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I thought that it might be good to look for some networking events here in Tokyo while looking for a job. Besides it`s always nice to meet new people, even without a job search topic in mind. I came across the FEW website through a book that gives advice on life in Japan for foreign women.
FEW stands for "Foreign Executive Women" and is a 
business club for women in Tokyo mainly, they now have a second branch too, in Osaka I believe. Its goal is empowering foreign women in Japan in their careers and build a professional network among them. They have a meeting once a month plus some additional events.
Since the monthly meetings are a little expensive for non-members, I attended an informal drinks and pizza event at Cosmos bar which is owned by a FEW member as well. The atmosphere was really easy-going and although I knew nobody when arriving I quickly had a conversation going with several women (well, I am not taciturn either :-). It was really interesting to hear about their experiences and there were women from a variety of different backgrounds and in different positions. There were also some Japanese women who had previously worked or studied abroad. I spoke to one of them who had just recently moved back again from New York and she told me about the difficulties she faced reintegrating into a Japanese company.
The evening was great, I met some interesting and very nice women and got a few business cards. Besides I had fun and enjoyed good pizza and drinks. So I will definitely attend FEW meetings again!
My first visit from Switzerland has come here this weekend, a blog reader by the way, so take this as a good example... Joanna and her boyfriend Raphael arrived on Saturday and we met up on Sunday noon at Shinjuku station. They arrived hungry and so I took them to an Okonomiyaki place, since this is a dish that probably most people would like and is very unknown in Europe. Seemed to be a good pick.
After I took them to the Imperial Gardens near Tokyo main station. The park is really vast, it`s just that the Emperor is bloking visitor from most of it, so only a small part is walkable. Only twice a year you can visit some more and also parts of the palace from what I`ve heard. It`s December 23rd, the Emperors birthdate and some 
other random date. We were talking about the unhappy princess Masako who`s living inside those walls when walking around.
We then went to Harajuku station and Raphael asked to go to a cafe and sit down for a while. I may have been a little thoughtless chasing them around right away. If I remember how I was jetlagged the first days... We went to a little French cafe near Omotesando. The waiter was French and confirmed our previous conversation about the French and how they can sometimes have their arrogant ways. (P.S.: if you want to protest against this racist remark, both Joanna and Raphael have French roots and a French passport). He made it quite clear that someone just drinking something was not quite welcome.
To see some of the much talked-about cherry blossoms, we went to Yoyogi park. Walkin
g there the two of them could sample some of the local weirdos of Harajuku, Goth Lolitas and Co. posing for the cameras. Then at the entrance there were some 50s dancecrews performing, with very 50s hairdos and outfits, that was cool. Yoyogi park was crowded with picknickers sitting under the cherry trees and mostly drinking. The blossoms are not yet fully open, but already a nice sight.
To see some more Harajuku fashion we walked down Takeshita Dori and had a look at some of the clothes stores there. Then we took the train to Shibuya, Joanna and Raphael could enjoy the sight of the famous Shibuya crossing and we went for dinner in a Yakitori restaurant. On the way back to the station we saw three guys that looked suspiciously Yakuza-style, so another good sight...
We had dinner again last night, this time tempura. The main event and an embarassing one for me was when I used the ashtray as a plate for tempura... I just picked one 
of the empty "plates" in front of me and put my fried vegetable in it. The waitress was quick to come to our table and explain to me that I should not use THAT as a plate. We had quite a laugh... Well, I think it was really clean anyway, so not much harm done. Joanna and I went for a drink after. She was quite staring at some dolled up guy with hair dyed in blonde on the street. As she had said before, some of them "sont un peu effeminés".
Joanna and Raphael unfortunately leave Tokyo for Nikko now. But they left some Swiss goodies for me: Gruyere cheese, Swiss magazines and the Maggi Mix for "Zueri Gschnaetzlets", so I can cook that here sometimes.
