Socials, Snow and Sickness

It’s Monday, my day of rest. Much deserved too, I think.

On Friday, January 29th, I went to my first ever tweet-up. After finishing work, I rushed over to Yoyogi-Uehara to catch the tail-end of the party. There, the hardcore contingent of Japan twitterers were over-drinking and over-talking. It was nice to meet the avatars in the flesh, and they were all lovely people (and eminently more successful than me – but hey, they have age and time in their favour). I couldn’t stay out too late, what with an early start the next morning, but I was grateful for being able to attend: thanks to all the #youguys, but especially Fukumimi – for his good taste in organising the shindig – and Shinpuren – for inviting me.

The next day was my final Saturday in Kokubunji School. It was a bit tear-jerking for me. I loved that day, and some of my favourite students were there. I received loads of presents – thank you everyone! – including the wonderful inking of the church in Motomachi you can see on the right. My change of days was entirely internal. My branch of the company recently merged with the northern branch, and in the merger came a big reshuffle of our districts. Kokubunji has swapped districts and I can no longer work there (my Wednesday there will also change in the near future).

After work, I again rushed off for a nomikai. Okay, not so much rushed, but dawdled. I had 1 hour and 40 minutes to kill for a 50 minute train journey… too little time to go home and change, too much time to be comfortable. This particular get-together was with Musashi-Shinjo School students. Despite not actually working there, I did attend Shinjo’s Christmas Party as a teacher from Saginuma school. At that party, largely due to how close I live to their students, I was the last teacher standing and I made some good friendships as a result. Saturday was our shinnenkai and I was out until 3am with only two (awake) other people – three were sleeping. It was nice to get out again, to drink to excess and to chat about the most random things. The food was great too!

Unfortunately, Sunday was filled with queasy moments and a rotten hangover. Oh, and copious amounts of blood. Not mine, though. Ebichu was in dire need of a manicure. We’ve had him for over a year now and we’d never clipped his nails. Instead I attached small strips of sand paper to his wheel and ramps to grind it down a bit (with seemingly no effect on his tiny little feet). Still, they had grown long and unmanageable (possibly due to his lethargic response to winter) so we took him to our local vet for a trim. The nurse held him by the scruff of his neck and he struggled around. The doctor managed to cut a few ends off, but then Ebichan decided he wouldn’t have any more of it. As he wriggled around to escape, the nurse tried to secure him and must have hurt him in the process because he bit her – just once. There was quite a lot of blood but the doctor showed the nurse a better way to hold him and they got the job done with no further injuries – although Ebichu came out a lot redder than when he went in. Poor baby!

By the next day I was as right as rain and so I pulled together my camera equipment and went out for a walk. Unfortunately, while it’s a nice bright sunny day today, last week was dark, dull and very grey. I knew it was going to rain and there was even talk of snow, so I packed an umbrella and headed out regardless. My destination was Todoroki Valley, a gorge running through through Tokyo just on the other side of the river from me. The actual location is very nice, but it was difficult to appreciate it on such a cold, dank day. I will definitely be heading back there at a later date. I finished my walk with a trek to the train station. It was spitting and getting cold, and I had a Japanese lesson to attend.

Following my lesson, I was back on the train, this time to Yokohama to meet Keiko and her colleagues for dinner. We had kushiage, fried skewered food. It was really nice, and the service was great too. For five people, we got a window-side booth and a free bottle of champagne. As we ate, the much-anticipated snow began to fall. At first it came down in tiny spots, barely distinguishable from the rain, but the snowflakes grew bigger and bigger leaving wet splodges wherever they landed. It was all very pretty, but walking home in it was hell. Keiko and I arrived back very cold and soaked to the bone. It wasn’t very surprising that I woke up with a sore throat.

As I worked, the sore throat developed into a full blown cold. I felt energetic the next morning, but again, by the afternoon I was close to death. I wisely took off the Thursday to recover, although that’s easier said than done when the temperature difference between the outside and inside of your home is as marginal as it is here. Still, by Friday I felt well enough to work, just in time for my new day in Machida on Saturdays.

