Yesterday was my first day on a new ward, Central 3rd Floor: Orthopedics, aka C3PO.
Ihara san, the head nurse, is really something else. She is so friendly and jokes around with everyone, always laughing and playing and sticking her tongue out at them. Her and I have already had our share of dance offs in the hallways as well :) :) Did I mention she has purple highlights? The woman is amazing.
Work here has been very interesting so far considering my passion for orthopedics. I've spent a fair amount of time looking at some pretty incredible before/after x-rays already and I'm really excited to watch some orthopedic surgeries!
The nursing staff are always shy at first, but I've been joking around so they've been loosening up a bit. The patients here are very well humored despite entire limbs bandaged and immobile. They are very grateful towards me when I help to do anything, they're very sweet. A patient's husband told me he hopes that I marry a Japanese man and another patient accidentally hit his leg on the bedside and said "Itai!" (Japanese "ouch")....*looks at me* "oh my goodness!" the whole room laughed, especially me. Another woman tried to force food on myself and a nurse after her daughter had brought it for her. "Please eat!! Please!!" I try to make as much non-verbal fun as I can in hopes that they'll remember me as the goofy Canadian girl that they loved so much.
Tonight, Yano san, Samantha, Ken and I were invited to the welcome party for the Japan Open Wheelchair Tennis Tournament that's held in Iizuka City! It's one of the biggest in Asia bringing in athletes from multiple countries around the world. Tonight's welcome party included an intro speech from the Mayor of Iizuka, delicious food, meeting and greeting with the tennis players and singing and drum playing by a class of the cutest Japanese children in the world. Check out the short video I took of them - amazing! They also sang a few songs together and shouted A-ri-ga-tou-go-zai-ma-shi-ta!! They were unbelievably adorable.
At the end of the party, it seemed like we'd barely touched the food they brought out for us! So...I pulled an Olivia Shea and asked if we could bring home the leftover food. They were more than happy to bring out containers and bags for us to pack it up. They even said we could fill up from other tables as well! So I took the opportunity, ran with it, and left the joint looking like this. Don't mind if I do!
No shame.
Weather status: Here comes the humidity...
Running status update: 35/100. 19 days until the marathon relay race. All of the shin pain.
Birthday shout outs to my brother (May 28) and to my dad (May 29). Happy Birthday!! Miss and love you both so much! I hope you both have wonderful days and that the Toronto sun will show is shiny face and warm things up a bit! xo
Saturday morning got started at a bright and early 8am when Yano san picked Samantha, Ken and I up from our apartments as we headed to a nearby park for the ASO Iizuka Hospital Sports Fun Day! At the park, there were a lot of tents set up around an inner ring or playing area that corresponded with each ward or section of the hospital. There were 20 different events to take place that day, ranging from running to 3 legged race to obstacle courses and big ball rolling. There was even a "get the bread off the string without using your hands" event! I picked two games to take part in that ended up being the same game twice without me realizing. My team of 5 players (the director of the hospital Tanaka incho ended up being one of the players too!) was to stand in a line and to link our feet together by tying them to two ropes on either side of us. We had to make our way like that as fast as we could to the finish. The first attempt just didn't work out. The team was uncoordinated to say the least and we dragged across the finish line at last place, yikes! The second time I pushed the team for "coordinated walking" instead. It worked out much better. :) I did manage to leave with bruises still though! For lunch we ordered in platter of things and ate buffet style, deeeeeelish. Then we played games with the big ball to amuse ourselves. We taught Yano san marco polo and we lifted two little Japanese girls on top of the ball. It was great fun. Oh! Also! The day began with a morning warm up - radio calistenics!! It was, as Samantha quite nicely put it, "the most surreal experience of my life". They play music over the radio and everyone does a series of warm ups/stretches together! It was AWESOME. I really wish we had this in Canada to start a workday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_calisthenics
Here's a video of one I found on youtube. It's the same one that we did - sorry about the noise.
