Kampo...my new fascination

Last week when I was out to dinner with a handful of Japanese doctors and Pittsburgh's Dr. South-Paul and her husband, I met Yoshinaga sensei, a Kampo medicine doctor. I didn't know much about the Kampo branch of medicine, so I asked him if he'd be okay with me shadowing him at the hospital to better understand traditional Japanese medicine. He seemed excited enough about the idea and we arranged to meet up today after lunch.

So! At 1:30 I walked into the Kampo office ready to learn. He began by showing me their display of numerous herbs and dried....things. I barely recognized any of them and asked him what almost all of them were. He then started explaining "Kampo for dummies". From what I understand, Kampo is derived from traditional Chinese medicine and it's method of curing disease is via the use of natural herbs and remedies. It's practice is the balance of ying and yang, hot and cold, and ki (composed of ki, ketsu and sui, vital energy, blood and water).

Ying and Yang depict the two different reactions the body has to disease; hot/heat/hyperfunction or cold/chilld/hypofunction. A disease is diagnosed partially based on if the patient presents with a ying or yang condition. Ki is the universal energy that exists in the world and Kampo works to harmonize ki within the body. Disease then, is abnormal quantities or locations of ki. Ki, ketsu and Sui are similar to the "neuro-immuno-endocrine" triangle of western medicine.

There is also an aspect to Kampo which I find very interesting and different from western medicine. And it is the idea that ki, the basic element of life that supports life's mental and physical aspects, connects mind and body. Thus, Kampo philosophy regards body and mind as inseparable and they are diagnosed and treated together.

Diagnosis is complicated, but involves 3 different "check points". 1. Measuring heart rate/strength at the wrist, 2. Abdominal palpation and 3. Checking out the tongue (who knew it had so much to say?). I was allowed to watch the doctors during their rounds today and I have to say I am very intrigued at the philosophy and application of Kampo medicine and am certainly eager to learn more. They even let me borrow two books on Kampo medicine so I can do some reading for myself. They let me visit the downstairs pharmacy where they do all of their brewing...I mean herbal mixing (it smelt like Christmas in there because of all the cinnamon and cloves etc, amazing) and they even let me try some of a candy like gummy that they made by mixing a few ingredients (yummy!).

I also had to ask while I had the chance. "Okay....I am constantly exhausted but western medicine blood tests tell me nothing is abnormal and I should be feeling fine. What does Kampo medicine say?"
Let's just say I've never had so many people look at my tongue and react so intensely before. I've been told that my "ki" is imbalanced because I have a spotty tongue and I have a weak pulse. I was given a tester of kampo medicine tea that should have me feeling better in no time. Trying it first thing tomorrow morning with breakfast.

Really excited about this one!

sushi picture = mandatory

High Care Unit

The high care unit....is....nuts.

It's very different from the wards I've become accustomed to over the last 4 months. It's one big room split down the middle and on either side, there are 13 patients. This means 26 patients, 26 beeping heart rate monitors, 26 beds to be made, 26 stations to be restocked and 26 people in intensive care to look after. Not to mention the nursing staff, nurse aid staff and handfuls of doctors always running about.

It. is. nuts.

As a result, this week has been more of a game of Olivia vs. Nurse dodgeball game as I try to help where I can but also get my butt out of the way. It has been lovely though. The nurse aid staff are all hilarious and they've been teaching me Japanese slang. It is SO fun! Everyone thinks its really funny when I say it in general conversation too. It's been great. My favourite one is "Chyo ka-KEHH" (chee-yoh ka keh) which is a slang way of saying "kakoi" which is similar to calling someone cool. 

No wonder I didn't understand what anyone says here, it's all slang and half of it doesn't even mean anything!