Finally, yesterday, Keiko and I decided to celebrate Valentines early. We headed off to Nihonbashi for a kimono exhibition (I got free tickets from a student). It was interesting but, you know, it was embroidery, hardly the most engaging subject for a man. We followed this up with delicious gelato from the Valentines chocolate fair being held on the same floor of Takashimaya as the kimono exhibition.

I was eager to pick out my Valentines presents, so I dragged Keiko over to Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. It’s the biggest Yodobashi Camera I’ve ever been to, and it was packed out. We mingled around the Wii section for a while as I debated what to buy – in the end I chose Smash Bros Brawl, Wii Sports Resort and an extra motion-plus accessory. I then took Keiko downstairs for some replacement headphones.

These were the appetisers to our main event: dinner in the Shin-Marunouchi Building. We booked a table at Deliziôso Firenze (5th floor) and sat down for a well-priced course – ¥5800. For the second time in as many months we were eating real truffles and foie gras (this time fried, and much nicer). The service was excellent and we had a great time: Keiko was already starting to plan our next visit as we headed over to the neighbouring Marunouchi Building for chasers (Breeze of Tokyo, 35F, ¥1050/head cover charge). I highly recommend both to anyone in the Tokyo area with a bit of cash and a desire for great service.

It’s a stressful time at the moment for Keiko, and I hope she had a chance to relax. The evening didn’t end on such a good note as Keiko found out her colleague has come down with swine flu… so while my tough week has just finished, Keiko’s has barely even begun. Hang in there, honey.

Winter Blues

We’re moving out of the throes of that most despicable of seasons: winter. Times have been pretty rough in the Simpson household. We’ve both been ill multiple times (last week I had a fever that gave me extreme shivers… scary stuff). It’s been raining plenty, and is on and off hot and cold: hardly conducive to good health. It’s been a hit on us financially (I lose money when I don’t work), and physically (I’ve not been to the gym since this non-stop illness hit some three weeks). The air is dry leaving us sore and lethargic. It’s all pretty miserable.

Today, however, has been a silver lining: snow! Now, you guys had snow back home, and a lot of it too, as did I over the New Year break, but I am very happy to see it in Kanto (even if the roads are really slippy now).  I can only hope that it’ll be there tomorrow.

Open House

Wow, what a crazy month it’s been recently. After Andy left, Keiko got really ill, and when Keiko gets ill she develops a horrible, irritating and painful-sounding cough. She didn’t have much time to rest, however, as her parents stayed with us the weekend after Andy’s departure.

It was nice to see her parents. In many ways, I have a lot of catching up to do. I met her father for the first time at the wedding, and while I’m sure many would think that’s not a bad thing, for me it is regrettable. We had dinner with Chikara and his mum in Machida at an izakaya outside where I work. The food was good, mostly, although certainly not for a British stomach: sashimi (raw meat/fish), neba-neba special (natto/yamaimo/okura) and cold octopus come to mind (I didn’t like the latter two).

We then followed up with lunch in Ginza. Keiko’s dad spent a lot of time in Tokyo/Yokohama as a student and so he led the way. Ginza itself is the boutique-land of Tokyo. Lots of expensive shops and European-style frontages. However, it retains the sense of ‘big’ Tokyo by the sheer scale of it all. It is a reminder of Tokyo during the Bubble: expensive and luxurious, although much of that has fallen by the wayside, the concept seems to have stuck.

In Ginza, during the day, everyone drives expensive cars. You think an Aston Martin is expensive? Try getting one imported! BMWs, Lexuses, Mercedes, Porsches, Hummers, you name it, people were driving it.

One of the main reasons for us going to Ginza was to check out Japan’s first H&M. They were queuing around the block, I kid you not. When I think of H&M, I think Telford Town Centre, clearly the Japanese have a different impression. I am not really sure what H&M offers that other Japanese stores don’t (and sometimes at a much higher quality). Perhaps they’ve shaken things up for the Japanese market, but I don’t think so… nor did I get a chance to look inside. One look at that queue and we were off for lunch in Matsuzakaya, a large department store.

