The Dullness of Everyday Life February 2, 2008
Posted by Kristen in Gripes, Healthcare, Japanese Culture.add a comment
Sometimes days, even weeks go by in which I have trouble finding anything to write about. Every day brings something new and notable about living in Japan, but what do I choose? What do I write about? And what about those periods in which everything seems just boring and dull, just ordinary everyday life? What do I write then?
The past few weeks have been busy and tiring, filled with ordinary struggles of everyday life. Illness and taxes.
First, the illness. Mark’s.
On a business trip to Hong Kong at the beginning of January, he came down with a bad cold which quickly turned into laryngitis. A few days before he returned to Japan, his lower right leg started to swell up. By the time he got home, he had lost his voice completely and his leg was red and puffy. He went to work anyway, but by the next day his leg was hurting and he decided to go see a doctor. The doctor at our nearby clinic thought he should go to the hospital, so we ended up in the emergency room on a Friday evening.
I was struck by several differences between this hospital and the ones we’ve visited in New York. First of all, the main entrance to the hospital was closed at 5:00 pm. By the time I joined Mark at 6:30, it seemed totally dead. The hallways were dark and I had to enter through the single small emergency door. And then there was no drama at all. No bleeding injuries, no ambulance arrivals, no drug addicts. Just a few tired-looking people sitting in nice, clean rows of padded straight-backed chairs.
The first several visits to the hospital were frustrating and discouraging. There was a lot of back and forth between doctors, more visits to the clinic and to the hospital, and prescriptions for antibiotics and pain relievers. The clinic doctor thought it might be deep vein thrombosis or an infection, the doctor at the hospital thought it might be gout but gave him antibiotics anyway. Still, the redness began to spread above his knee and he was getting increasingly worried.
Finally, a week later and again on a Friday, I joined him at the hospital after yet another unsatisfying visit with the doctor on call. This one had told him to take more of the same antibiotics and go home and rest, with instructions to come back and see a specialist 6 days later. With the infection spreading northward, we didn’t much like those instructions. So I decided to be a pushy American and I called the clinic to enlist their help. They were initially hesitant because the doctor who had seen Mark the day before wasn’t there that day, but soon agreed to have another doctor call and speak to the one who had just examined Mark. It turned out she was able to speak directly to the infectious disease specialist at the hospital who agreed to see Mark that same afternoon.
What followed was one of those astonishing only-in-Japan episodes. We walked back over to the walk-in clinic, where we had been told to go and make an appointment. The nurse met us in the hallway and asked, “Green-san?” (pretty obvious who the non-Japanese people are!) It was 11:30 am and she told us that the doctor could see Mark after 1:00 pm, so we should have lunch and come back then. We assumed we’d have to wait an hour or two after our return to see the doctor. Mark saw her at 1:05.
Here’s what she said, and what seems most likely:
The infection is most likely caused by streptococcus bacteria, probably from the sore throat. The initial dosage of antibiotics they gave him was the Japanese dose, and since he is so tall (!) and weighs more than 60 kilos (132 pounds) (!), they should have given him DOUBLE that dosage. She recommended treating it with intravenous antibiotics for several days.
Mark returned to the hospital every day for 8 days to get his IV. The doctor popped in to see him on several visits. He was impressed with how thoughtful, patient and attentive she was. And we were both humbled by her continued apologies for her poor English—which was, of course excellent—since we are both incapable of even basic communication in the language of our host country!
Many people I spoke to about this drama gave me dire warnings about the poor state of medical care in Japan. They offered up their favorite specialists or suggested we consider going abroad. In the end, though, I think that Mark got better care here than he would have in the U.S. After the initial confusion, he certainly got more attention. And the cost of the visits to the hospital were shockingly low: one day he saw two separate doctors and had the IV administered, and the total bill was about $60. That’s the total bill, without Japanese health insurance. That’s the amount we’ll submit to our insurance company for payment. Clearly, we’ve got something really wrong with our system.
And the taxes?
Well, that’s what I got to tend to as soon as Mark was back on his feet. Round One of the big, ugly task of filing taxes for two separate countries. Yes, we do have an accountant to help us. But that never seems to be much of a help for me, as you still have to track down all the relevant data and put it in order. The first part involved figuring out the sum total of all the money that we transferred into Japan from foreign sources. Sounds simple enough, until you realize that this includes items paid for in Japan from a credit card that was paid for out of a non-Japanese bank account. And this is how we pay for a large portion of our expenses here. Fortunately, I had remembered this part from last year. And so I had been pretty vigilant about separating our Yen and U.S. Dollar charges on separate credit cards. And I have all of that data conveniently stored in Quicken. But then I read on to the part where it asked for the total in yen. And all my data was in dollars. And the exchange rate dropped rather dramatically during the year. Good grief.