It's also a really good thing the day started at 9am. It was BLAZING hot by 11:45 and didn't slow down until we left around 3pm. Luckily I brought my spf 85 with me and huddled in safety under the shadow of the tent. Yano san wasn't so lucky...
It was also nice that everyone got a prize at the end of the event, even if you came in last place. I walked away with two small prizes as a "thanks for being here" gift. :)
Sunday, Yano san and I went to a race event nearby to my apparment. Horse racing or dog racing or even car racing isn't so popular here in Japan, but motorcycle racing is!! It was honestly too much fun. When we walked in, they handed us a slip of paper with a chance to win a prize on the inside - turns out I got lucky and won! I don't care that it was just a free pen, it was the coolest Fukuoka Hawks pen I've ever seen and I love it.
So Yano san and I picked some seats and watched the races and laughed at the names of their bikes; "The Destroyer", "Goldilocks", "Lucille", "M Y self" and my favourite, "Fats". There was even a "Lynda"....she didn't win though despite our yelling encouragement, sorry Mom.
There was also a restaurant on site that produced cheap and delicious local food. They specialized in a particular dish....called hormone. Essentially it's a mixture of organ meats cooked into a sauce served over rice. Yano san let me try some of his and it was great (I have yet to find Japanese food that I don't like). I ordered the daily special, so much food!! I left there with a major food baby, but happy none the less and with very little room to spare for an obanyaki desert. Also! Yano san was approached by a camera crew who asked if he could be filmed eating his meal to promote it's popularity in Iizuka! Amazing! Too bad I hadn't ordered it, it could have been my break into Japanese fame!
On our way out of the stadium, there was a small performance/game being played on stage. When we went to check it out, they were in the "choose members of the audience to participate" portion and yours truly got picked to participate (I'm sure it had nothing to do with me sticking out like a sore thumb, being the only blonde one and all..). The game ended up being a toy game where you stick small swords into a barrel and if the pirate hops out, you were deducted. So I won that too! As a prize, I was given a Iizuka auto hand towel and the autograph of Murata senshu, one of the motorcyclists of that day! Waddaaapp!
Tomorrow I start on a new ward - Orthopedics on Central 3rd floor, neighbor to S3F where I just was. I made sure that if anyone from S3F was to pass by that they'd wave and say hi. :)
It's 8:30AM in Iizuka and the weather is standing at an astonishing 23 degrees with 70% humidity. As a Canadian who typically sees these kinds of temperatures in the never days of the dead middle of summer, I am certainly feeling the heat! But, I was definitely a sunflower in a past life and I am totally loving it! I wish I'd counted the number of times I said "atsui ne!" (Isn't it hot?!) today. Look out ladies and gents it's only May! Maybe I should pre order some spf 315 for the actual summer months before I turn into a burnt piece of French [Canadian] toast.
I realize this is sunset - but imagine that beast at midday! This was taken on my mini adventure around the unexplored areas of Iizuka. :)
So today was my last day on S3A....eh! It went by so quickly! But I'll never forget the hilarity of one of the nurse aids: my favourite was when she pointed to herself and said "old woman" and walked away with an imaginary cane and her back hunched over...."baiii". Or the other nurse aid who calls herself my older sister and yelled "IT'S MY FAVOURITE" when I asked her if she liked sushi. We got along just fine.