We sat down for soba in possibly the busiest restaurant I have ever been to. You know its busy when the staff’s words are ‘I’m sorry for the trouble’. However, unlike the typical ‘Irrashaimase!’ all I heard was a cacophony of ‘Moshiwake gozaimasen!’ It was grating to say the least.

After that lovely lunch, I went to check out a pet shop on the top floor. It was nice, in the way that Japanese pet stores can be. In the UK, I haven’t seen dogs or cats at a pet shop for over decade, but in Japan they are a staple. Less acceptably for me, though, they are kept in the same glass booths as we put hamsters, gerbils, rats and degus. You can rarely touch them and they look bored, sleepy, and lonely. The staff let them, mostly puppies and kittens, run around, but still, it is a bit sterile. That said, I did play with a few and they loved it… hiding my hand and popping it up, getting kittens to chase my fingers. I miss having a pet here, that is actually one of the hardest things for me. I want something to stroke, and Keiko doesn’t like me playing with her hair!

From Ginza, Keiko’s parents headed to the airport and we went home. I’ll see them again on Christmas Day. I got a flight to Hokkaido for 1万円, about 50 quid (although with the exchange rate at the moment, we’re perhaps talking 60. I’ve got to get some winter clothing for the trip, but it’ll be nice. Keiko won’t be there for a few days later so I’ve got to rely on my Japanese to carry me through.

A day later, Keiko’s sister arrived. She’s applying for an IGO volunteer job and needs a battery of medical tests to make sure she can do it. She went to the hospital on the first day and by the second she was getting sick! She was coughing, Keiko was coughing, and I still wasn’t 100%. One of the problems at the moment is that Japan has gone from god-awful humidity to ‘Dude, where’s my water’ dryness. I wake up feeling like a hamster has holed up by my tongue. It’s horrible. The temperature and distinct lack of rain (at the moment) are the only good things to say about the weather of late.

Anyway, Ayaka went back to Canada, it was nice having her stay to be honest, and I hope she comes again, and now we’re back to normal… except Keiko is still ill. She went to the hospital with Ayaka to see if the doctor could help. She was told she might have asthma and was given an inhaler and a blood test (although I don’t know whether you can tell if someone has asthma from a blood test). Certainly, she does seem to have attacks, but the asthma solution doesn’t quite add up in my mind. Keiko always coughs when she gets sick (and when she’s recovering, for a long time afterwards), and while she may have what is called cough-variant asthma, Keiko keeps complaining of feeling something stuck in her throat, like a layer of mucus. Sure enough, holding her head over Vicks and boiled water seems to work wonders. It seems to me like she just has bronchitis and has been left with the cough and after-effects (I had a mucus problem after I got better two for about 2 weeks).

Anyway, grossness aside, she went back to hospital yesterday to get the results: turns out the doctor doesn’t have a clue what is wrong. She’s now on some Chinese medicine called Kampo, or something like that, and has been told just to take the Ventolin-/Sabutomol-like inhaler she was given before (like a topical steroid). She has to go back next week, at which point she may be given more medicine… but in a country without a comparable NHS system, I am worried that we are being milked. It doesn’t cost us too much as Keiko is on the national health insurance scheme, but still, the pharmacy will be getting the subsidies from the government. Just another downside to being ill in Japan.

Yokohama – Nagoya’s Cleaner Brother

I already visited Yokohama’s Chinatown last month, but since Andy was here, and with lingering hangovers, we headed down to Yokohama: him with a gammy leg, me with a lingering cold. When we met Chikara, with a sore knee, the three stooges were ready to roll.

We traveled on the Seabass, a seaborne bus that gave us lovely views of Yokohama’s Bay Bridge and Landmark Tower.

At first I was going to title this post `Yokohama – Tokyo’s Cleaner Brother’, but the two aren’t really comparable. In terms of size, Tokyo is so big that its difficult to draw the line between two bayside cities (not to mention Kawasaki in the middle). Yokohama, for me, is reminiscent of Nagoya (Japan’s Third City): its small, well-connected, and shows the signs of city-zoning. The major difference is that Yokohama is pretty damn clean.

