2 things I've noticed more than before are bad breath and cauliflower ears...
I'm not really sure how cauliflower ears comes about - I just knew it was from wrestlers in High school who spent too much time face down on the mat - but here's its very common - and very distracting. People sit next to me on the trains and I can't help but stare since it looks like their ear lost a battle with the garbage disposal...I'm curious if it hurts? Can they hear well? Is it due to inbreeding?
Also, bad breath is very prevalent in Tokyo and I have a theory - rice. I have noticed that my body has changed since eating so much rice - my natural smell has altered itself. I think that people who eat rice 3 times a day start to process it differently and their body just uses the carbs and dumps the rest. The breath smells a little like a stale rice cake...it's really awful when are you either stuffed next to them on a busy train ride home or at a store where they feel the need to be right up close and personal when asking you for help.
Speaking of sales people - I have found a new level of annoyance with them - it seems as though most of them not only yell once you are in their shop - but now they start yelling when there are sales. They have special power hour sales - but instead of just posting a sign - they make sure everyone in the western hemisphere can hear it! Even though my maxed volume Ipod - I can still hear the shrill, soul shaking announcement about 2 for 1 on scrunchies...
So, when you miss the last train in Japan - you have 2 options - take a taxi and be broke for a month or just wait it out at the station you are stuck at. Well I did that yesterday on my way home from a lovely day of looking at beautiful shrines in Asakusa. I was stuck at the end of the line in a city that is a hub for the area I'm in - so I was thinking that there would be things like Karaoke places open - nope, wrong....Instead, I was haggled by 4 hookers when I went to the 7-11 for water and then ran past them into the Denny's and hid there for 3 hours until my the first train started. Again, Tokyo is the safest place in the world, and my only fear was what airborne diseases I would get from these poor Philippino hookers that kept asking me about having a 'good time'...
oh, btw - pigeons - grossest birds in the world - I think those flying rats could easily be exterminated and no one would miss them...
It's always funny when we go out to an Izakaiya, they have things on the menu that are supposed to reflect a semblance of American or Italian cuisine. Instead, what they do is they just make it as close as they can with the ingredients they have on hand...
Here's a few examples...
Margarita Pizza - classically tomato, mozzarella and basil...Well last time it was ketchup, string cheese and dried oregano...
Club Sandwich - usually turkey, bacon, lettuce, cheese and other good things - the one we had last time was a fried egg, ketchup, mustard, deli meat and greens...
If it's called cheesecake - it doesn't count if you stick a piece of cheese on top of sweet cake and toast it...
So I have found out a reason why so many places in Japan ask for your blood type. At first, I thought that it was because they were worried that if I were to get hurt, they would be able to know what kind of blood to supply me with - nope, not the case. Apparently, the reason that asking someone their blood type is not a personal question is because it tells a lot about the persons character - much like we say Zodiac signs do. People in Japan actually discriminate against other types of blood - like A and B don't get along and O is the best for the workplace. So, I wonder how many people have lied or lost jobs because of this strange plasmic segregation? It's not uncommon for someone to ask on a first date what your blood type is because families will reject the suitor or future inlaw because of their blood type, they only want the best lines for their family and will be vocal about it. Wow, and we thought we had it rough in America with interracial dating..:P
Well on Saturday, I had quite the adventure - and not a preplanned fun one...
During class on Friday, I had quite a strange episode that can really only be described as a small stroke. Now, normally if something strange happens, I just shake it off, but this time - it was abnormal...I wasn't able to see, which was followed by the loss of the ability to read or understand words. Oh yeah, and on top of that my breathing made me sound like a 20 year emphysema patient...
So, after deciding to followup with a doctor - I made the trek to the local hospital. Now, in America, we have private insurance, which has it's goods and bads, but in Japan - they are on National insurance, so there's really no difference in patient treatment - you could have hay fever or you could be holding your severed left arm and you'd still be in line behind the sneezing guy...
The hospitals weren't as newly updated as I would have thought and they were chocked full of geriatrics and snot rags...After you check in - it becomes musical chairs for the gifted - they have 5 different waiting areas for different procedures. I met the doctor after waiting for an hour, only to have him tell me to not worry about the head thing and to move to the next waiting line for the x-rays and blood work. The area that this was to happen in felt like it was a TV stage area from M*A*S*H - there were no partitions and everyone was lined up with their arms out looking like they were waiting of the heroin fairy to make a visit. And, of course, she asked my blood type, which is just shrugged my shoulders and asked if she would be able to test and tell me so that I could stop making up a different blood type each time.
The x-ray place reminded me of a fallout shelter. There were these huge metal sheets on the ceiling, a CT scanner that looked more like a coffin and the x-ray machine made me think of a dart board.
After all 20 people helped me through the process, we then sat and waited around for another hour to pay! Now, in the US, you wait for insurance to take care of it and pay your deductible and so on....well in Japan, you pay when you are at the doctors - so the woman behind the counter is adding up numbers longer than most grocery lists to see what the damage is...Surprisingly, it only cost 35 bucks to get everything and all the tests - so it looks as though National Insurance isn't half bad - now if we can just work on the expediency of it all so next time I go I don't have to worry about dying before I'm diagnosed....
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