This week, the Iizuka hospital also had a visit from Dr. South-Paul, Medical Director of the Community Health Services Division and Chair of the department of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. I attended a lecture she lead about onset, symptoms and treatment plans of Dementia at the Iizuka Hospital as well as participated in a small conference at the Kaita Hospital lead by Kinjo sensei about alcohol dependance. She was a pleasure to meet and certainly an inspiration. The Japanese doctors referred to her as "a powerful and aggressive woman", but she was nothing but smiles. We were even invited out to dinner with her and a bunch of Iizuka/Kaita hospital doctors! At dinner, I also successfully managed to get the entire group to chant "eye of the tiger" before taking a group picture...not really sure why though.

but clapping to and singing "eye of the tiger" with Japanese doctors and International guest doesn't need justification.

Weekend at Mount Mimata

This weekend, myself, Ken and a hand full of hospital staff members lead by oral surgeon Nakamatsu sensei laced up our hiking boots ready to tackle Mimata yama, a 1745m tall beasty of a mountain in Oita prefecture.

The trip started early Saturday morning at 7 am with our bags full of snacks, sports drinks and hiking gear. I may or may not have slept the whole way there in the car. What? Nakamatsu sensei played the most lullaby-ish classical music ever...I couldn`t help it! As soon as we arrived at the hotel at the base of the mountain, we started our climb, no time to check in! The climb itself, from a total mountain climbing nooby perspective, wasn't so bad. It had it's rough patches that felt like a 90 degree incline, but most of the trip upwards caused only my entire lower body to feel like it was on fire.

After a few short water breaks, we made it to the top of the mountain after roughly 3.5 hours of climbing. Actually, we made it to the "top", where Nakamatsu sensei decided we would stop because a few members of the group were tired. But Ken and I couldn't be stopped! We continued up for another 25 minutes to make it to the peak of the mountain while the others rested and enjoyed lunch. We're a little too legit to quit. Besides, when will I be back in Oita to climb Mount Mimata, amiright?

  

The hotel sported a wonderful outdoor onsen that we took full advantage of after our decent back down the mountain. My wobbly and sore muscles couldn't have been happier. After the onsen, I ate one of the most amazing Japanese meals since arriving here. We were all dressed in yukata and we enjoyed a traditional style Japanese meal together. The food seemed to just keep coming! That's the thing with Japanese food...there will always....always be more. I somehow keep forgetting this and fill myself before the entire meal is even served!


After dinner, we were fortunate enough to listen to a live concert composed of Nakamatsu sensei on the piano, Tamura san on violin and Ken on guitar. They rocked it! They played a variety of songs, each being equally amazing as the one before. I really and truly enjoyed hearing the violin live, it was an absolute pleasure. It also made me feel like I was missing something in life because I don't play an instrument. Thanks for the inspiration to take lessons when I'm home guys! :)

Sunday morning we went for a walk around Oike park and took in some excellent nature sights including this lovely waterfall! I wanted to swim, but after feeling the icy temperatures I opted for just up to the ankles. :)

I left Oita with a (ridiculously) full stomach, jello legs and a serious new appreciation for the violin. I had a weekend I am not soon going to forget. Best memory: After listening to Nakamatsu sensei playing piano like a boss, (including him playing our requests of Harry Potter, Josh Groban and various other songs without any sheet music) and after he pointed out various stars to me and simply demonstrating his knowledge of all the things I asked him "Seriously Nakamatsu sensei...is there anything you don't know?!" To which he replied, after a little consideration: "...Swahili."

ALSO - this just in! A HUUUUUUUGE thing has happened! The other day, I made a trip to TRIAL, the love of my life (which I actually haven't seen for weeks, oops) and it has COMPLETELY CHANGED! They've renovated the entire place and it's barely recognizable anymore! They now have a lovely bakery section (danger, DANGER - pizza slices for a dollar and WHOLE WHEAT BREAD, revelation) and a huuuuuge freezer section as well (can you say cheap matcha green ice Häagen-Dazs icecream will be the death of me?). And I was JUST about to make a video blog about all of the wonderful things that is Trial...annnnnnnd now I can't because I don't know where anything is anymore. It also just isn't the same anymore...it's changed and I don't know if we'll be able to get through this.