I'll also miss some of the patients who were staying here, especially a woman who always has her hair done in pigtails and who laughs at me as I dance in the hallway. She also pinches my waist and gives me high fives as she walks by. I've shared some great laughs with patients these past two weeks as I teach them English and apologize for my lack of ability to speak Japanese. They are all so very sweet though so I can't complain. :)
This afternoon there was a Japanese cultural festival at the nursing school that's associated with the hospital. Yano san joined Samantha and I for some really delicious and cheap eats, an informal tea ceremony (they were very impressed that I could sit on my heels) and more Shodou! This is also official: I love Shodou and I'm not afraid to say it! It's SO much more difficult than it looks and really takes serious concentration, artistic fineness freedom and control all at the same time. Plus the end results are excellent pieces of art that are beautiful in series like these (left). I like it so much despite the shodou sensei being the absolute cutest man in the entire world! I can tell he is thrilled to see that I am having a good time and want to spend more time practicing. Today I got to write the kanji for beauty: "bi" onto a huge sheet of paper with a massive brush! I had to wide step around the paper on the floor and crouch down to paint it. It was really fun :) I was admiring the work hanging around the room so much that one of the students offered to paint one for me! Its the same as the second from the right on the picture to the left. It's her series of two kanji. They even stamped it and framed it for me and everything! I'm so happy!
Uosumi sensi, the shodou teacher, is in the middle. The others are nursing staff :)
Oh well hey there stranger!
It feels like it's been so very very long since I last updated! Yikes, all of the sorries.
Let me give you the lowdown of some wonderful occurrences over the last couple of days.
First, the excuse for not writing. I caught myself one heck of a nasty head cold that decided to stick around for half of a week. It seemed passive, but ended up making me extremely sluggish at work and miss on a sushi dinner date (so not cool!). I'm slowly but surely working it off and feeling normal again.
Friday, the country manager for Lattitude Global Volunteering, Ide san, came to Iizuka to visit us! Unfortunately, she was just checking in and couldn't stay long. She had to go back home to Tokyo that night after being in Nagasaki the day before. Ide san is one busy woman! It was really nice to see her though.
Saturday I met up with my friend Taichi who came to visit from Osaka! He joined me, Samantha, Ken and a handful of other hospital employees along the Onga river for a BBQ. It was great. We played sports, talked, ate grilled meats and shared a few Asashi. It was quite a strange feeling to know I was eating lunch with ER doctors and cardiothoaracic surgeons. They're people too!
Sunday was also a very happy day. Yano san took us to Costco! There's nothing quite like Costco, especially on a free sample day! We tried various grilled meats, strange vegetables, seafood and macarons. I left the store with a bag of oatmeal (very difficult to find!), a bag of granola (already the 978g bag is almost gone, so delicious!) and a costco must purchase; mega ultra chcolate chocolate chip muffins! I can also honestly claim that this was the first time since I'd arrived that I had entirely forgotten I was in Japan. The place was exactly like it is at home...until I paid my yen to the wonderful Japanese speaking cashier.
After Costco, I went into Fukuoka city to visit with Taichi again before he left back to Osaka. It rained, but not on our parade. We did quite a bit of walking! I only just get a taste for the crazyness that is Tenjin shopping. I'll have to plan another 19 trips to maybe see it all.
Today, Samantha, Ken and I took a Shodou class at the hospital. Shodou is Japanese art of calligraphy using paintbrush (fude) and ink on thin mulberry paper (washi). We had to chance to make our own ink by grinding the inkstick (sumi) against the inkstone (suzuri). We only spent a couple minutes doing this before switching to pre-made ink because to produce proper ink takes about an hour. The class was excellent. There is so much more to the art of calligraphy than I'd previously thought. Shodou has links to Zen Buddhism and revolves very closely around meditation and finding zen while producing pieces of art. So much so, that the class is actually used as a therapeutic technique in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. We were told to hold the brush and paint. And to just let ourselves paint, to not over think Well...I don't know any Kanji (Chinese characters of the Japanese written language) anyways, so that worked out. Then we were asked to draw the Kanji for heart/mind/spirit; kokoro. The point was to paint with your heart and produce whatever it is that you produce. After I'd finished, the Shodou sensei took my paper away and said "Do it again. You didn't paint with your heart." Oops, guess I was trying too hard to sort out how to shape the strokes instead of allowing it to simply flow out onto the page. Regardless, it ended up being a really nice class and I plan on going back again as soon as I can. :)
Ao sora. blue sky
kokoro. heart/soul/mind
This also just in: I agreed to be part of a relay marathon happening Sunday, June 16th. I must have been crazy because this girl struggles with the waking up portion of her morning runs. This means training, and lots of it. What I can say it that this will certainly help with accomplishing my goal of 100 runs before I leave Japan, which currently stands at a solid 30.
