March 13 – 10 days

It has been 10 days since I have written anything at all. It’s really bad because now I have lots of things to talk about but no time to write about it all. Oh memory 10 years from now, please be able to remember this stuff! I have a good reason for the first 3 days, I really do. I caught a cold (fever?) last Wednesday (5th) and was sick for 3 entire days. I didn’t leave the house. That Wednesday I woke up and had a terrible headache. It hurt more than any headache that I can remember. I had trouble walking down the stairs because my head was pounding so hard. The weird thing was, that seemed to be the only thing that hurt. I had no runny nose, no cough, and no sore throat (well the sore throat was fixed after a couple glasses of water). I asked for the thermometer and found that my temperature was a spanking 38 degrees celsius. I am not sure what that is in farenheight, but I think normal body temperature is around 36 degrees. In any case, Tamaki took me to the local health clinic. It was the first time since I got to Japan that I got to use my National Health Insurance card. I hope never to need it again. We had to have waited for 2 hours or so. My head pounded the entire time and I was not able to sleep on the small tatami mat area they had behind the chairs. When they finally called me, Tamaki had me go alone, saying I would be able to understand them. What? Complex medical terms at my Japanese level? No way! I thought to myself. The nurse asked me some simple questions: height, what hurt, etc. She then took my blood pressure and my weight. Twice. She must not have believed that I weigh 80kg. Yeah… I need to work on that, can’t quite believe it myself. I then got to wait again for the real doctor to look at me. He took out his stethoscope and listened to my breathing, or whatever they do. He also asked a few questions. I feel like my Japanese has really improved because almost unconsciously I understood 95% of what he said. He even explained that I didn’t have influenza but if I got a runny nose I should come in again. He then too this really long and thin ear-wax pick looking thing and put it in my nose. Tears flowed to my eyes it was so far up there. I found out later it was to test what I had. Back in the waiting room I waited again for what seemed like eternity, when finally the people at the desk called me up. They gave me a prescription sheet and Tamaki paid for my visit. It was less than $20. The Japanese health system felt much like the American health system. I feel like that is exactly what I would go through had I gone to the Bryan Medical Group.

Then came the medicine.

I received a grand total of 6, yes SIX different things. There were four different pills, a round pink, two round white, and an orange/white capsule. Next there was this white powder which I learned to hate. You open up the little pack and empty it onto your tongue, then take some big gulps of water. The powder tastes horrible and ends up getting everywhere in your mouth and some back in the cup. Ugh, the nature of powder! Finally there was this *ehem* anally inserted cylindrical looking thing which I received 3 of. Tamaki said that it was for dropping the fever drastically. Wednesday night my fever was up to 40 degrees. Tamaki said that I should use the insertion pill. I did, it was not pleasant, but at that point my headache had still not gotten better, and I was ready to do anything in order to just go to sleep. The pills and stuff were really weak. I am unsure if they did anything at all, but I took them anyway after every meal as prescribed. Needless to say, I finally got decent at swallowing pills. I slept on and off for 3 days straight. During my waking hours I played Dragon Quest as I was not able to focus enough to straight up study.

Finally on Saturday (8th) I got to get out of the house. At noon Mieko (a girl I previously met at an outing with my host father Feb 12) and her friend Chika-chan came to pick me up. We then switched cars at the local supermarket and added a friend, Hiru-kun. I was told to call everyone by their chan/kun nicknames, even though only they use them. All 3 of them were high school friends and all 10 years my elder. It was still a really fun day. We first went to eat at this restaurant named “Kazan” which means “volcano” where they specialize in “ishi-yaki ramen”. It is a really interesting way of making ramen. There is a stone pot which is put over a flame until it gets really hot. Next the cooked ramen and veggies are put in to sizzle. The broth is prepared separately and brought out to the table. You pour the broth into the pot where it soon starts to bubble (because the pot is so hot) and cook everything together. To eat it you have to scoop out portions into another, smaller bowl so it cools down enough to eat. It was a good meal. Everyone had ishi-yaki except for Hiru-kun, who had tsukemen. He said he couldn’t eat things that hot.

Next we went to the bowling alley and played 2 games. Like usual I won the first game with 128, but out of the blue I came from 3rd place and won the second game as well with 127. I still hold my claim that I do worse as I play more games. Chika-chan was not happy because we had a bowl off in the 10th frame and I managed to get a strike and the extra roll to beat her. Upon returning our shoes and things, we each received a coupon for 20 free tokens at the arcade. We went to the arcade and decided on one of those games that pushes tokens off the edge via a moving platform. Chika-chan and I played one for a good 20 minutes before finally losing all of our tokens. We must have had about 100 or so at our top point. It was then that I decided that an arcade really would be a good place to have a date. Those token games are all geared towards 2 people playing together. In fact all of the games are now that I think about it. It’s just that anyone can play the token games I guess. It really doesn’t take much skill. We then wandered around the UFO (claw) games. The first one that Chika-chan played, she won this “corn-caramel” candy. I kid you not, it was like taffy, and tasted like corn. Everyone thought that it was the worst candy ever. Go Hokkaido sweets! Everyone got separated for a bit, and when we finally got everyone together again, I was given a small plush banana from Chika-chan as a keepsake. Weird, but cute.

I was then taken to this really cool shop. It is an old collectables place that had everything ranging from old video games to cards and figures. It was there that I learned that Chika-chan is a big gamer. I mentioned that I was currently playing Dragon Quest 4 and she was able to name some of the characters and a vague plot line. We took a trip down the Super Famicom aisle and reminisced about our childhoods of playing all the games that hung on the racks. The other two just kinda shrugged and went about looking by themselves. Outside I bought a Gashapon where I got a little Shy Guy for my bookbag.

I thought we were going to go home when we pulled into a sports center. It is kinda like a game center, but all sports related. We did the batting cages, pitching challenge, basketball, air hockey, and ping-pong. The also had pool and a driving range, but we did not get that far. They also had arcade games that were sports related. It was my first time to do a batting cage, and I got pretty owned. The first 5 balls or so I couldn’t hit. The rest I hit, but not gracefully. They bounced off the ground or popped way up in the air. I could not got a good hit at 70km/hr. Maybe I needed a little faster speed or a better batting stance or something. Mika-chan beat me at air hockey *cries*, but I creamed Hiru-kun so it’s all good. At the end of our games we went to the counter and got prizes. They consisted of candy and these shrimp flavored roll things. Japanese of course.

It was a really good day. I made some new friends who I may or may not ever see again, but it was a lot of fun.

Sunday was the Hoikuen-Sai or big festival. When I arrived, there were already a lot of parents and kids browsing the rooms. I was instantly put to work in helping with the stage work. The gym was packed from front to back, and I helped make paths for the kids through the crowd. Taiyo san’s skit involved running around the audience and we had to make sure everyone was out of the way. The show ran smoothly. Afterwards was the Bazaar which meant the gym turned into a restaurant. I was originally going to be a waiter, but there were already too many. Instead I helped sell candy at the side stand. The festival was a lot of fun and most definitely worth staying for.