Harumph!

What AMAZING surprises!

Friday was a day of surprises!

It was my last day on the East 8th floor, after 4 weeks! I can't believe it! So as usual, I prepared a small leaving gift for the nursing staff as a thank you for putting up with me (wish I was kidding). I'm sure I made up for my daily ignorance with this chocolate, chocolate chip, chocolate icing feel your heart stopping wonder of a cake. But, much to my surprise, I received a few excellent gifts of my own! Mizota san, one of the nurse aids that I worked with everyday, made me a bento lunch and brought it to work for me (maybe I talked about food too much?), a patient gave me some Japanese sweets and the nursing staff brought me out an amazing....amaaaaazing card that they'd all made and signed! It's hilarious! My new goal is to learn enough Japanese to be able to read all of the comments. :) I am so happy to have had the opportunity to work with such wonderful people these past four weeks. I will certainly miss them a lot. I plan on having dinner with Shinga san, the head nurse, sometime soon :).

I certainly will not be forgetting any of you any time soon! Thank you!

And on TOP of all of this wonderfulness, as I'm leaving work I notice a package with my name on it! Oh my goodness it's from Daniella back home!! YAY! Annnnnd I opened it to this marvelous display of excellent treats and goodies! These people know me too well - look at all the peanut butter! Girl, you are something special!! Thank youuuuuu!! You put a huge smile on my face and a reminder of my friends and family back home. Miss you.

I shouldn't feel bad that most of it is already gone....right?

Nah. A full tummy is a happy tummy.

Oisa, oisa, oisa!! Yamakasa festival!

I've found that I am becoming more and more intent on seeing as many things in Japan as I possibly can before I head home in just over 6 weeks (yikes!). So..how could I pass up watching half naked men carrying 1 ton floats through the streets of Fukuoka at 5 oclock in the morning for Hakata Gion Yamakasa?? Totally wasn't going to miss that!

Check out this link for some quick info about the Gion Yamakasa festival held in Fukuoka each July. 

Lazy blogger moment much? http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/spot/festival/hakatagionyamakasa.html. 

Meh, I am what I am.

The festival.was.BRILLIANT! I was super fortunate to be able to stay Sunday night in Fukuoka at Ken's friends house to be able to make it on time for the bright and early start time of the festival. We rode our bikes to avoid the busy bus/public transit of the day and arrived in Hakata Gion area just after 5am. The streets were packed with people watching men heave and shove huge floats down the streets of Fukuoka. They also had countless buckets and hoses at the ready to throw water on the participants to keep them cool (good idea, considering it was already a staggering 27 degrees with 84% humidity at 5:15am). Another essential and exciting part of the festival is the encouragement chant of "Oisa!" that they scream to each other to keep up their energy and work together as a team unit to push, pull and carry the enormous floats. 

Oisa, Oisa, Oisa!!

So....at 7:40 am, when things were dying down (amazing) we rode our tired selves to Ohori park for a nap on a bench. Best nap I've ever had. Woke up at 8:50 ready to take the day by storm!

And if I thought that seeing this festival once wasn't enough, there was another one running in Iizuka city later that day. Why NOT go? This one was quite a bit easier to get a good view and participate in the water throwing!

Plus, who doesn't enjoy the view of the men queuing up for their run? (Am I right, or am I right?)

Okay...it was a little strange.

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks at the Yahoo! Dome. Finally!

YES! 

I finallllllly made it to the Yahoo! Dome in Fukuoka city to watch a Fukuoka Softbank Hawks baseball game!! Myself, Samantha, Ken and 5 other hospital staff members made our way there together on Sunday July 14th for an absolutely AMAZING time. Most of the excitement came from Sumiyoshi san, who is a very dedicated Softbank Hawks fan and becomes rowdy after a few asahi. The baseball games here very similar to the Jays I'm used to at home...except the food of course. I enjoyed some takoyaki, small grilled balls of dough with octopus inside (YUM), while taking in this wonderful display of athletic ability. I particularly liked the encouraging chants that the crowd screams for each player AND, the best part, the releasing of balloons at the 5th inning! 