[If you don't recognize the quote from today's title....go watch "Clifford" starring Martin Short right now...even before you read this entry......seriously, watch it]
I have just become the worlds happiest woman (Guinness, did you get that?)!!! I received a special something in the mail today: a care package from my parental units all the way in Toronto! It left Toronto April 12th and arrived in Iizuka May 16th (yikes!), but it was SO WORTH THE WAIT!
YESSSSS, IT'S HERE! And the size will fool ya, she was dense! It's a good thing I figured out how to ride a bike that was very front heavy or else the short ride home would have been a long and confusing balancing act.
This is what I call beauty. I also find it absolutely necessary to list the contents of the package...sorrynotsorry.
- Not one, but TWO tubs of President's choice "Just Peanuts" peanut butter. (I joked before opening it that my parents should send another jar right away so that it arrives before I finish this one - seems they know me only too well!)
- Maple candies (for the staff - how thoughtful!)
- Bulgar and Quinoa mix, love it!
- Laura Secord French mint chocolate bars (oh em geee)
- A card from my parents (tear jerker)
- Sudoku clippings from the 24 newspaper, I miss playing every day against my mom
- Bulk barn corn chips with flax seeds, sour keys and sour jujubes (my FAV)
- A red lantern with batteries, I already really enjoy it despite it being a little bit on the random side.
- A Canadian necktie
- Tampies and waxing strips (absolutely impossible to find in Japan, who knew!?)
I am now sitting under the soft glow of the lantern playing Sudoku and eating peanut butter out of the jar.
Life. Is. Good.
Oh, and not trying to over do it on the coolness scale here (the cocky attitude comes with the peanut butter overdose), but last night I observed open heart surgery at only inches away. It was definitely a surreal experience watching a human heart beat.
A very special and heart filled thank you goes to my amazing parents, Patrick and Lynda. You two make my world. I am so very lucky to call you two my parents, my teachers and my best friends. I wish that everyone in the world can have parents as thoughtful, loving and incredible as you two and that one day I can be the same to my children as you are to me.
Monday May 13th marked my first day in a new ward, South wing 3rd floor, respiratory medicine. Life on the S3A, or, life on the S3....eh! Note the mandatory Canadian stereotype. So essential.
So far, this ward has been brilliant. The patients are so nice! They love it when I speak even the slightest Japanese and enjoy using the English that they know all the while laughing and saying that I'm cute (nothing wrong with that!). They're so full of surprises. Today, THE cutest woman who is around 4 feet tall and enjoys slow walks around the ward (or was it on the beach?), said in a clear, loud and with excellent English pronunciation "Sorry!" when we were moving into the elevator and she was in the way. When I came back I enjoyed a lovely conversation with her about her son, his wife, their son and her trip to Canada (she loved it there). And to think that all of yesterday she watched me "speak" Japanese to her! What a woman.
The staff are excellent as well! I've already been asked to do some baking with one of the nurses at her place (can't wait!). I'm getting along well with the nursing students as well. Today, when talking about how hungry we were (is it obvious that I like to talk about food?) one of the nursing students said his stomach was like from the movie "Alien", so hungry it's poking right out of his body. Like this http://blogs.abc.net.au/.a/6a00e0097e4e6888330133f5f5fa2b970b-350wi. He said that pronouncing "alien" is difficult for Japanese speakers. So I walked him through it. e-ri-en. He nailed it on the first try and then we gave each other the loudest high five before serving lunch trays.
