patchmonkey.net

So, I’ve been busy with work and school and teaching and travelling and clerkship applications and looking for jobs, but here’s a short quick update:

• Went to Nikko, hiked, went to onsen, saw pretty temples and shrines with ROOMMATE ANDY and LIZ. There was also amazing food. I will try to write more about this later. Pictures are on Flickr.
• Finished six weeks of Teaching now, I really like teaching, but I really have to get my butt in gear and get through writing the beginning of an article and doing all my clerkship applications. Oy.
• Being a lawyer may not be as fun as it looks, but I do enjoy doing the work.
• I want to buy a Nintendo DS, I hear that they can be purchased at the SUPERMARKET. Very strange.
• There’s an interesting article here about buying a house (or renting) in Japan. Very good.

Okay, back to work now! More later. As usual.

So, I’ve been teaching as an adjunct professor at Temple University Japan. Last night, I was teaching about kinds of personal property, and how to acquire it. All of a sudden, it came to treasure trove. So what did I do?

I drew a big pirate map on the board, started saying “Yarrr!” and discussing what would happen if you found “me ol’ mate Capt’n Jack Sparrow’s” treasure in your backyard.

(In case you’re curious, you could either keep it, surrender it to the state, split it with the finder, or it all goes to the finder, depending on what state you’re in.)

Okay, you may think Japan has good medicine. Their schools are supposed to be good, they’re a modern country with lots of Science and Technology and Stuff. Unfortunately, maybe that’s true if you’re Japanese, but I just spent the past two weeks experiencing treatment, and it was…um…sad.

I went to the first doctor on May 26th, and said I had an earache. He was supposed to be a generalist, but he said “I can’t look in your ears, but here’s an anti-biotic.” So I started the anti-biotic, and I felt a little better. Status: Severe ear pain, but little ringing

So by the end of weekend, the pain had gone, but the ear was ringing. So on Wednesday (May 31) of the next week, I went to see another doctor. Status: No pain, but ringing The second doctor was an american - he said “I don’t see anything wrong, but here’s some wax remover. By the way, the Japanese dosage is about 1/5th of the US dosage.”

Friday, June 2nd - still ringing, so I take off work and go see the ear, nose, and throat specialist. He says “Wakusu!”, or “Wax!” and he cleans out my ear. It’s still ringing. I go back to the first doctor and threaten him with bodily harm, because I am pretty sure that it is still infected and GOD DAMN IT I WANT AZITHROMYCIN. So he gives me that, and I go home. It rings the entire weekend, but it’s a little softer then.

Finally, on Monday, June 5th, I go to the Akasaka International Clinic. Why didn’t I go there in the first place, you may ask? I didn’t realize they took National Health Insurance - everyone kept telling me that “only Japanese doctors take NHI”. The doctor, Dr. Jerry, takes one look in my ear, says “It’s still infected,” gives me antibiotic and steroid eardrops, and within a few days the ringing almost disappeared.

So there you have it: Akasaka International Clinic, highly recommended. Japanese doctors, not so much.

Japanese Television is bizarre. Today, I woke up, and turned on the television, and there was a news report about living in a soccer ball.

That’s right, in a soccer ball. It’s world cup time, so of course Japanese people are living in a soccer ball. This was followed up by children singing about brushing their teeth in class, which I think was cute, yet sanitary.

There’s also a talking cat puppet (Saku Saku) who I find immensely amusing despite not understanding most of what he says.