Here's a video of the balloons. My apologies for the shakes, I was trying to film and wave my towel at the same time with little success.

The ending of the game was super stressful as the opposing team scored two bases at the top of the final inning to bring the score to a tie (here I was thinking we'd win early and not have to play the bottom of the ninth). But in the end the young rookie on the team smashed an excellent shot to bring home a runner in the bottom of the ninth. We went nuts! There were fireworks at the end as well. Amazing! Even better was that their track record with this team was something like 1 win to 5 losses? So getting the win felt even better!

missin' my T.O Blue Jays big time, but now certainly a FSH fan as well.

The biology freak in me needs to say "No...not a Follicle Stimulating Hormone fan, a Fukuoka Softbank Hawks fan".

Yukata, the summer kimono

The other day, Yukari, an operation room nurse who I've become good friends with, and I went to a shopping mall in Iizuka called AEON to try our luck finding me a Yukata. Yukata are casual summer kimono and are commonly worn in the hotter months starting around July. They are also worn to o-matsuri, festivals, and to ochakai, traditional tea ceremonies. Alas, I have been invited to a tea ceremony this Monday, July 15th and to a fireworks festival in August, so a yukata is in order!
We managed to find an amazing deal and I purchased a beautiful yukata and obi set. Usually the yukata and obi are accompanied by sandals called geta, a small fan and a small purse. But together all of those things came a little over my budget so I landed on just the yukata and the obi. Actually, Yukari and I went nuts at the 100 yen shop and I added a hair flower and a belt to my outfit for super cheap!

Check us out! Yukari even taught me how to wear the yukata and to tie the obi all by myself! :) It's not as easy as it looks. Just another thing that makes Japanese people amazing. I'm looking more Japanese by the day! I can't even tell myself apart from Japanese women anymore.

 Seriously.

Kaita byouin

Kaita hospital has quickly become the place I look forward to visiting again. Starting in July, I take a short bus ride (and enjoy the gorgeous view of the Japanese countryside) to the Kaita hospital to volunteer. The Kaita hospital specializes in home care, rehabilitation, long term care and has a brand new (and very busy!) dialysis center. My schedule for the next weeks varies and I work in a different ward each week, but, half of the day is spent accompanying doctors on home visits. And it has been a wonderful and very different experience.

Home visits are so very different than working in a hospital. It's really nice to see the patients families and, when in their own environment, how different the patients interact with doctors and receive medical care. Upon entering the home, we are greeted warmly ("err......who's the blonde you brought with you?") and we sit on the floor together and talk to the patient and work a check up. Did I mention treats? Japanese culture obsesses over tea and o-miyage (o-miyage are small souvenirs from around the country that are usually in treat form like little chocolates, cakes, cookies or rice crackers) and I certainly don't ever have a problem with getting offered some tasty snackies on the house. :)

This Thursday was the greatest. I went along with Yoshida sensei to visit 5 different patients. His English is excellent and he was happy to answer all of my questions and interests about patient conditions, treatment plans and his likes/dislikes about home care medical practice in Japan. He taught me so much and I was very grateful to work with him. I also met some absolutely wonderful patients! Including a man who, when told I came from Canada, asked "did you swim here?". He has an excellent sense of humor. We joked about my height (I'm big in Japan) and that I'm not from Kanada, Tagawa-shi, Fukuoka, Japan (it exists! - the high school is relatively close to the Kaita hospital, check it out!).

 I now tell people that "I'm from Canada. Not the country north of America, but the one in Tagawa-shi. I'm Japanese.......just kiddinggggg." Always gets a laugh.