I've also shared excellent conversation with the nurse aid that I've been working with. Turns out she's quite fond of David Boreanaz (YES!), Brad Pitt (particularly the younger version in the movie Se7en) and Prison Break's Wentworth Miller. We we meant to work together! Also, quite interestingly, her daughters name is Kaede, which translates to Maple in English. So Canadian!! Going on my list of baby names for sure!
But I think the thing that put the cherry on my already amazing day was my short meeting in the hallway with Tanaka incho, the president of the hospital. It went something like this:
*Tanaka incho walks past the hallway*
*Olivia waves [probably too] enthusiastically*
Tanaka: "Hello, how are you?"
Olivia: "I'm EXCELLENT! How are you?"
Tanaka: "Oh..I'm SO excellent!"
*double high five*
Olivia: "Sugoi!"
Tanaka: "Sugoi...hahahaha"
Today I double high-fived the president of the ASO Iizuka Hospital. Not like that's a big deal or anything.
On the food side of things (we can't be forgetting that now can we?!) my friend Heather, who is volunteering in Ashikaga, taught me her technique for cooking delicious ramen via a skype instructional video. I am now hooked! And it's super cheap! Each bowl costs roughly 100 yen and only about 10 minutes to make. So ideal. This one has ramen noodles, spinach, tofu, mushrooms, bean sprouts and a curry cube for taste. UNREAL.
And finally, this just in for Japanese lessons with Olivia: new favourite word. wasurerunai; (wah-soo-ray-ru-nigh) - which means "do not forget". Who could forget that?! Holy tongue twister batman.
Just when I was about to think nothing could go wrong, all of the happiness in my life was ever so thoughtfully balanced out by an immensely saddening (*cough* pathetic *cough*) loss of the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Boston Bruins in game 7, in over-time, before previously leading 4-1. Seriously guys, do you want to give a girl a heart attack?! Oh well..here's to next year?
Now I'm off to watch Scrubs, my new found obsession. I would just go to sleep, but I can't resist the hilarity of an aggravated Dr. Cox ramble.
I've decided to make this blog entry short and sweet considering the novel series that I wrote last time (and trust me, I held back my story telling....a lot!).
Today was my last day volunteering with the team from the Hospital's 7th floor North wing, or the "N7" as I like to call it. So last night, I thought I'd set aside some time to make a little something for the staff members in return for their kindness (okay...really it was their patience and perseverance I was thankful for) towards me for the two weeks I worked there. If my dad were here, he'd surely tell them "Thanks for putting up with my daughter". However, in his absence, I settled on a culinary way of thanks: cake. Cake has this funny way of always messing up. But still....she persists, and always decides to make cake. This weeks attempt was only semi successful as the chocolate dip portion of the cake making process was a complete disaster (who knew melted chocolate can be over melted and it turn into a clumpy, not so yummy, not so melty chocolatey mess?). Anyways, I managed to save face with some serious redesigning of the project, remodeling and quite a bit of creativity. The outcome was a success of epic proportions if I do say so myself (if only I'd taken a "before" picture!).
I also took the chance to put my artistic self to the test in designing these crazy thank you cards for Nakano san and Nishimura san. They are the nurse aids that I've been working with these past weeks. They call themselves my mammas (big mamma and chibi mamma) and are an absolute laugh to work with (especially when trying to teach them the correct pronunciation of the English alphabet, particular difficulty with "f", "v" and "w"). The other day they caught me drawing in my notebook (oops! - I was studying Japanese, I swear!) and really liked my random doodles, so I made them personalized full page doodles as a thank you gift.
I hadn't even realized how much time I'd spent drawing and cake disaster relief-ing before I noticed it was 2am! Yikes! On top of that, the Iizuka rain stops for no one, not even sleepy and restless Olivia. Walking my cake bites, computer, camera and postcards to the hospital at 8am the next day would have been easier with the use of my umbrella arm. Regardless, all things turned out great and the cake was successfully delivered to the staff. They loved it! Here's a photo of us all together (yes, the cake and postcard are part of the previously mentioned "us").