Yesterday a cargo plane crashed at Narita airport, you have probably heard about it. Compared to the plane crash that happened around the same time in the US with children dying, it may have sounded unspectacular. But it reminded me of when I landed at Narita airport in February. I got really scared, there was a strong wind coming from the side and the plane was already dashing in the air. When we got on the ground the plane was really pushed to the side and was sliding and it was hell of a scary moment. Seeing the video of the crash I asked myself whether that kind of wind is common at Narita airport. No evidence of course. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLAV8YrEqs8Narita has been closed for 2 days according to what I`ve heard. The second city airport, Haneda, is used mostly to transfer passengers to Osaka or Nagoya from which the international flights leave. Narita is not too popular with locals here. It`s considered a bit of a shame that the largest city in the world has such a relatively small airport and it`s very inconvenient to reach it as well, takes around 1.5-2 hours from the city center.
This is my first blog ever, never considered writing a "dear diary" kind of thing and posting it on the internet anyway. When I decided to go to Japan however, I felt like writing something as a document for myself and for my friends, but also for anyone out there who`s be interested in it. Not too much of the "dear diary..." type of stuff, but still somewhat personal without being emotionally exhibitionist. So this intention then turned into this blog.
Well, I hope I have somehow achieved my goal to create something that is enjoyable to read and provides some insight into life in Japan or at least my view on it. I am still enjoying writing the blog in any case. Sometimes I draft posts and don`t seem to be able to finish them really (there are still some old ones in the draft bucket), sometimes I just write very spontaneously and fast. I think pictures are key to make the blog attractive, so I try to come up with some visual support as well. Sometimes I take pictures having a future blog post in mind, sometimes I write a post and then have to find a matching picture. To the people who keep pressing me for more posts: Thank you for your interest, I 
appreciate. But compared to other blogs I am reading I do post quite frequently. Also I do not always have time or something interesting to tell, so I`d rather not post than bore the hell out of everyone...
This is my 100th blog post, so I felt compelled to write something auto-reflective. I am very appreciative of the people who read the blog on a regular basis and write me e-mails with comments, corrections (name spelling like "Kappellbruecke" or how was that again ;-) and suggestions. Please feel free and welcome to continue to do so! And I`ll do my best to keep up writing...
Yes, Japanese tv is educational for me in general right now, I can train my listening skills and so on, blabla. But that`s not what it`s about this time. Today I watched an English language educational program or rather game show. It was quite amusing just as most of the English teaching methods in use in this country.
The program is a designed as a game show where 6 candidates have to answer various English language questions and the spectators can also participate by clicking numbers 1-4 for the different options on their mobile phone. Obviously there are a few people (around 20`000 for each ques
tion) who feel inclined to provide their vote to the "English language poll".
The first part consisted of gap filling type of questions. They showed an English phrase like "I ... cat out of the bag while I was drunk" (?!) and then 4 suggestions how the gap could be filled: 1) got 2) had 3) let 4) made. Hm, could be 2), "I had cat out of the bag while I was drunk", meaning I was so pissed that I ate cat out of a bag... Or 4), was drunk and started doing Origami with the bag resulting in a cat type of shape... 
Turned out that the correct answer was 3) and the candidates who got it right were as proud as you can be. This is certainly a very useful phrase for the Japanese general public. Considering how many drunk people you see every night on the late trains, this must be some real life example and accordingly knowing how to describe such incidents should be useful...
I found the second part of the quiz a bit insulting because it dwelled on the (true) cliche that Japanese people can`t pronounce English at all and are equally bad at understanding properly pronounced English. It`s not suprising though since foreign terms are all spelled in Katakana, a syllable script
that clearly does not consist of enough sounds to accurately note English words. Don`t ask for "McDonalds" here, nobody will understand you. Say "Maggu Donarudsu" and you will be received with more cooperation. Even simple sounding, short words like "hot" should be pronounced katakana-style, I had to learn this when drinking coffee with a Japanese friend. Say "hotto" please... So those exercises in the show consisted of a native speaker seemingly saying the same word three times, but in fact one of the three was a different but similar sounding word, like "curves-curbs-curbs" or 
"Shelley-Sherry-Shelley" and the candidates had to press button 1, 2 or 3 to indicate which was the deviating word.