 In the afternoon, I worked in the busy, crazy, did I say busy? dialysis center. It was mayhem in there! So many people moving in and out, but at the same time it was SO wonderfully organized. Those Japanese and their amazing ability to do all the things. I helped to prepare beds for new patients and bring patients back to their rooms following their treatment. I spent excellent time with the nursing staff and we sang One Direction songs together. One Direction..or in Japanese "One D" is another obsession in Japan that I will probably never understand. No matter who you are; man, woman, child, grandparent, nurse, doctor, whoever...you like One D.

I was also introduced to a patient at the Kaita hospital who learned English while he was living in America 50 years ago (and still hasn't forgotten - that smart cookie). We listened to the Carpenters together and I traded him a Canadian flag for a solar powered waving flower....what a steal! We look forward to seeing each other every Thursday to exchange words and laughs.

Kaita Hospital, her nurses, doctors, patients and staff are simply a wonder to work with. I left Thursday with a huge smile on my face and thinking about going back next week already.

The fact that Yoshida sensei took us to sushi at Ichitaro (my new favourite place on planet earth) isn't the reason at all for my new found love for Kaita.....

but it helps.

"Did you swim here?"

The San Francisco of Japan...my weekend in Nagasaki.

Last Friday I kick started my weekend about 2.5 hours south of Iizuka by racing to catch a JR train at shin-Iizuka station right after work. I made it to Hakata station for my highway bus to Nagasaki with just enough time to work out my reservation in Japanese, find my bus terminal and buy myself a grilled sweet potato for the road. I pulled out of the station with a happy belly and a new sense of accomplishment: "figure out travel plans in a foreign language" is now checked off my bucket list.

Upon arriving in Nagasaki around 9pm I was a little over excited about climbing Mount Inasa so headed off on a bus towards the cable car entrance. Turns out it was closed due to the windy weather and I wasn't going to attempt the walk up in that darkness. So I walked my sad self back to Nagasaki station through the rain "WHY...didn't I just take the bus? I am lost." to meet two other volunteers Lucy and Chloe who were returning from Tokyo.


I spent an absolutely wonderful weekend with the girls walking all of the places in Nagasaki. We spent Saturday shopping in Cocowalk shopping center, eating delicious fast food udon, taking purikura pictures (no surprise there, I love these things!) and making our way over to China town area for more shopping and walking. I fell in love with the city that day: it had me at street cars and houses on the hills. The temperature, being an almost unbearable 35 degrees with 97% humidity, made it feel more like I was swimming through the streets as opposed to walking.

Sunday Chloe and I made the short walk to visit the atomic bomb hypocenter of the city, the exact location of where the atomic bomb exploded August 9th 1945. It was a very sobering experience to look upon the tall black monument standing in the middle of an open area in the exact location of the bomb detonation that brought so much destruction to the city of Nagasaki almost 70 years ago. Beside it stands a portion of the Urakami cathedral that wasn't destroyed in the blast. After this, we visited the Peace Park, full of statues, monuments and an incredible fountain dedicated to Peace between nations. It was a really lovely place full of folded paper cranes of all colours and sizes.

Sunday was also the day we went to the Nagasaki harbor to watch the boats while sipping on some chu hi in the summer sun. The girls them took me to an "Irish" pub/restaurant called Shanna Golden run by an American man who has lived in Japan for 25 years. He was super nice and actually ordered me Chanpon, a Chinese inspired dish famous in Nagasaki, from a different restaurant and had it delivered to his because I'd asked him for a chanpon place recommendation. How amazing! The Chanpon was delicious and I only felt slightly awkward for eating it in his restaurant. Thank so much Chris, I won`t be forgetting you any time soon!!
At dusk, we took the cable car ride up to the top of Mount Inasa for one of the most spectacular night views in the world (Top 3 apparently!). Nagasaki shone so beautifully. It couldn`t have gotten much better than the 360 degree view of the city, mountains and ocean. I was in total awe and could have sat up there forever. Up there, we also met a Canadian traveler from Alberta! It was a great time to have a chat with another Canadian. Everyone I`ve met so far (playing our ``foreigner game``, guessing where foreigners are from and then asking to see if we were right) is from the States or from Europe. It was a fun time.