I had such a great time volunteering with this team! I'm sad to leave the N7, but also excited to start on the 3rd floor of the South wing Monday morning for Respiratory Medicine. I also didn't realize just how little these two are! "big mamma" is on the left and "chibi mamma" is on the right. But being little never stopped them from making a big impact on my volunteering experience here in Japan.
This week concluded with another trip to the operating room for a "kengaku"; study by observation. I'm beginning to recognize faces and become more friendly with staff and they're catching on to how excited I am to watch surgery. Today I walked from room to room to see what interesting and exciting things were happening. I'd just missed a mitral valve replacement, but caught them closing the chest cavity (I also enforced a "call Olivia when the next mitral valve replacement comes in" rule). I saw a portion of a liver surgery when I'd opted to watch a hip replacement in the neighboring room instead. It.was.so.awesome! Ahh I can't help it but allow orthopedic surgeries to trump the other ones, they're definitely some of the coolest surgeries to watch.
For dinner, Yano san wanted Ken and me to join him at his favourite restaurant, Yoshimura's. Even better was that he was happy to treat us after I'd gracefully declined ("I can't, I broke. Golden Week took all my money") saying that Ken and I are so young and we need to eat more. It's interesting how telling people I don't have any money ends up getting me free stuff. After many hours contemplating (and soul searching), I've convinced myself it's wrong to use this tactic for the remainder of my life...
This weekend's forecast calls for sleep with little to no spending of the money that I don't have. I'm officially hibernating until Monday.
I'm baaaaack! :) Monday morning I returned from one of the most memorable trips of my entire life: Golden week in Japan. 8 days, 5 cities, amazing friends, excellent food, unbelievable sights and memories that will last a lifetime.
It began early Sunday morning as I made my way to Hakata Station in the heart of Fukuoka city, about an hour away by train. There, I met two other Lattitude Volunteers, Michelle and Heather, who made their way over from Ashikaga (the MOST exciting, I hadn't seen them since the Tokyo orientation almost two months before). The day started out right at Krispy Kreme for a matcha green tea donut. We spent the day roaming Fukuoka city and stumbled upon some really excellent experiences. We started at Sumiyoshi-jinja, a small shrine packed into a city corner. Here, we fished for our fortunes and caught glimpses at a traditional Japanese wedding. We gave in to temptation and followed the wedding party to get a better look. The bride was absolutely stunning in her white watabÅshi with her smartly dressed groom at her side. Following that, we walked to Canal City, a popular shopping area complete with "Ramen Stadium" and a dressed up Ironman to take pictures with. We also took in the sights of Kushida-jinja while snacking on one of my favourite Japanese sweets, daifuku! We continued our journey at Tocho-ji temple that houses the largest wooden Buddha statue in all of Japan. The statue and intricate background of miniature carved Buddhas was breathtaking. The five story pagoda just outside the main temple had some serious beauty as well. To complete the day, we went underground to Tenjin underground shopping center....where we struck gold: free samples. Japan is huge about o-miyage (oh me ah gei), souvenirs that staff members bring back to the office from their travel destinations. This means that stores compete like crazy for the tastiest treats of their region to win o-miyage sales. It also means free samples. Michelle and I went nuts "sample shopping" and scored ourselves two glasses of wine, a small cup of noodles, bagel bits with cream cheese, rice crackers various cakes and fruit jelly....ah...may....zing!
While the girls were in Iizuka, we made a trip to Nanzoin for the bronze reclining Buddha, still as captivating as the first time I saw it, and of course I had to introduce them to my baby....TRIAL. We spent a couple of nights relaxing in each others company and preparing for the hustle and bustle of the next few days. Also for your enjoyment - the Nanzoin temple muscial bridge! :)
Tuesday morning we packed our bags and headed out to the Fukuoka Airport and boarded a plane to Osaka.
