lingqi's Journal: March 31st, 2003

March 31st, 2003 (6:21pm)

Well, tomorrow's April Fools. I am wondering if I should write something that's actually relavent, or completely bs, or a mixture of some kind.

Friday I go home and I get an advertisement from "The English Club," which is a local language school. Is that like a message from God, or do I have to provide even better examples? So, I call them up, and still no dice. However I might qualify for a substitute position, in which case they call me up on friday, and I go teach a class saturday, or something like that. In fact, I have to send them a resume today, which I almost forgot.

I mean, not that I am complaining (ok so I am), but I am seriously wondering what it would come out to - ruining saturdays for a once-a-month moonlight. I am curious if taking Japanese cooking lessons will further my goal, actually - and provide interesting benefits of being (hopefully) becoming able to cook... We will see, I suppose.

Speakinf of Japanese food - don't let the image fool you that they don't have fried food, because there are tons of it. Tempura, Ton-katsu, and myraid of fried chicken and other stuff (heck I just had fried chicken for dinner). I mean, there are a lot of boiled / steamed / raw stuff that's low fat and all that - but there are also tons of what people would probably consider as healthy as any other junk food, but completely traditional. In ramen, for example - sometimes they float fat (ground fat - as in the fat portions of pork) to make the flavor better. Ouch.

In fact, Japanese food (a lot of it, especially miso-soup) often also takes on larger than their share of salt. I have actually been thinking what's the deal with longer lifespans - since many also smokes and drinks heavily. The only conclusion so far is that maybe it has to do with the fact that the longer-lived people came from the older generation, who prefers rice to hambergers, and drinks a lot of tea instead of black coffee.

On living longer or having a healthy life, I went to the hospital this saturday. I think it was like a community clinic type thing, because it was called a "nin-gen Doc (äé-"ãfãffã)." My right wrist has been hurting for a while, probably a combination of hiking, typing, and the bike-trip last weekend definitely did not help. I didn't want to check it out until too late, so off I went.

The place is in Tatebayashi (éæz--), south of its very famous park. I can't quite say how to get there because I myself still am not so sure. In any case...

The clinic actually starts at 9am, but at 7:30 it's already brimfull of people. the X-ray room starts off at 8:30, and interestingly, at about that time, the whole staff all came out to the waiting room, made a little speech (no idea what they said except the "yoroshiku (å®oeã--ã)" at the end, and bowed. It was quite a fascinating ritual.

I won't bore people with the diagnosis (immflamed joints or somesuch) - but I do want to point out that the doctor did speak english (the nurse not a word), but was not sufficiently skilled to fully explain what is wrong with me. In any case, I am going back this week to get some braces to wear temporarily.

The whole thing, diagnosis, anti-imflammatory drugs, and X-ray ran a total tab of 1,380 yen - which was a whole lot cheaper than I thought possible. It's not Germany, but I certainly am not complaining.

After the clinic visit, I decided that having food would be a good idea. I stopped by the only restaurant that seemed open besides Denny's - which turned out to be a crab-house. Not red-lobster like, but completely Japanese. They have an interesting ritual that when a customer comes in, the waitress would ring a huge drum by the entrance corresponding to the number in the customer's group.

So, this was my first time eating raw crab. Crab-sashimi, in fact. They would give you some crab-legs, with part of the shell cut off, and you can pick out the meat from within. Crab meat is very different when raw from everything else I have tried. It falls apart easily, and is extremely soft. I cannot comment on the taste because I am not quite sure what it tasted like. Definitely not chicken.

Anyway - I found out (confirmed, anyhow) that I am alergic to raw crustatians. I actually think I am alergic to the shell, because I can eat raw shrimp just fine. However messing with the shell gives me a numb/itchy feeling on my mouth and fingers. Strangely it went away shortly, but it did have an impact on the overall enjoyness of the lunch. Considering it is 4,500 yen, make sure before you go!

I think the reason for the price is because that the crab was probably (I would really hope so, too) alive shortly before I ate it. Like china, dead crabs and shellfishes are not eaten altogether, and is instead thrown away.

Last but not least - cherry blossom season is near, and there are websites for "blossom forecast" just like weather forecasts. In fact, something I found out about weather forecast is that on them there are "cloth drying time" meters - where it would say "to dry your clothes you need to hang them out for 3 hours" or some such. I am not sure if I mentioned this already, so apologies if it's a dupe.

How good is your Japanese?

[Vengeru]

I have gotten the impression from prior updates that you get around quite well in Japanese, but in todays' journal it somewhat appears as you are lost if the people around you can't speak English. If you have a journal post talking about this, then please direct me to that instead of typing it up a second time!

/ V

Re:How good is your Japanese?

[lingqi]

My japanese can stand improvement...

Honestly though - I think I have been at the 20% point* for such a long time that I am wondering if I should start using a more objective gauge of my skill.

*20% point* this is where I watch TV and wonder to myself how many % I understand.

Of course, if you are doing one-on-one conversation, with hand gestures and what not, you can get around - but listening to something that you have no clue what is about (especially since they are mumbling + speaking fast (I guess it's

"Ningen dock", not Doc

[KNicolson]

And that wasn't the name of the clinic, just another service they provide. It's from the idea of a "dry dock" to give ships a once-over, a "human dock", a total health check thingie. Here's a quick summary of what you might expect:

http://www.sannoclc.or.jp/english/preventive.html [sannoclc.or.jp]

Oh, and if you lived in Germany, you might find the average quack's German is better than their English, since the Japanese system is based on the German, and all docs seem to be required to learn German at University.

Re:"Ningen dock", not Doc

[lingqi]

very interesting. Actually I was asking my japanese friend who has gone there before about the price, and he told me that it would be cheap because it is a "ningen doc," or something to that extent (in english, no less, so there should have been no miscommunication).

I will check again.

I did know about the required German education for the physicians - but unfortunately I speak not a whiff of German...