The last part was a very strange drama scene between a Japanese man in an American bar, talking to the bar tender, a fellow customer and finally a fortune teller. He hasn`t heard from his girlfriends who`s back home in Japan for the past 24 hours and is now worried. The compassionate bartender and fellow customer call the fortuneteller to indicate that she has run off with another guy. The candidates then got single scenes out of the small drama and had to choose the correct content of it from a multiple choice. The story was stupid and strange enough that even an English native speaker woul
d have become a little confused...
Well, overall this program that is produced by Japan`s national tv NHK is an excellent opportunity for the Japanese public to learn fluent English through relevant phrases and real life conversations. It`s an equally suitable method as learning English through presidential inauguration speeches (see previous post), through katakana spelled loanwords or with some "fresh-out-of-college" American slacker, highly experienced in teaching languages as they have learned several of them themselves and of course all have teaching qualifications... Good God, English teaching in this country is severely messed up!!!
Walking from my house to the nearest train station, I have to cross just one street. It`s a quiet area and there is hardly any traffic on there. Still, it seems that the traffic light for pedestrians is usually red. Not that I am in a particular hurry right now, but waiting for no obvious reason is annoying.
While I would just cross the street at red light when there was no car in sight, other pedestrians would just wait. I attributed it to people`s desire to always obey the rules, even if the rule makes little sense.
Well, lately I noticed that I may have been wrong...There is a police box RIGHT in front of the crossing. And those police boxes are ubiquitous and overstaffed and their "inhabitants" probably bored to death, so it may not be a smart idea to annoy them. And I have noticed since that I do get dirty looks from that corner when I cross the street at red light...
What shall I do? Comply and nicely wait? Or risk a confrontation and shout at them that they obviously prefer to harass pedestrians instead of going after the Yakuza (Japanese mafia)? Hm, ok, I don`t want to be expelled from this beautiful island, so let`s be patient...
There are a few celebrities who start off their career in one area, like acting and after a while they become Miss or Mister everything and everywhere. You see them doing tv shows, hosting sport events, doing community work, their face is on commercials everywhere. They are hyper public, living their life in the brightest spotlight and eventually you become a little tired of seeing them. Heidi Klum is an example, formerly a model, now presenting shows on tv, a face for all sorts of products, and companies even such unlikely ones as Mc Donalds. Or David Beckham, soccer star turned model, advertising champ and gay icon.
Japan`s interpretation of the multi-functional star is Takuya Kimura or "Kimutaku" as his fans obiously like to call him. He started off as a member of a boy group named S.M.A.P. The principle is the same as with all boy groups, a couple of cute boys casted at a very 
teenage age, each given a fake "character" (the "rebel", "mama`s boy", etc.) are chased around the country to woo teenage girls. The bands usually disappear quickly with a few exceptions (Backstreet Boys) and their member equally disappear from the public stage, again with a few exceptions (Justin Timberlake). S.M.A.P. was the one of the very first group of this type in Japan and has known success for many years. They still occasionally appear in concert, most recently this spring again. The members are in their mid-30s now and Kimura is by far the most successful.
Walking around the city you virtually see him everywhere. Currently he is on posters for Levis jeans, Toshiba laptops, some chewing gum Xyli-something, Gatsby hairgel and 
Samantha Thavasa handbags (hmmm, but metro is cool here...). He appears in tv commercials for these companies as well. He has been a long term model for Levis for example and was the first Asian male model to star in their campaign. He has been voted "Sexiest Man" in Asia for the past 11 or so years. He stars in various tv dramas, the best known is "Hero" where he plays an prosecutor. I have actually seen an episode of it on my flight back to Europe in December, so although it`s a few years old it still seems to be in demand. He also starred in some "serious" movies and was nominated as best actor at the Japan Academy Awards for his role as a blind samurai in "Buchi no Ichibun".
