２０１４年６月２７日ー３０日

June 27th:

Since the sickness didn't get any better, I decided to go visit a clinic. This ended up being a pretty useless idea. As a foreigner who speaks a pretty good amount of Japanese to other foreigners who don't, I don't advise you to visit the doc. They took a urine sample when I first got there, so I thought "ok, seems pretty thorough.." When I was called into the doc's room, he spoke only in Japanese. The only English he knew was "virus" and "bacteria".. I told him my throat is hurting really bad. As a response, he told me to open wide, flashed his light in for literally under a second. I shit you not... under 1 second. (I was under the impression I had gotten strep throat cause I took pictures of my throat and saw a little bit of white stuff towards the back). He checked my breathing, kidneys, and knee reflexes.. Anyhow. In the end he prescribed me 3 types of pills. None of them had an effect on me cause the dose was made for a tiny Japanese person. Sigh.... I was pretty frustrated.. Aside from visiting the clinic, I stayed in bed the entire day.

June 28th:

I stayed in bed the entire day, trying to sleep off the sickness. Got my spirits up a little in the evening when I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a bunch of people from the hall. It was hilarious.

June 29th:

Still sick.
But at least we had a big barbecue to see off James and Eunju, who were moving out that day. It also happened to be an incredibly rainy day. We ended up moving a bunch of bikes from the roofed bike lot area, and barbecued in the heavy Japan 梅雨 Tsuyu (Rainy season) rain. Some photos:

Heavy wind, heavy rain, heavy food. It was nice and cool for a change. Great day despite being sick the whole time.

Moved the party indoors after one of the neighbors claimed her baby couldn't sleep because our noise. This is far from true since I couldn't even hear the party from the entrance to the dorm. The rain drowned it out. I suspect there are some elderly racists behind the complaints. Who knows I guess....

My tribute to my good friend James Giller, the Irishman who taught me to enjoy whiskey. Bummer he moved out, but I know I'll be seeing a lot of him still. 

June 30th:

I was still sick. At this point, I decided maybe the hospital would be a good idea. And as a failsafe, I brought Erika along with me to translate the Japanese in case the doctor didn't speak English like at the clinic. I would like to take a moment to thank Erika for her kindness. At the BBQ she was always bringing me meat from the grill/looking after me. She took the morning off from lab to help me out and I really, really appreciated it. Erika, if you read this, I value our friendship tons and am still indebted to you from this weekend. The hospital visit was way better, even though we had to wait about 1.5 hours to see the doc. It was thorough, and Erika explained to the doc that I need heavier doses, which I got. That evening I was already starting to feel better. Oh glory! Hallelujah!