We got off at Minatomirai, home to the relatively famous Ferris wheel and Landmark Tower. It nice, reminded me of a New Town or Urban Redevelopment Area (think the London Docklands). Clearly a lot of money has been plowed into the area which is littered with hotels, conference centres and indoor shopping centres (which I miss, a bit, about a home).

Like much of Japan’s extravagant building projects, and with the time that we were visiting, these large halls and open-spaces were notably empty. I have seen this time and again, most particularly with underground stations where there can be immense and lavish tunnels with no-one in them… perhaps something we would expect from Saddam-era Iraq or Kim’s North Korea.

Pork barrel heaven or not, there was plenty of decent places to photograph Yokohama’s landmarks, even if the Landmark Tower, looming above us, was hidden until we emerged underneath it.

What I didn’t expect, however, was the price to enter the tower. At over 1000 Yen (5 pounds), we decided to give it a miss. Chikara’s brother works in the tower, so the next time Andy comes, we’ll call him up for a discount lunch in his fancy restaurant! So, instead, we walked through the shopping centre at its foundations and then left for the train station.

Inside the shopping centre was this guy… he looked pretty cold and nervous, and his skin was a bit waxy too. It was nice installation art and created a pretty cool talking piece for locals and tourists alike.

With Landmark Tower towering overhead, I stopped to take a photo of as many Yokohama skyline features as possible:

Sure, I could have done better if I could walk on water, but are you going to deride my lack of godliness? Oh, and I took another snap that says so much… about me:

In my defence, being a pedestrian in a big city is hardly an adventure. Every 50-100 metres you end up standing at set of traffic lights. This particular set clearly had a Duracell-powered green light as us pedestrians were made to wait for 5 minutes.

Oh, that ship in the foreground two photos up is the Nippon Maru, a sail training ship (now relegated to being a tourist trap). It sits outside the Yokohama Maritime Museum. Unfortunately, however, when we arrived they had just finished for the day… still, I’d like to see it again sometime.

We soon caught up with Keiko and made our way over to Ishikawa-cho to meet Sawa for drinks and wa-shoku (Japanese-style cuisine) at an izakaya that Chikara likes. It was nice, we sat, drank, talked and (I) took photos with Andy’s SLR (I want one so bad).

I was still ill, however, and by the time we left for home, I was feeling pretty rotten. The next day, after work, we met up with Andy in Shinjuku for some more drink and dinner (Andy managed to get lost in Shinjuku’s side-streets while hunting for a place to smoke). That was a pretty cool, and relatively cheap izakaya, although the name escapes me (Black Dragon, or something like that, in English). With all the smoke inside, however, my tickly cough was becoming painful and annoying.

Sadly, it was then time to say goodbye to Andy. I enjoyed having Andy over. We had drinks in bars I wanted to visit, and we got to do touristy things and chat. I’m not likely to become truly homesick any time soon, but the one thing I miss is my social circle. Sure, it slowly migrating over here, but I miss seeing Andy often, having Leo stay over, exchanging har-de-harrs with Gerard and Kasia, catching up with Nori and Chikara (although Chikara is now here). The problem is, and I don’t know how much this holds for the 9-5s that most people have back home, when I finish work between 8-9 (mostly over an hour away from home) 5-6 times a week, I have no time to catch up with people. I don’t know any people locally, and that means that there is no-one to come out for late-night drinks. Worse still, and this past week has proven it, going out when I have split or one-day weekends means that I am simply not recovering.

The week before Andy arrived, I had training and cover, so my 3-day week became a six-day week. Then I saw Andy at every opportunity: after all, how often can I catch up with my right-hand man now we’re at opposite ends of the world. That was nice, but utterly shattering when combined with the cold I developed the day he arrived. I took Tuesday off to get better, but actually, on Wednesday I felt worse. After saying goodbye to Andy, I couldn’t sleep for the coughing and I took Saturday off to recuperate (which did the trick – after a long rest on Saturday, I felt better than I had done at any point in the previous week). I’m still coughing and clogged up now, and I still feel absolutely drained, but I was glad to be able to spend my time with Andy… I just wish he’d move out here. I don’t like being Billy No-mates!