So maybe not just another pretty face, but some real talent? Well, I`ll keep watching, it`s hard not to notice him on posters and screen these days anyway and it`s sure a pleasant sight.Takuya, Takuya, whereever I venture, your pretty face catches my attention... Here one of his Levis commercials:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZ54hAB42w
I would have associated Japan with several sports before I came here. Having been an active judoka a few years ago I certainly knew a few things about Japanese martial arts, I knew that they have a few good downhill skiers, J-League is a retirement place for European soccer stars and of course there`s the famous sumo fighting. What I didn`t know is that this nation is so crazy about golf and above all baseball.
Baseball seems to be an issue of major national relevance. Numerous tv reports are dedicated to it, every decent sized city features a huge baseball stadium and you see school kids practise everywhere. Actually the Yahoo baseball dome in Fukuoka was the first Japanese sight that I noticed when arriving in this country last year. Baseball players are superstars here and a baseball game draws masses. Right now it`s not season, so I`ll still have to wait for my first visit to a game. To my disgrace I have to admit that I haven`t been to one yet, though Fukuoka especially is a center of baseball. I enjoyed playing it back in High School and have a rough idea of the ru
les, so it should be fun.
I just watched a tv show on baseball and it was quite funny. They were dwelling on Japan`s successes over and over and namely comparing it to Korea`s. Japan and Korea in baseball seems to be like Switzerland and Austria in downhill skiing. Both are good at it, for both it`s a higly relevant sport and the neighbour is the (perceived) biggest competitor. Of course the statisticc picked made Japan look good, the players compared made Japan look good, etc... They talked about some other baseball nations as well such as the US, Cuba or Australia, but it was quite obvious that the topic of the show was the baseball rivalry between Korea and Japan.
I remember having watched a live baseball game between Japan and Korea from the Beijing Olympics on tv while being on the ferry from Japan to Korea. I can tell you that was quite a spectacle with both Korean and Japanese spectators on board... Thanks God they do not have much hooligan tendency on either side of the Sea of Japan...
Let me first assure you that I haven`t been hired by Nestle, so no personal interest in making a commercial for them...KitKat is just a good example for how different the Japanese consumer market is and since it is a globally available product you can directly compare.
KitKat is a relatively boring product in Switzerland although a well established brand with a very well-known commercial slogan (see title). But there is little variety in the product. I`ve seen the same KitKat in more or less the same wrapping for years. Maybe that`s what the Swiss customer is looking for, knowing what to expect and having the same stuff over and over again.
Here KitKat is way more dynamic. It`s sold in different sizes, shapes and tastes and there are special seasonal editions as well. There are small size KitKat that correspond to about a third of a regular one for a quick sweet bite. They are wrapped in the same poly-something type of material as ours at home. The standard size as we know it comes in a more stable packaging and contains two individually wrapped servings (yes, you may ask the environmental aspect question). There are also other shapes of KitKat like the KitKat bites that are little balls (see pic on the right).
There are the craziest tastes available and they seem to change all the time
. Right now there are Azuki bean, Tiramisu, Green Tea or Oat Meal flavor or there was seasonal stuff like Wine Grape flavor. It`s funny, I discover new tastes all the time. Same goes for crisps and other products, it`s such a fast-moving consumer market, it`s not surprising that a lot of Trend Scouting is done here for technology, food, fashion, etc.
One of the later trends are products designed by the target groups. called "Crowd-Sourcing". Consumer goods producers either post a prize contest for the best recipe for a product (e.g. Ramen noodles) or a survey on the most desired ingredients/flavors for a product (e.g. chocolate) on a popular web portal such as Yahoo or Mixi (Japan`s equivalent of Facebook) and let the consumers create their own new product.
Read here for an example: http://www.cscoutjapan.com/en/index.php/tag/crowdsourcing/
We all have certain stereotypes about various groups of people, whether we want it or not. One of the things that my Japanese friends find quite silly is that many people from Western countries seem to think that Sushi is the one and only Japanese food and that Japanese people eat it every day.