After a delayed plane, a long ride from the airport into the city and buying the Osaka unlimited day pass (good for 28 attractions and unlimited subway travel) we finally arrived in Osaka around 3:30pm. We quickly dropped off our bags at the Hana Hostel promising to be back before 10pm for the international party (our day pass made us miss the cooking portion of the party...not so pleased with that series of events). To get the most of our money, we sprinted to the first "free" attraction: The Santa Maria boat cruise around Osaka Bay. Next door is where the famous Osaka Aquarium is, but at 2300 Yen each not covered under the pass, we had to skip it. Also next door is the Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel, standing at 112.5 meters high and complete with a transparent cabin! After that, I finally had my first Onsen experience at an open roof Onsen with multiple different baths and a series of saunas (one with a sugar body scrub!). It was heaven. No wonder we ended up missing the end of the international party, oops. I don't regret it though. Back at the Hana Hostel, we met Taichi and Kimmy, a volunteer and a staff member. We joined them for dinner at a small tucked in restaurant along with Tom, James and Simeon, volunteers from Nagoya. It was a great experience to enjoy dinner in a Japanese restaurant recommended by local guys who ordered the best and cheapest stuff!
The following day, Taichi showed us a nice place for lunch and ended up joining all of us for a walk around Osaka city. He showed us around and had a fun time shopping and sight seeing with us. We visited Amerika Mura (a region of the city designed to be like the United States, Statue of Liberty and all) and Dotonbori Street, a marvelous cluster of shops and buildings flashing with signs along the Dotombori gawa River. Dotonbori is famous for a heck of a night scene, awesome takoyaki (one shop even has a singing and dancing octopus out front) and the Glico man always posed for a photo. There is also an AMAZING store along Dontonbori called Don Quijote composed of 8 floors of absolute amazingness, including an entire section devoted to matcha flavoured chocolates and candy! The pocky was particularly tasty :)
The train to Kyoto that night was, in the nicest terms, ridiculous! Michelle left with a nice bruise on her back from her bag being squashed into her body and I can't remember the number of times I said sorry for hitting innocent bystanders with my backpack as I tried to get it onto the overhead storage space. Regardless, we arrived at Kyoto station and walked to our hostel, K's House, with barely enough time to meet Michelle's friend Alisa for kushiage dinner. Kushiage, or as referred to from a quick google search as "Japan's most dangerous meal" and it certainly is. 2000 yen for all you can eat do it yourself deep frying. This restaurant also had a chocolate fountain that I took serious advantage of. I was rolled home that night like Violet Beauregard after she'd turned into a blueberry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4_cf_fZDc0.
The next day, Heather and I broke into a pair of rented bikes and took to the streets of Kyoto early morning headed for the "Path of Philosophy", a beautiful pathway lined with multiple shrines and temples just around the corner from Kyoto University. We made it back to the Hostel to meet with Michelle, Colin and Christian (fellow backpackers at K's House) and Taichi (he came to Kyoto from Osaka to join us traveling!) and headed out to the marvelous city of Nara. Nara, famous for it's unbelievable Toudai-ji temple housing the enormous Buddha statue and for the numerous tame deer that just...live there. Nara now holds a special place in my heart, and not just because of the multitudes of food stalls lining the street during busy golden week. The Daibutstu-den Hall at Toudai-ji, the largest standing wooden structure (and to think it was rebuilt at 2/3 it's original size!) and it's grounds are simply beautiful. If that didn't take the cake, the Buddha statue puts everyone in awe because of it's beauty and size. There were also a lot of women wearing beautiful kimono that I couldn't help but snap pictures of when they might not have been looking. I took the opportunity to indulge in okonomiyaki, grilled meats, red bean paste cakes and grilled sweet potato. Amazing!
