Alia Luria

Meet my puppy, Ein. She’s a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She’s super, super cute. Last week she got to meet my brother’s Rottweiler, Wilson. :) Apparently, something she said really surprised poor Wilson. Hee hee!

They ran a video report about the recent tornadoes in Tennessee. Someone near and dear to my heart has family and friends there, so I’ve been kind of keeping track of it all day. Well, they ran a video, and in the video, the talk about how there is a lot of damage in Jackson, TN. Then they say that are going to go to a reporter in Jackson, TN. Then they put up a graphic on the screen of Mississippi, with a label that says: Jackson, MS. And then the guy comes on the screen and says, “I’m here in Jackson, TN.” I just love the attention to detail and care that CNN graphic artists and producers clearly feel for those tragically killed and injured that they can’t be bothered to even get the state right…

Love it.

Anyway, here is a link to the video: CNN can’t tell MS from TN. You have to click on the one called “Dozens die in tornadoes.”

Well, it is now February in Japan, so I’m officially entering my second month of being here. The last couple days has really been just me running around accomplishing errands. Japan has a deep love for bureaucracy, as my friend Olivia likes to say, and I think she’s totally right. Yesterday, I tried to visit the doctor, which was a trial in itself. I should have called the foreigner help line, but I was stubborn and just went to the Shinagawa Health Center instead. At least a nice lady there was able to point me to the proper place to go. But, I ended up not being able to go yesterday, because the ward I needed was only open until 11 AM… which was a little weird.

So, with the afternoon still young, I made the trek to the Shinagawa City Office to pick up my gaijin card. I ended up getting lost on the trains as usual, but eventually I found my way there. Picking up the card was relatively painless, given the rigamarole required to get there and back. I wasn’t even late for class!

This morning, I went to the correct hospital and got stuff sorted out. Health care really is cheap here. I paid a 3100 yen fee for coming without a referral (the lady at the Health Center said I should go even without a referral because the doctors at Showa University Hospital would be able to speak English, which she was right!). I then paid another 4000 yen to see a doctor, and that even included her taking an ultrasound that would have cost hundreds in the U.S. In the U.S., they wouldn’t even have ordered an ultrasound for the type of routine examination that she did. So, she was thorough. She even administered the medication that I would have had to purchase separately and administer myself in the U.S. Then she gave me a prescription for another medication, and that medicine ended up costing 470.

And, I have a follow up appointment for later in the month (where I won’t have to pay the referral fee again). So, overall, it was worth the money. I can probably get a reimbursement from my health insurance plan in the U.S. as well. Anyway, the hospitals here are different. Everything is done with a card. It looks like a credit card. It even has your name imprinted into it in kana (mine says　ルリア　マリア – the lady who printed my card misspelled my name… oh well). And you swipe it at machines to check in for your appointment. It saves your medical history on it, I believe, and it even keeps track of how much you owe the hospital. So, at the end of my visit, I just swiped my little card at an automated cashier and paid my bill with cash into the machine, which administered the change automatically. It was pretty nifty.

Anyway, that was my minor hospital experience. Hopefully, I won’t require more extensive visits. :)

I will end this post with a few interesting observations about Japan, to celebrate the beginning of February.

1. When you buy female personal products at the supermarket, the cashier will wrap the package in an opaque bag and tape it closed, apparently to maintain discretion. Never mind that you have to carry it around the whole store in a basket first!

2. You have to bag all of the rest of your own groceries and return the basket yourself, but the cashier will only give you one or two bags depending on how many she thinks you need.

3. The seats on the train are cushioned and cleaner than my couch at home. It looks like they vacuum them every day.

4. If you see litter in the street, you stop and mentally take note of it because it is so rare, even though there are no public garbage cans except for the occasional one in the train station near a vending machine. People just walk around with trash in their bags until they find a place to throw it away.

5. There are a lot of rules for everything, but frequently he only method of enforcement is disapproving looks from others around you. That’s usually enough for many Japanese.

6. On the JR trains, you are supposed to turn your phones to silent and not talk on them, but frequently, people will have in-person conversations that are louder than a cell phone conversation. Even the Japanese people. It makes no sense!

7. The men really do read dirty comics on the trains.

9. You pay all your bills at the 7-11, and you do your banking at the post office.

10. The Japanese think it’s super fashionable to put English all over everything, but they never do it when it really counts, like if you need medication or on food labels (for people with allergies).

11. You are not supposed to tip, and yet businesses are very service-oriented and workers very helpful.

12. It is not uncommon to see Japanese ladies in designer clothes with expensive shoes riding down the street on bicycles, sometimes even talking on cell phones, holding umbrellas, or both!

13. If you drop a coin on the ground at home, it’s not usually a big deal, but here, you could lose $5 that way (or enough for lunch)!

Well, that’s all I have for now. I’m sure I will think of more as time goes by. For now, I think I might go take a nap or something.

Ja, mata!

So, I never got around to explaining sumo, but that ship has sailed. It was a very interesting experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to go. I also haven’t gotten around to talking about the rest of my weekend.