Let me assure you that`s not the case. If there are daily staples then it`s rice and probably miso soup. Other than that there is a huge variety of Japanese dishes, from Ramen, Tonkatsu, Soba to Curry, Stir-Fry, Okonomiyaki and so on. And how often do we eat non-Swiss food back home? Equally foreign food here is very popular and Spaghetti, Tom Yam or Hamburgers are not unknown terms here.
If there`s people who are tempted to eat Sushi every day, then it`s silly foreigners like me. Discovering a cheap sushi bar just a few minutes from my house has made me go mad. Each plate costs only 105 Yen (1.20 CHF), no matter what fish it is. In other bars, certain types of sushi cost up to 500-600 Yen, like Uni (sea urchin), here it`s just 105 and it`s good as far as I can tell.
The staff was a bit surprised at first that I knew how to operate the touch screen for ordering sushi (you can also take some from the conveyor belt) and could actually read the fish names and pick the right stuff. But let me tell you, my Japanese vocab is certainly deepest for fish and seafood :-) Guess what, it`s thanks to numerous visited Sushi bars...
I have to admit that today for the first time I felt that I had enough for a few days... I have eaten sushi only for quite a few days, because it`s delicious, cheap and also healthy. But I start to overdose on it now, I need to get something different tomorrow!
P.S.: Speaking about stereotypes: Conversely I find it silly that people here are surprised that I manage to eat with chopsticks...
Last Sunday I visited one of Tokyo`s most popular touristic sites, Asakusa temple. And very notably a popular place to be, the are was very crowded with people that Sunday.
Asakusa used to be the old entertainment district, before Shibuya, Shinjuku or Roppongi took its place. The Asakusa Kannon (Godess of Mercy) Temple is the oldest in Tokyo, dating back as far as 645 A.D.
Before arriving at the shrine you pass a heavily crowded street with all kinds of Omiyage (souvenirs), something that is highly popular with the Japanese as well as with the growing number of Chinese visitors. A speciality are the Ningyo (doll) sweets that are freshly made by hand in front of you. It`s sort of a waffle with the typical sweet Azuki bean paste filling and it is pressed into 
the different animal forms or bell shapes. Makes for a delicious smell in the street.
At the temple gate, there is a very famous huge red lantern (visible on this picture). Stepping through the gate you seem to leave the bustling street you have just crossed really behind and the temple area makes for a much more serene atmosphere. Very beautiful. I`d need to learn more about the meaning of various elements in the temple though. Religion has never been my strong point, although I am interested in a theoretical way.
I haven`t been back in Japan for a long time now, but still sometimes I feel like having a treat from home. A range of European products are available in Department Stores food section. You must imagine this to be something like Globus Delicatessa, a great array of delicious and fresh products, but they come with a hefty price.
So this week I treated myself to Swiss cheese, goat cheese and crispbread and a tiny Toblerone. The cheese usually costs around 700 Yen per 100g, that is 9 CHF at current exchange rates. I was lucky enough they had some discounted Gruyere in the shelf, so a few bucks less. The small container of soft goat cheese was quite expensive too while the crispbread could pass as ok priced. As usual, the customer service was superior and I could practise Japanese conversation on food... In the chocolate section they had the usual broader selection of Lindt chocolate. Almost anywhere you go these days you find Lindt chocolate (plus Toblerone at the airports), so they seem to be the most active abroad. What is new, at least I had not seen it before, is Movenpick chocolate. I bouoght just a mini Toblerone though.
Eating out in a European restaurant is the other way to indulge in stuff from back home, or at least a neighbour country. There are tons of European restaurants here in Tokyo, some faring more original, other Japo-European fare with a more "original" touch. Funny was the Italian restaurant I recently went to. The older waiter must have spent considerable time in Italy, seriously. Couldn`t explain otherwise how he could mimick a Italian riviera Gigolo waiter so well. With his hair slicked back, heavy rings on his finger and an equally heavy fake tan and a stilted walk, he could easily pass for Italian. You have to congratulate te restaurant for their hiring decision. 