Mild Sickness Abroad

Today I took the day off, sick. Unpaid, of course, but I felt it was the best decision. Last week was pretty tough, partly because I had cover and training, partly because I had something resembling a social life, but the result is the same. By Saturday I a ninja sore throat crept up on me and spoiled my week.

Sure, a sore throat you say, whoop-de-woo. Yeah, I can accept that but its not that simple. My job involved a fair bit of speaking, clear speaking, as well as, with kids, shouting. It requires a lot of energy, you can’t get those quiet ones up and about if you are lethargic. Finally, I work in air-conditioned rooms where the air is dry and not particularly conducive to good health.

Saturday was not a great day to get something like that as I was to meet up with Andy in Tokyo in the evening for steak. In my rush to meet him, I forgot his birthday presents, so he had a birthday surprise in Outback Steakhouse sans gifts… Anyway, I’ll give them to him tomorrow (assuming I did actually leave them in the classroom where I thought I had).

Sunday hit me pretty hard. Keiko got up sometime before 6 am to go to work, and I was already conscious. My throat was sore, scratchy and relieved only by the occassional gargle of iodine solution (it’s like I travelled back in time to the 1950s). I was to take Andy on a whistlestop tour of Tokyo’s exciting places, but by 4 pm I was in fear of losing my voice (keeping in mind my job), so I left Andy to his own devices and went back home (I have some pictures to share in the next post).

You see, getting ill abroad has its own complications. Firstly, the most obvious one, I cannot effectively communicate my problem to someone by myself (and Keiko isn’t around much due to work). How do I know which medicine to take? In Shinjuku I asked a guy in a pharmacy for some advice and he showed me a spray (the most common form of anti-sore throat medication here, it seems), but how do I know if that’s what I want? Sure, with medicines it is never really possible to know entirely what you need, but add to that a language gap and I’m like a Yahoo! Answers user with a dumb question before the invention of the Internet: clueless.

Second, what if I get seriously sick? At home, its no problem, I go to a hospital and worry about it later (after all, I have enough on my plate with MSRA, a lack of beds, and incompetant staff), but here I’ve got to worry about whether I have the money and all the correct insurance documentation. This is true even of check-ups. To make matters worse, I cannot remember whether I actually received any documents from the company yet (temporary ones), and I’ve yet to be contacted by the insurance company (with permanent documentation). I’m seriously considering moving onto the national insurance which Keiko is on, at least then it is in my power, kind of (for a similar conundrum, see my housing situation).

Anyway, I used that spray and relaxed that evening, and Keiko brought home some hot lemon sachets and honey to soothe my throat. By the next morning I was clogged up and as croaky as Christian Bale’s Batman (maybe I’ll keep dropping hints about it instead of actually saying how much I enjoyed it). Keiko told me to call in sick, and I was planning to do so. I have a very difficult class on Mondays and if I couldn’t raise my voice, and if I felt like death warmed up then I would have struggled to make it through the day. However, I took some medicine and I began to perk up, and after not getting through to the standby operator on my first attempt I through caution to the wind and went to work. I was a bit lethargic and a bit croaky, but came home feeling better than I had done in days… but then came the morning.

With colds, the morning is always the hardest. Today I was clogged up to the eyeballs, sore throated, croaky, and just feeling completely off. Given that I cannot afford not to go to work tomorrow (thus missing the chance to collect Andy’s presents while he’s here), plus having many busy days ahead of me, I realised that I wasn’t going to shift this without taking it easy. I got ill for precisely the opposite reason. Its now about halfway into the working day and the lack of air-con, talking, and free-flow of hot drinks has allowed me to feel more normal.

Sometimes procrastination isn’t the answer… but I can’t be bothered to go into details.