After sumo, some of the TUJ girls did a “girls night out,” and that was fun. We went to a really nice restaurant in Harajuku called Sakura. The food was excellent. Even the cheap a la carte stuff that I ended up ordering. :) I still can’t partake of nomikai (all you can drink alcoholic beverages), and I can’t eat the huge amount of food that the courses offer, so it makes sense to just to a la carte when it’s not a special occasion. Before Sakura, we stopped at Kiddy Land, which is a really fun toy store in Harajuku. I almost bought one of these umbrellas, but I decided against it.

I took a video about some of the stuff I saw in Kiddy Land. Eventually, I may make a cute compilation, but I figured I might as well post the raw footage now.

Kiddy Land

On Sunday, I slept really late. I was feeling run down by Sunday, but I didn’t take the hint my body gave me and decided to go out to Shinjuku and visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to stop by the tourist bureau and buy the GRUTT 2007 museum pass, which gets you into 56 different museums around Tokyo for 2,000 yen. Some of the tickets are just discounts, but each museum costs anywhere from 7,000 to 1,500 yen to get into, even with student discounts, so the pass is an excellent deal. Because I slept in late, I ended up arriving at the building around twilight.

On the first floor was the information for tourists, so I purchased my museum tickets and picked up every brochure I could find in English about Tokyo and Japan in general. Now I have to sift through all of them! There is so much to do here!

After that, I went up to the observation deck, but by then, it was dark. So, I have some video footage of the view out of the windows, but it’s not stellar, because there is a lot of glare. What surprised me was the nice lounge up there. I plan to go back with some friends. A cocktail was 1,200 yen, which is pricey, but not even as bad as Roppongi was. And the atmosphere is very chill and pleasant, and the view is spectacular. You can also get gelato (for 800 yen, which is a lot).

Here is a still shot out the window, before the sun had completely set.

I have a crappy video of the view, but it’s taking forever to upload, so I will post it tomorrow, along with the one from the supreme court building.

After I left the TMGB, I just walked around Shinjuku station for a while checking out book stores, etc. Here, I came across the scariest thing I have seen since moving here.

Your eyes do not deceive you… that is in fact a sub sandwich composed of noodles, pork and mayo. I don’t understand why anyone would make and sell a chinese food sandwich, but I’m beginning to realize that you can find anything you want in sandwich form in Tokyo. It was pretty terrifying. Makes me wonder about eating anything from Shinjuku station convenience stores.

Today was the TUJ-organized tour of the Supreme Court building. I had to dress up in a suit, so I wore my pumps. I think that this is mostly what is responsible for the terrible pain I’m feeling in my side right now. The combination of a lot of walking (some of it on stone) with almost no shock absorption in my pumps has me in a lot of pain now. I had been feeling a little run down but otherwise fine until after the tour today. So, now I’ll have to take it easy again. Hopefully, the pain will go away, and this isn’t a resurgence of my earlier problems. I would have just slept the rest of the day, but I had to go to class this evening. Anyway, here are a couple photos from the Supreme Court building. It was an interesting experience, but the building itself is odd and very severe.

Outside the Supreme Court

Entrance Hall

Dome (Giant Skylight) in the Grand Bench Courtroom

Grand Bench Courtroom

So, there you have the rest of my weekend and Monday in a nutshell. I’m probably going to try to take it easy the rest of the week, although I do have to find out why the supposedly international ATMs at 7-11 won’t take either my credit or debit cards (even though the machine says it accepts cards with the plus logo). I’m going to try to go to the JP Bank (Japanese Post office) tomorrow to see if that one will work. If not, I may go talk to Citibank about opening an account here, even though that would be a tremendous pain in the butt. I also have to get to the JTB (travel agency) to see if there are any package deals for visiting Kyoto over spring break, hopefully on Weds. Anyway, I’m going to go lay down now and take it easy, because I’m feeling pretty crappy.

Ja mata!

This was really cute. Thanks to Shane for finding it! I will have to have my camera with me at all moments in Tokyo…

For when you want to know the correct degree of bowing and physical placement when you apologize.

How you are really supposed to eat sushi. Those of us in the U.S. might be surprised!

This one on chopstick usage seems to be mostly for laughs, but they did build some impressive contraptions out of chopsticks.

Who knew the Japanese took their origami so seriously? ;) Again, comic relief is definitely the goal here.

How to air out a futon.

How to make onigiri (rice balls).

They also have one on the tea ceremony, but it isn’t subtitled.

This is my absolute favorite little guy from Japan… the keepon!

Original keepon video:

In response to the above video, Spoon actually used the keepon in one of its official music videos. :)

This one had me cracking up by the end, as silly as it is!

Here are some funny chopstick-related videos. People in Japan sure love their chopsticks…

And now for some chopstick magic…

Chopsticks vs. knife and fork… somehow, I think this one was more user error than anything else. :) And what’s with the theme of eating burgers with chopsticks?!

It should be my goal to post a new, crazy Japanese TV clip every day. I doubt I could keep it up, but maybe I will try. :)