My favourite place so far is a French, or rather Breton crepe restaurant on Timesquare building in Shinjuku, the Breizh Cafe. It`s on top of the building and outside there is a lovely roof garden where you can sit in summer. The decoration looks very lovely and French, wooden tables and they have French magazines. Two of the waiters are French or Japanese-French and are happy to speak French with you. The menu is available in French as well and features all types of sweet crepes and salty galettes. I love the original homemade apple juice from France, too expensive, but too delicious as well. I love going to this place, it`ll be nicer even to sit outside again. They`re obviously a chain, the Tokyo restaurant was the first one: http://www.breizhcafe.com/gbjapon.html
The lady on the picture might not approve of it, I caught her with her mouth wide open ;-)
Spending my birthday away from home and most notably from my sister who celebrates hers on the same day was a bit of a sad thought to me. And being sick the whole week before the date didn`t make me any more cheerful.
Well, on Saturday I finally found out where our post box was, nobody in the house had seemed to ever empty it. And it contained letters and packages that I happily put in my room, waiting to be opened on Sunday.
Saturday evening I went to dinner with a French friend and two Japanese. We spent a fun evening at a restaurant in Shin Okubo, that is Tokyo`s Korea town, having Yakiniku, which is a barbecue type of meat and 
went to karaoke after.
Since everybody is living a bit further away than me, we all slept at my place. The thing is just that I signed the contract with the agency that says that no guest is allowed to sleep at the place. Before going home we went to the nearby konbini and guess whom I met - two of my housemates. I was stuttering something like "...weeeell, I wanted to tell you that those guys are sleeping in our house tonight. I know it`s forbidden, but..." They were really cool and said "The contract just says that nobody can sleep at your place, bubt you`re allowed to have guests. You co
uld always pretend that nobody was sleeping, but staying up all night". Japanese smart asses, I like that! :-) So we had a merry little party in the living room and the girls provided some extra sheets and stuff before everybody went to sleep.
I got some beautiful earrings for my birthday, thanks to my mum and sister! It was lovely to read cards from back home and later I got phone calls too. Hope it didn`t ruin you financially... My sister and I of course talked for a long time, it was both our birthday after all. Her Doraemon figure present that I had sent had arrived on time luckily.
In the afternoon we went to Ueno. I wanted to go to the zoo and see the giant panda that they have. We were unlucky, a sign said the panda was not there due to construction work and neither were the monkeys. We skipped the zoo, took a walk in Ueno park and played darts and billiard instead and went for sushi later. I was quite tired in the evening, still feeling the effect of the antibiotics, but happy, that was a fun birthday!
We have all heard about sexual harassment in Europe. In Japan there are some other, probably less ubiquitous forms of harassment or discrimination in the corporate world. They`re called Burahara (for "blood harassment) and Alhara (for "alcohol harassment).
The Japanese have a penchant for blood types, that is easy to tell. While people back home might ask you for your star sign, here they ask about your blood type. There are numerous books on the subject in bookstores and it seems to be a fairly well-rooted hokuspokus. I am bloodtype A, which is associated with perfectionism, orderliness, discipline, introvertion. Up to those of you who know me in real life to judge whether there is anything to it... I`d say I`m more of an extroverted messy...
Even companies ask for blood type when doing job interviews (for that my blood group might be good then, since perfectionism is a highly valued attribute here). So more scientific minded groups have coined the term Burahara (blood harassment) to describe the discriminatory hiring or attribution of tasks according to blood types. I seriously hope, I won`t just get jobs in accouting now... I should maybe tailor my blood group declaration to the job I`m applying for. My truthful A for those jobs that are associated with perfectionism, AB for more creative stuff...