Monday was spent partly at the Atomic Bomb museum and walking around Nagasaki again until my bus back to Fukuoka at 5:45. Upon (finally) getting back to Iizuka at 10pm, my sunburned forehead, peanut and rice cake stuffed stomach and exhausted body are ready for some serious sleep. Good bye Nagasaki, I`ll really miss you. I`m sure we will meet again sometime in the future. :)

So much more to say. Trying to condense my blogs. So many more pictures!....

Oh wait - FOOD!

 Chanpon! om nom nommm

Surprise!

So today while I was taking a "bathroom break", aka taking a 6 minute power nap while pretending to use the washroom (no shame), I noticed something on the bathroom wall that worked better than single serving Japanese drip coffee to wake me up. A calendar. There hung July and August staring me in the face saying "This....see this? These are all of the days left that you have here in Japan. Remember their good friends March, April, May and June? No..? Well if you don't notice and appreciate July and August they'll just fly right by as well. So let's make the most of it for the next 8 weeks 5 days, okay, sunshine?"

Well..at least that's totally what the calendar would have said to me if it could talk.

Here's to making it the best 9 weeks in Japan.

Second surprise of the day...a lunch party on East 8! The nurses totally decked out the staff room in Canadian and Japanese flags, red and white balloons and various pictures from Canada in semi delayed Canada day/semi early Tanabata celebration! It was amazing! They invited me for an absolutely delicious meal and we had a great time while I showed them some pictures I brought from home. Oishikatta desu yo! We also shared a cup of tea generously given to me from a Kudamono san, Ms. Fruit. So kind!

3rd surprise: check out the Onga! Look at that, just a little bit of rain goes a long way in raising the water levels around here. They weren't kidding when they said to stay away from the river when it rains. Unfortunately I missed an opportunity to catch the Onga at the level where that van would have been swallowed. I'll try to catch it next time. It certainly is the rainy season in Japan!





4th surprise: I've decided to take a break from Fukuoka (it was becoming too clingy and I just wasn't ready for it to leave it's toothbrush at my place) and look for a change of scenery. This Friday I'm packing my things and heading off to Nagasaki for the weekend to visit and spend time with two other Lattitude volunteers Lucy and Chloe. :) It's going to be a really exciting time, I'm really looking forward to it.

5th surprise: I'm off to the Kaita Hospital tomorow! The Kaita hospital is a bus ride away from the Iizuka Hospital and from now on I'll be spending my Thursday's there. Starting tomorrow I'll be working ward activities during the morning hours and I'll be making a home visit in the afternoon. I'm excited to experience how home care is different from hospital care. Should be a great time.

6th surprise: blood types in Japan. From what I've noticed around the hospital...there aren't many patients who have negative blood types. Turns out Rh negative blood types are rare in Asian populations. Surprise. I wonder why? Check out these statistics from wikipedia: from left to right: Population, O+, A+, B+, AB+, O−, A−, B−, AB-.

Japan[32]	127,368,088	29.9%	39.8%	19.9%	9.9%	0.15%	0.2%	0.1%	0.05%

Canada[21]	34,300,083	39%	36%	7.6%	2.5%	7%	6%	1.4%	0.5%

This effectively makes me (O-) as an excellent donor (as O- is the universal donor and there's the higher need for negative type blood). But, since I can only receive O-, I'd also make an excellent anemic and probable dead person if I'm to get in an accident that causes any significant kind of blood loss. "Please be careful" says Hai sensei as we chat over a hepatectomy.