Thank goodness for Excel and for all my years of experience with historical rate tables and lookup functions!
Am I Avoiding This Blog? February 22, 2007
Posted by Kristen in Food, Gripes.3 comments
I sat down tonight at 9:00 pm, determined to write something interesting and witty. I have all kinds of interesting stories in my head that I would like to share and remember. Instead, I started looking at my email and then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to decide whether I should buy Cheerios from the Foreign Buyers’ Club for $10 a box or $85 a case, plus shipping and customs. Although Isabella would love to have them (and they’re much healthier than the Rice Krispies we can find here), I just couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. But why did I spend 45 minutes making that decision? And why can’t I seem to get myself to write in this blog again? Am I avoiding it?
It’s true that it takes a lot of time to write well about something interesting. And it’s true that I have very little free time after the children are in bed. It’s also true that I want to make more progress in learning Japanese and so I have spent more time studying in the evenings. And yet, I wonder . . . . is there some reason why I continue to put writing at the bottom of my list of priorities? Do I resist telling my stories because they aren’t good enough, or I can’t tell them all, or I’d rather not acknowledge that my life is still, quite often, very ordinary?
My latest justification is that since I stopped writing for such a long time, everyone stopped reading. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter now whether or not I add new entries. So if there’s anyone out there who is still looking at this, then speak up and tell me to get back to work!
Ranting December 13, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Food, Gripes, Language.3 comments
Can I just say how much I don’t want to have my Japanese lesson today? It’s hard and confusing and I never have any time to study. My teacher will come in and ask me some question in Japanese about something we did 2 days ago and I will have no idea what she’s talking about. Then she’ll teach me a new word and I’ll forget it immediately. Then I’ll go out into the city and try to use some word or phrase I was supposed to have learned and get it all wrong.
Yesterday I went to the bakery to buy 8 small rolls. Counting things in Japanese is complicated, because you don’t use regular numbers. There are special counters for things, and the type of counter you use depends upon the type of thing. Suddenly I realized that I’ve used the counter for 1 (hitotsu) and 2 (futatsu) many times, but I completely forgot the counter for 8. I stood silently for a few seconds, then finally gave up and held up 8 fingers. The helpful saleswoman said, “eight?”. Now I can be incompetent in 2 languages.
I ordered a pizza online last night. I felt very proud of myself because I did something different this time: instead of a plain pizza with the same toppings, I planned to order one of their special pizzas. I found the one I wanted on the menu and read the name in katakana: Domino’s veggie. I clicked on the picture and read the ingredients in katakana. I selected the pizza, then went on to complete the order. I didn’t bother to read the finished order when the confirmation screen came up because it’s and effort to read Japanese and it didn’t seem necessary. Oops. When the pizza arrived, it was a pizza Margherita, a plain pizza with additional fresh tomatoes and basil. Not what I had my heart set on. (But as I said to Isabella, it could have been worse: we could have ended up with sea urchin pizza!).
I want to order pizza from Lombardi’s on Spring Street, or from Two Boots Pizza. In English. I want Chinese from Buddha House, Indian from the place on Bleecker Street. I want to pick up a roast chicken for dinner from Gourmet Garage. I want a good bagel. I want decaffeinated coffee. I want my Netflix movies back. I want to have time to watch a movie again.
I think fatigue is beginning to set in.
Catching up October 22, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Gripes, Kids, Tokyo Adventures.add a comment
I have found it a challenge to keep up with this journal, though I very much want to. While Juliet and Mark snooze and Isabella watches High School Musical for the 8th time, I thought I’d breeze through a quick summary.
Last weekend was Isabella’s birthday. Mark had to go to New York on business the week before but was able to return Friday night in order to be here the whole day. The day started out with a bang as we experienced our first earthquake. Mark, jet-lagged, had been up for 2 hours and Isabella, excited for the big day, was up with him. I was still asleep at 6:30 am when I felt the bed shake. At first I thought it was Isabella coming to ask if she could open presents, but soon I realized she could not move the bed like that. The bed rocked back and forth as though moved by invisible hands as I gradually awoke, puzzled. It was hard to tell how long it went on, perhaps 2 minutes. It was a very strange sensation, but not frightening. I was glad to have been half-awake; Mark and Isabella were a little more worried, I think. And then it was over. Nothing rattled, nothing broken. It was a reminder that we need to get our earthquake kit in order.