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Blood-Types-Make-All-the-Difference-in-Japan-103419.shtml
The victims of "Alhara" can be observed on any random late night train on weekdays. Outrageously drunk "salarymen" boarding the trains in a state that borders coma. Hanging on the handles, moving around like a human pendulum. Or half sitting, half lying on a bench, the head sunk into the neighbours shoulder. Sometimes even puking over themselves (as observed), which makes fellow passengers merely take some 
distance. But always jumping , eeeh staggering out at the right stop. You may think that those people are dumb asses who got drunk for fun. You may be wrong...
Obviously, going for drinks after work and getting very drunk with your boss and colleagues is somewhat compulsory, at least for the group harmony oriented Japanese. Keeping up with the drinking level of your boss is a MUST. Since around 30% of Asian people lack an enzyme that transforms alcohol, they get very sick after small quantities of alcohol. So being pushed to drink alcohol is even less fun. I read the statement of a guy who said his only solution to it was to pretend to fall asleep at the table... For this phenomenon, being pushed to drink more by your superior although you`re sick, the term "alcohol harassment" was created.
One of the things I love about the Japanese is their attention to detail. In our world, we are usually too busy or too cool to pay attention to small things. Here it`s different, it`s not just efficiency and the big picture that counts. Customer service is attentive to the extreme and while this can be labelled as inefficient, it is very warming from a human point of view and I feel much better treated as a customer here, despite the language barrier.
An example for this attention to detail was my visit to the nearby post office today. I wanted to send 2 letters off and on one I had not put enough postage. In Switzerland you would just pay the difference and they`d put one of those neutral printed stamps on it. Herre, the guy at the counter showed me some cute manga stamps and asked me to choose the one that I liked best. It just put a big smile on my face!
That would never ever happen back home, even if the post office was completely empty and the employee not busy at all. We consider ourselves too adult, too reasonable to mind things like that. But truth is, it is very nice and sweet when somebody actually does care. I love it.
Being sick is never fun. Being sick abroad, in a country where doctor`s don`t speak your language is even less fun. And of course mum`s missing too, she couldn`t drop by and bring tea and moral support :-)
My throat started going sore on Monday evening. It got worse and worse and all I did was sleeping - all day pretty much - and taking the basic medicine that I had with me, Aspirine, Panadol-C and some candies that my colocator Tomoko sponsored. But my throat got worse and worse and I could guess what it was, tonsillitis, since I have regularly suffered from it since mychildhood. And I know that it does not disappear just like that.
Friday after a few days sleeping only and not eating a bite, I finally managed to crawl out of bed and go to a clinic in Shinjuku where supposedly there were English-speaking doctors. Since consultation is only from 8 to 11, I had to take a rush hour train (see post below...) and felt like vomiting in this crowd. Also I had pulled the wide rollneck of my dress over my head to keep my ears warm. It looked like a headscarf and with the long black coat I obviously was considered in the "terrorist bracket" which earned me suspicious look on the train...
At the clinic I first had to fill out a couple of forms in Japanese. The staff there didn`t speak English, but I somehow managed to provide the needed answers in Japanese and do the pre-work like taking temperature. My only 37.6 degree were considered fever and I was told that Asian people have a lower body temperature. Not sure whether that is true?
I had requested to see an English-speaking doctor, but she nevertheless started speaking Japanese. I pretended not to understand and she switched. Although I`m keen to practise my Japanese, not necessarily when I feel so sick... It was a tonsillitis as I had thought and I got antibiotics in the adjacent pharmacy after paying a hefty bill for the consultation.
The drugs kicked in quickly and my throat started to "unswell" immediately. I was absolutely starving after a few days without food and went to have a bowl of spaghetti. Ate them too quickly and felt sick after... The drugs made me very tired, but at least I was able to spend a few hours out of bed and could go out for my birthday.
business club for women in Tokyo mainly, they now have a second branch too, in Osaka I believe. Its goal is empowering foreign women in Japan in their careers and build a professional network among them. They have a meeting once a month plus some additional events.
