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.