We celebrated the birthday at the American club, with swimmng and bowling. We went elsewhere for dinner: Isabella’s favorite, kaiten sushi. At this kind of sushi restaurant, plates are placed on a conveyor belt that rolls continually by the tables. You just pick up what you want as it goes by (the plates are color-coded by price). As you can see, Isabella enjoyed her dinner very much! 
Juliet’s favorite part of the dinner was feeding her tamago (egg) sushi to Mommy.
The following week was another busy one, as always. Tuesday I had my first Japanese lesson and then headed off to the American Club for my first workout in nearly 2 months. I was so pleased to be exercising again and even managed to make a decent dinner on Tuesday night, mushroom ravioli with a shiitake-cream sauce. But then on Wednesday morning I woke up completely exhausted and feeling thoroughly sick. I spent most of the next 2 days in bed. Luckily, Noriko was here to help me out during the day. Thursday evening Mark had a late phone conference with New York and didn’t get home until 11 pm. Then he had to pack for his business trip to Beijing the next day. He awoke at 5:30 am on Friday morning to catch the bus to the airport. I felt somewhat better on Friday and was able to stagger through the day alone with Juliet, as Noriko has another job on Fridays (Mondays, too). My new rice cooker and some frozen chicken meatballs got us through the evening.
Mark returned Saturday afternoon. Now I’ve had a day to recover and feel almost back to normal. Do I dare try to work out again? Of course the longer I put it off, the more likely I am to get sick. It’s a tricky thing, getting back into shape when you’re overtired and (dare I say it?) on the far side of 40.
Today was another adventurous day. We all piled into a taxi and headed off to a big department store to try to do some home shopping together. We came home with a fancy lunchbox set for Isabella (they’re really quite elaborate here–now I’m going to have to learn how to pack Japanese lunches!), a nice pair of chopsticks for each of us, and some exercise equipment. We were able to get a set of weights and a sort of simple stepmaster-thing and will have them delivered next week. Then, for a treat, we added on a new espresso machine. We can’t wait to try it out! As much as I love regular coffee, I’ve found that nothing beats the punch or speed of a good strong cup of espresso when you’ve got a one-year-old to chase around!
Furniture in Translation October 11, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Food, Gripes, Kids, Language, Tokyo Adventures.add a comment
When I woke up this morning, the day ahead seemed relatively simple and manageable. The plan was this: in the morning, the furniture rental company would come to pick up our rental furniture; in the afternoon, our new furniture would be delivered. As I had already braved Ikea on my own last week, and had all of that furniture safely delivered yesterday (well, all I was able to buy–but that’s still a story for another time), I thought this would be very easy.
I had asked Noriko to come at 9:00 so that I could be sure she would be here when the rental guys came. Once she arrived, I finished up the task of stripping the beds and cleaning off the tables. The guys finally arrived around 10:00. The removal took a little longer than I had anticipated but went smoothly. They were helpful and accommodating when I asked them to move the TV from the living room into the den (it’s their TV, but we’re keeping it for awhile longer). At 11:30 they were gone. The furniture delivery was supposed to come between 1:00 and 3:00, so I decided to go out for lunch and do some errands. As Isabella’s birthday is coming up, I had to buy cake making ingredients and supplies (cupcakes to bring to school tomorrow, and a cake for the family celebration). After a quick sushi lunch, I managed to find everything I needed for the cake. Granted, the cake pans cost $9 each, but I was happy to find them. I had better luck with the plastic boxes in which to transport the cupcakes, which I found at the 100 yen store–which means they cost 100 yen apiece, around 85 cents. I got home right at 1:00. The furniture delivery team from IDC arrived at around 2:00. Consistent with the high level of service in Japan generally, and with this rather upscale store in particular, the salesman who had helped us came along to oversee the delivery. It seemed like overkill at the time, but I soon found out that it was a very good thing.
After they rang the doorbell and I let them into the building, it took quite some time before they came up to the door. I wondered if they were moving the truck or something. When they finally arrived, the salesman told me that they were here to deliver the furniture but that there was a problem. Apparently, they were greeted at the front door by the superintendent who informed them that they would have to put up protection on all of the walls, including the stairwell and elevator, before they could move any furniture. And, apparently, this was very unusual and they were not prepared for it. The super had told them that if they could not do it, they would have to come back another day. Now if you’ve been following the story carefully, you’ll realize that we had no furniture at all in the apartment at this point.
