Happy Holidays!!

So Christmas has come and gone!!! We wanted to post a holiday picture before Christmas but didn't get around to it until Christmas morning. I think it's still ohkay to post though!


Ryan is feeling much better and has come out of his quarantine. We are hoping to ski a little this week to practice for our trip to Niseko the next week!

For Christmas eve, we had dinner with a teacher friend of ours and her two daughters. They were so cute that the TV crew that happened to be in the restaurant took video of them saying "Oishi! Oishi!" (Delicious!!) about their curry.

We had a late start on Christmas day but after opening and playing with our presents for a little while, we went out to Odori Park to see the "White Illumination," which is when they basically go crazy with Christmas lights all over the park. It was Ryan's first time out in the city since he got sick. The city is so beautiful dressed in snow and lights. I can't wait for the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) next month!

Here's some things we got for Christmas:

Here I am standing next to a White Illumination sign:

Well, that's it for now...Please see the photo album I attached below for more pictures. We have video of the White Illumination and the choir we saw while we were walking around but I'll post them later!

Ja ne!

(That's not a typo of my name...that's the Japanese equivalent of "see ya!" or "bye!"...it's the informal way of saying goodbye.)

Christmas2009

the flu has come!

So our regularly scheduled weekend has been interrupted by the FLU!!!! Type A, I believe the doctor said but we're not entirely sure because Ryan was in a fever state and I was having trouble paying attention to all the Japanese. I figure our first encounter with the Japanese medical system should make a pretty good update.

Ryan started feeling run down on Thursday and on Friday he made it through work but barely had an appetite at all. I had been giving him TheraFlu (basically tylenol, cough suppressant and nasal decongestant) but he was getting worse and was probably running a fever (we didn't have a thermometer at the time). So this morning we asked our friend Rob, who is also a JET ALT from America, to help us get Ryan some medical attention. (I could tell Ryan was really sick because I had to force him to eat on Friday!)

Poor Ryan couldn't even walk the three blocks to the clinic so Rob gave us a lift. Once there, Rob filled out the paperwork and we found that there was about an hour wait because there were 19 people ahead of us. However, they took Ryan's temperature when they found out we didn't know what it was and he was 39.8 C (103.6 F). YIKES.

We were whisked away to a different waiting room in the back. The room had stools with privacy curtains in between them. Rob and I discussed the creepiness of the room. Ryan was seen pretty much right away after that. They swabbed his nose and then ushered us into another room, where all three of us sat on the examination table.

The doctor came in, a kind looking old Japanese man. He explained that Ryan has the flu, listened to his lungs, checked his throat, prescribed medication, and introduced himself to us in English in the end. He was very impressed with Ryan's "yoroshiku onegai shimasu!"

Rob was able to observe how Japanese people will continue to speak to me in Japanese even when they have been told that I am not Japanese and do not understand much Japanese and even when I'm pretty sure they know that Rob is there to translate for us. They will continue to speak to only me. Hahaha. It's cool. I guess I just look really attentive and I have to admit that I might be leading them on by nodding and using my active listening skills. I would dye my hair blonde and wear blue contacts but then they might just confuse me for a Japanese girl anyway!

We paid for the visit (¥2,080; around $22) and went around to the other side of the building for his medicine. They directed us to a small waiting room, which I think was specifically for flu patients, and Rob filled out more paperwork for us. The pharmacist came upstairs and showed us how to and when to administer the medication and we paid ¥1,840 (around $20) for it.

Ryan is basically on quarantine for the next week and I get to play nurse. Hopefully I don't catch the flu. But, thanks to Rob we'll know where to go and who to see if I do. I hope he doesn't catch the flu from hanging out with us today! National healthcare for the win, by the way!

Here is what Ryan's medicine looks like:

I've seen the kids at school bring these little powder packets in before.
I wish I could have seen them packaging these powders.
The largest packet is actually three separate medications mixed.
The plastic bottle contains Ryan's flu medication (Relenza) and next to it is the inhaler.

Here's his medical bills and his clinic card!
(Also the notice of his quarantine and my instructions to spend us much time away from him as possible is in there too.)