7th surprise: My rice cooker is my best friend.
There's no better combination than a lazy cook and her rice cooker. I made, (well...my rice cooker made, considering it did more work than I did) the greatest of meals today. Rice, green pepper, whole garlic cloves, onion, sweet potato, spinach and frozen salmon go in and a meal comes out, who knew? Seriously people try this with your rice cooker at home. It's the greatest thing that happened to me since getting my braces off in grade 10.

I'm so full.

woah, woah updates and CANADA DAY

Guess what's working again?! If you guessed my keyboard, sorry, you're only sortof right. Check it out! A new keyboard courtesy of the ASO Iizuka Hospital. I admit that this setup isn't exactly ideal...but hey, it works so I'm not going to complain. Thanks for doing me a serious solid guys. 

Working in the general surgery ward for the past week has already been so rewarding. The head nurse Shinga san really enjoys practicing her English with me and is certainly a pleasure to work with. The nursing staff are incredible and we've already enjoyed a (painful) pick up volleyball game together. They now know that I'm eager to learn and want to help wherever I can so they call "Olivia chhaaannnnn" down the hallways and I answer "Haiiiiiiii" (like, "I'm here!") and then send me off to bring a patient to have a CT scan or an ECHO done or to bring blood samples to the hospital lab. I've been kept very busy! The nurse aids Mizota san and Igeta san are two angels who deal with my "ummm I caught maybe 10% of what you just said" face very well and are patient and understanding with me. Usually I just follow them until they point to the thing they wanted me to do and I understand and say "ahhhhhhh. okay. Wakarimashita." I understand. Then we laugh. They also enjoy my really corny jokes. Well...that is if they're laughing with me and not at me, but to be honest I can't tell the difference so I'm going with they think I'm funny.

The greatest experience so far though has been the interactions I've had with some of the patients. First there's Miss Fruits, Kudamono san. I call her that because she's obsessed with fruit and likes to share with me (shh). We've shared an apple watching the Onga River as is rises during a heavy rain and yellow kiwi watching a New York Yankees baseball game. She is an absolute gem and I make all the excuses to visit her during my shift. Next there's Bear Valley, Kumagaya san. She once introduced herself to me as Bear Valley (the literal translation of her Japanese name) and it's stuck ever since. "Good morning Bear Valley!". It get's her every time. She enjoys speaking with me and we have wonderful chats together. She calls me her sunshine baby because I'm always smiling. All of the other patients in the ward are always smiling at me and saying hi. "Mr. Nakano san in room 812 wants to talk with you." say the nurses. He even took pictures of me with his wife the other day. I feel so connected to them despite not really being able to say much. I'm going to call this emotional connection the Japanese fever, and I've certainly caught it. Everyone here is so easy to connect with right away and I feel like we've been friends forever. It's been truly lovely getting to know the Japanese people and I find that making this connection is getting easier and easier the longer I stay here. 

Today, Canada day, was also a very fun and exciting day at the hospital. I decided to go super patriotic and sport all of the red and white that I owned. I went to work looking like a Canadian flag exploded and I caught the most of the blast. I was a little nervous showing up in the morning and asking the head nurse Shinga san......"is this okay?" but she loved it and said "yeah! It's fine!" I think the little Canadian pins I offered as a gift to the staff saying "today, we're all Canadians" won her over. It was excellent.  With another spot of luck, I ran into the Director of the Hospital, Tanaka incho sensei, and had a huge surprise visit from Aso san, the CEO of the ASO company and the ASO Iizuka hospital. I'm pretty sure he was lovin' my Canadian spirit. 

Today was also the first day of Tanabata, star festival held about Japan in July. So I spent a good part of the afternoon setting up a sasa tree, decorating it and writing wishes with patients to hang from the tree. :)

I can't wait for sushi tomorrow night with the doctors from English class.

All I think of is food? #sorrynotsorry

In light of the holiday, I had to post this wonderful gem of a commercial. Especially for all my Lattitude UK friends. :)

Happy Canada Day!!