Friday was spent cycling all over Kyoto. I already miss the landscape, the city is simply gorgeous! I could lose myself in those mountains forever. We rented bikes from our hostel and met with Tom and James again who stayed an extra night in Osaka. With Taichi as our guide with his iphone GPS, we enjoyed the scenic back roads of Kyoto: my favourite couple hours of the entire trip.
We first took off to Fushimi-Inari Taisha Shrine, the unbelievable shine composed of thousands of orange torii gates, all donated by Japanese businesses, that form a walk way up the mountain to the main temple area. If you've seen "Memoirs of a Geisha", you'll recognize this place. It quickly became one of my favourite places I've visited in Japan without considering the great blessing O-mikuji that I received at the shrine. lucky me! We caught a parade on the way out of the shrine area as we rode our bikes towards Shimogamo Shrine for Yabusame, traditional Japanese horseback archery!
Finally we met with Alisa again at Kyoto's famous Kinkaku-ji Golden Temple. The temple stole the show shining gold among the green trees. A close runner up were all the kimonos! I couldn't help it but become the "creepy kimono stalker".
For dinner, Alisa took us to an Indian restaurant in Gion where she works. I was too bold and ordered a level 3 spicy chicken tikka...and set my mouth on fire. I also enjoyed every minute of it because it was followed by matcha ice cream and the rare spotting of Maiko, an apprentice geisha walking the streets of Kyoto!!
Friday night we'd scheduled a night bus from Kyoto to Tokyo. Only...I made the mistake of thinking the bus left at 11:30pm when it actually left at 11:00pm. So I take 100% of the blame for the bullet speed packing, running...wait...sprinting for a taxi and the panicking. Luckily Taichi was still with us and figured out all of the details to get us to the right bus stop and on the correct bus. Thank goodness for him. I'm sure the other volunteers would agree he was an absolute blessing to have with us for this trip.
Naturally, Tokyo was a roller coaster ride of through crowds, clothes, music, food, crepes, buildings and street signs. This was amplified twenty times during golden week. Harajuku was so busy we could barely walk down a street without separating from each other. Tom and James couldn't make it to Tokyo with us, but we met up with the Tokyo volunteers Zac and Jon as well as two other volunteers Matthew from Hiroshima and Syeda (she previously volunteered at the Iizuka hospital and is back for her second time!). Together, we roamed Tokyo through crazy Shibuya station crossing, hung out at Yoyogi park, found a Cinco de Mayo festival (the smell of Mexican food was heaven in my nose holes) and went shopping in Harajuku.
Another wonderful thing was that I was able to meet up with Haruna, my friend I'd met in Cambodia last August who lives just outside of Tokyo! She got along so well with the other volunteers and we had a great time exploring Shibuya all together. We had dinner at a kuru kuru sushi restaurant, conveyor belt style where you order on screen and the sushi is shuttled to your table. Amazing! Such a good experience...and so cheap!
That night, Michelle, Heather, Haruna and I slept in an internet cafe. If you're ever in Tokyo, it's worth it to stay in one of these for the experience. Essentially, they're buildings of rooms set up for gamers/manga readers/drunkies who've missed their last train home. The rooms are tiny with a computer and small bed, but they also sport all you can drink non alcoholic beverages from a vending machine. For 1500 yen (about 18 dollars) for a night I definitely got my money's worth when I ordered one of every drink available.
The last day in Tokyo was spent hanging around Ueno park, buying sweet potato ice cream. renting a swan boat (and crashing it into Heather and Jon's boat) and exploring Akihabara, the electric district of Tokyo.
I had a particularly rough night making my way alone to the Narita International airport that night and sleeping on a bench waiting for my 6:10 flight back to Fukuoka.
Now back in Iizuka, Golden week is still shining bright in my memory. I had an amazing time and experiences that I will never forget!
Back at the hospital, my last few days on the N7 are running smoothly. English class with TOEFL studying doctors continues once a week and today I observed a hysterectomy, appendectomy and breast cancer surgery to come home and complete my 25th run!