Here is Ryan in the small flu waiting room of the pharmacy:

A not so good picture of our friend and translator Rob:


And here's a picture of me in my mask:

I sent Rob and Ryan home while I went to the supermarket to get a thermometer (finally!) and some groceries. His fever was still 39.9 C when I got home (why would it have changed?) so we got him out of his clothes and into PJs and straight to bed after fluids and medication.

I would like to report that Ryan has been resting all day, his fever broke, and he's watching Indiana Jones.
He also had a nice hot bowl of "udon-minestrone" soup and some garlic bread!


And now it's time for another dose of medicine. Time to don my mask!

Picture Post: Sort of

Just a little something to get you all through until the next post (which I assure you will be this weekend!). Many of you have seen these pictures from various day trips we've taken but enjoy them again!

nakajima koen

noboribetsu onsen

hamamasu

A Little Taste of Kendo

Last week one of the teachers that Ryan works with invited us to practice some kendo with him. Ishikawa-sensei is awesome! He brought us the bogu (protective gear) to wear and at the end of the lesson he gave us each our own shinai (bamboo practice sword) as a present!

It was a very basic lesson. He showed us a few moves with the shinai and then we practiced striking on each other. Getting hit for the first time on the top of the head is pretty unnerving. I could see this being something I can enjoy for a long time. Haha.

Let's have a little lesson here:
(Please refer to the picture below)

• Men - head/face protector
• Men gane - metal grill over face
• Men tare - flaps/ shoulder protection
• Tsuki tare - throat protector
• Kote - hand and wrist protector
• Do - chest and torso protector
• Tare - waist, thigh and groin protector

Here is us wearing all the gear!
Ryan's do looks like a little apron on him. I have to remind him of that all the time. Haha.

There are four different places to strike someone in kendo- the head or "men," the torso or "do," the wrists or "kote," and the throat or "tsuki." When you strike you must call your target. So if I was going to hit someone on the head, I would strike and yell "men!!" It sounds pretty silly but the yell can be as unnerving as the actual blow. Hah. (Or maybe I'm just easily unnerved.)

So here's the rest of the pictures we took:

All in all it was an exciting night with Ishikawa-sensei. Ryan is looking for a kendo dojo and I am in search of a naginata dojo (it's just like kendo but instead of a sword you're striking with a spear/halberd). We're pretty positive that we've found a place to train that has everything we could want though (and some things that would be hilarious to study) so we'll keep you updated on that!

Until next time, おつかれさまでした!! (Otsukaresamadeshita = it's what we say after working out and it means "thanks for working hard!" It can also be used to say goodbye to coworkers at work I think.)

It's been a while...

I feel like there's so much to update on! However for this post, I'm going to keep it short.

First of all, we want to say "ありがとう ございました!!" to Professor Mary Diaz who sent us some goodies from America!

Yum!!! I think we finished most of them that night. I'm just saving the M&Ms for cookies.
(I hope this gives you other readers some ideas...our address is Kita 24 Jo Nishi 6 Chome, 2-15-401, Kita-ku Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0024 Japan)

And this is where we get all our mail:

Our trusty mailbox!! Things aren't so different in Japan, eh?
I don't know if you can read it clearly on the box but I wrote my first name wrong in katakana.
A prize to whoever can comment with the correct spelling!

Also:

It's been snowing in Sapporo!!
I know that doesn't seem exciting but it is because previously it was just cold rain.
Here's some snow falling outside our apartment:

Snow means じょせつ (josetsu)!! (And josetsu is snow shoveling)
This is a picture of the snow shoveling supply room in the apartment building.

Each apartment takes turns shoveling snow-
every two days, the responsibility moves on to the next apartment.
We actually haven't had much snow accumulation. Sometimes in the morning and the evenings there's a thin layer of snow on the ground but during the day it melts.

Snow also means SKIING!!! Well, not much to report on this front- we haven't been out skiing yet. I did get my bindings placed on my skis and got a "chune up" at the shop too. Hopefully we'll be skiing this weekend.

And that's it for now- more updates soon!

I'll leave you with an image of our favorite fruit:
かき (kaki)