till then. She presented, then we did again I had coffee with lunch. Thank goodness. Because I was so tired. Then we had a tdm talk. It was ok but still boring. He showed us what they did and how they presented the info to the doctor. Then schedule was over. We took a pic with kadota sensei and gave her the battery. Earlier we saw kagaya sensei and gave him the notebooks. Then we left.

We missed the 503 train and had to wait til 517p. I was so tired. I already told them that I was goin to sleep. Too was between Brandon and i. she kept getting bumped. It was not restful sleep. We got back around 610 and headed to the university. we got to the 6^th floor and saw everyone leaving for class. I was tired and said “konbanwa” (good evening). They all laughed because I said it in such a sleepy voice. Then we dropped our bags and left for mcdonalds. I got a salsa chicken ba-ga- and fried and drink. We got back were eating when akiyoshi sensei came back in. then matsuyama sensei came in and grabbed us for evaluations. We logged into the pems website and helped him. He wanted us to stay and correct his English. It was a long time. He had a neat dictionary on his computer. Toon said earlier that Brandon should change pens already and then she said he was hoshi on Sunday. Pharmacology hoshi. I agree. Many new pens. But we gave matsuyama sensei his gifts. During evaluations he said that I understood the root and tree (essence) of what people said and that Brandon had crappy Japanese.

preface

Just so you all know. from july 1^st to july 10 was written in my actual journal. So I have to transcribe from written to electronic. This may take a while. I wrote small. And then next few days are not at all because I was still going back and forth to Tokyo and would get home late. I was too tired to go over the day. Which isn’t good because now I’m relying on pictures and the events I wrote down in my calendar to remember. It picks up again on the 19^th. I will try my best!

June 29, 2008

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!