Our helpful salesman told me that he would do everything possible to deliver the furniture and suggested that I come with him to the building office to talk to the super. What followed was about 45 minutes of me listening to people talk to each other very politely and with strained smiles on their faces, after which I would be informed by Mr. Salesman that they still said no. The main office was called. The man authorized to make the decision was in a meeting and we were told to wait 20 minutes to speak to him. Mr. Salesman politely said no, they should call him out of the meeting to talk to us (at least that’s what he told me he said). Then Mr. Super decided to come and look at the truck and see the furniture to be moved. The verdict at this point was no, it could not be moved without required protection. At this point I explained that I had a child to pick up from school in an hour and a half, after which I would have to sit them down to dinner somewhere and put them to bed, all of which would be very difficult without furniture! Finally Mr. Guy-in-Charge was out of his meeting and called Mr. Super and everyone spoke to him, except that Mr. Super wouldn’t let me speak to him. This was very frustrating, as Mr. Guy-in-Charge turned out to be the real estate agent who had showed us the apartment and who has been our main contact on all apartment issues. In short, he’s the one person I could have actually asked for help. But finally, for a reason that was never clear to me, Mr. Super decided that they could move the furniture if they were very careful and if he supervised to make sure they didn’t scratch the walls.
At this point, I came back up to the apartment to see how Noriko and Juliet were doing. Juliet was in bed, and Noriko had decided to help out by starting to put together Isabella’s new dresser from Ikea. A truly kind and thoughtful gesture, really, but now this meant that we were committed to finishing the project today. Now Ikea furniture is relatively straightforward to assemble, but it is not trivial. You really need to have 2 people (thanks for the tip, Caryl!) to fit some of the pieces together. It went fairly smoothly until we got to the point where you were supposed to put the back on. Step 1, nail in top left corner of back piece. Step 2, nail in top right. Step 3, nail in bottom left and right. Step 4, nail in the rest of the 30 nails provided.
In spite of the 30 nails (and managing to only poke one through to the inside of the drawer), we were nearly finished by 4:00, time to leave and pick up Isabella. I asked Noriko to go and stayed to finish the dresser. Juliet, thankfully, continued to sleep. The lovely furniture from IDC was progressing nicely. Finally, the day was winding down. At around 5:00, all the new furniture was in place, Isabella was home and Juliet up. The only problem at this point was that I had never managed to get anything simple to make for dinner. Then a brilliant idea struck me–why not have Noriko help me order a pizza?
They have Domino’s and Pizza Hut here; the only problem, of course, is that you need to be able to actually communicate to the person on the phone if you want to order a pizza. Therefore, we had not tried this before. I didn’t have any menus, having thrown them all away because I couldn’t read them. So I decided to go on the internet. You can follow along on my journey at http://www.dominos.jp/ . When I saw the website, I got the idea that I could create a web account so that I could order by myself in the future. Okay, if you’re following along with me, you probably see that this is a ridiculous idea. But if you’d had the day I had, you’d understand my desperation! With Noriko’s help, I got as far as entering in all my personal informatin (including, for some reason, my gender and birthdate). But when I tried to click on the button to create the account, I got an error. It seems you have to type your name in Katakana, one of the 3 Japanese scripts. I guess I was getting a wee bit obsessed at this point, because I decided to try to figure out how to do this on my computer. I thought maybe I could enter the text in Word and then cut and paste. I checked Help for Word, which then led me to Microsoft Office help on the web, and on and on. I found that support for Asian languages in installed by default in Windows XP, and even managed to get a little drop-down menu on my toolbar. But even when I set it to Japanese, nothing happened. Alas, I was foiled. No web account today.
In the end, Noriko called in my order. We got a large pizza with sausage and mushrooms, for about $20.50. I guess those stories about the price of pizza in Japan are at least partly true. But on the positive side, you don’t tip here. And the happy ending is that they now have our name and address in their computer and can retrieve it with our phone number. We also learned that there is usually someone there who speaks English and that if we speak slowly, they may be able to take our order. This is a major breakthrough in dining convenience! And the pizza, despite the very strange-looking yellow cheese, was very good. The crust was definitely superior to Domino’s in New York.
Now if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll recall the bit about the cupcakes above. Ah yes, the cupcakes. For tomorrow at school. Once Juliet was in bed, Isabella and I had cupcakes to bake. At least here, I had the sense to take a reasonable shortcut: I bought a Duncan Hines cake mix at National Azabu, the international supermarket down the street. Now, finally, the cupcakes are baked and cooled and merely await topping with the violet-colored buttercream frosting we made. (Yes, they have food coloring here–but it is a powder. We opened the little boxes to take out the little bottles and found tiny spoons. You dip the tiny spoon into the powder and dump it into your food, trying not to get it all over your clothes in the process. Thank goodness Isabella had the idea for us to put on aprons!)
And now at long last, I will put the sheets on my new bed and then sit down for a few minutes on some of our very comfy new furniture. The new day will start too early once again, and I have cupcakes to deliver.
