Well settled and Out and About

Its been two weeks tomorrow since we moved in.

 We've had four notes from the landlord (three about rubbish due dates and one telling us how to correctly install a washing line, as ours was lagging unattractively). We've developed a minimalist cooking style (everything is eaten out of our two bowls, and, when it gets tough, cups). Ramen is amazing, ramen with lemon-beef-tongue is... not so great.  We've also discovered Japanese snacks are amazing, and that's probably to our detriment. In spite of all the walking, the extra eating counters any positive benefits.

What have I learnt? I've learned I can tolerate two days at home before I get really despondent and need to get out. Audiobooks are great for company but do prevent anything productive being done, (darn you Dark Age).

Shopping is fun, and Uniqlo is still the absolute best clothes shop ever. I wanted to take up more physical activity, and unfortunately, lacked the proper equipment to tolerate Tokyo's sauna. Airism is my new favourite thing in clothes. Light, quick-drying and comfy-as, a definite win for the quick powerwalk around the park this morning.

Strangest purchase this week? Egg-Shaped Maracas.
 

These were from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo in Kiba. I tossed up getting something sensible branded with MOT, but these spoke to my kitsch soul and after spending an afternoon colouring, making paper planes and being a 30 year old child, I could not resist.

I almost bought a rice cooker. I failed miserably at cooking rice last week and in my despair sat up til 2 am reading about 220volt versus 240 volt and whether you can downcovert them to work on Japan's 110volt inthe meant time. Short answer no. Lesson: Migraines in the morning will make me sleep all day and research all evening.

Most beautiful purchase:

These cup and saucer sets from the Ghibli Museum. It was an impulsive purchase - Chris and I each picked one (can you guess whose is whose?) and it was just before we headed to Yokohama for an amazing firework show. So we were gingerly carrying two delicate porcelain china sets in the packed trains from Tokyo to Marina Park.  It was a nerve-wracking exercise.  Spoiler: They made it.

Ghibli museum though blew my mind. I walked in and wow. Its not surprisingly they don't let you take photos, it would not do that place justice. From the stained glass windows to the lampshades, to the humour in every detail. I fell in love and it was just the most wholesome, kind place to be. I hope we get the chance to bring future kids here. It was definitely what childhood should be.

Chris informed me a few days ago that there was a park with a ruined castle about 20 minutes walk from our apartment. I went to go find it this morning, and the park is HUGE. I didn't find the castle, but I did find; a praying mantis the size on my fist, many butterflies, several fishermen fishing, giant fish, two shrines, an amphitheatre, a swan boat facility, a beautiful, cool woods, a spider in the urinal of a ladies bathroom.

Yea the last one was weird to me too. I assumed it was for any kids, but Chris and I went back there tonight and right by said toilets was a gentleman in schoolgirl garb. It was... unsettling. Pic related:

But not the dude we saw.

So I've been out and about a bit, while Chris is at the hospital. Keeping the balance between interesting, affordable and not too enviable has been a bit of work. Luckily Chris has been up for heading up at night.

Shinjuku I've seen a bit more of at night, and it's certainly got the busy city vibe, which I feel we haven't embraced yet. We've eaten at a neat sushi conveyor belt place where we did try eel, and then promptly ginger (way too fishy for us). Chris spotted a neat yakitori place where I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty chicken hearts were, they even have a good chew factor. 

Tomorrow is our last Friday in Tokyo for a while, so it'll be good to go out and see the night somewhere. Saturday is Sunshine City, and Sunday we have a board game meetup in Akihabara - which should be cool to meet some like-minded locals. 

It's late here! There are two new videos, which I haven't advertised because I'm secretly horrified at my video persona, it's not like my self-perception at all. I'll get over myself and you can check them out here:

Cheers:
Holly 

First Week Video

Week 1 Day 1: Introduction to TMU Hospital

Long flight, hot weather, bright lights, and diarrhoea. 

We have had a week of acclimatising to the shock of what Tokyo throws our way; the heat, the crowds, the skyline, the transit system! Long walks with too much luggage and broken wheels to get our lives in order. All in all we’ve done a great job setting up our life here for the next 2 months. It's taking time to get used to this heat though, Japanese summers are like their cicadas - relentless. Whats also taking time to get used to are these door frames, I've lost count the amount of times I've hit my head walking through our house, so I've decided to keep count until it stops happening, or I forget from concussion (one serious knock has left me with quite the bruise and headache).

Rather than complain about everything though (despite the whinging above, it has been an absolutely fantastic time so far!) I will instead journal about my time about the ups and downs of being at the coal face of the Japanese medical system and our adventures outside of Tokyo. I see it as a way to catalogue my experiences, as Elective placements like this require a large written report to be submitted on returning to New Zealand. So this will serve as a data mine if you will for that behemoth later on.

So, to start, today was the official start of my 8 week stint at Tokyo Medical University Hospital!  Starting at the same time as me is a young man from the Netherlands, spending 6 weeks here so we are not alone in being the only complete novices at the language and the system. 

We were orientated and shown through the 20 storey complex by the staff of the Center for International Relations, who have been absolutely amazing in getting Holly and I set up here. The hospital is very new (pictures soon), revamped and renovated to accommodate the influx of people expected with the 2020 Olympics. Most surprising were the 9th and 19th floors. 

The entire 9th floor is dedicated to food and functions, holding within it a very large konbini (Japanese convenience stores are mad and I love them), a full restaurant for patients and their visitors, and the staff canteen. The 19th is a floor dedicated to V.I.Ps. I’ll go into further detail on the Japanese model of healthcare in a later post, but in essence it is an interesting blend of socialized healthcare and fee-for-service provision. The 19th floor takes this fee-for-service provision to strange new places and is essentially an executive floor of an hotel, with luxurious rooms the size of our apartment, concierge service, top floor views of the Tokyo skyline and vending machines offering free food and drinks. Bonkers.

We met our teams soon after our lunch at the aforementioned patient restaurant. For the next four weeks I am placed with the Neurology team. From who I was introduced to my worries of being isolated by language barrier are gone, each seem very happy and comfortable communicating in English, as long as I speak slowly and keep the syllables down. I’ll be under the team that specializes in stroke but currently under our care are patients with Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple System Atrophy. I think it's safe to say I am very interested to see what the next few week have in store, how patients with these neurological conditions are treated and cared for, starting tomorrow with the Professor's Round.

Week One: At least we can laugh about it.

It's Monday evening, and I have claimed the only chair in our little apartment to finish the video and write this wee blog.

Chris and I talked about it and decided that we didn't want to bring a chair home. So our apartment has one chair, and we eat on the floor on one of our four towels.

It's been a week of these discussions and concessions (yes, we do need a toilet scrubbing brush. No, we don't need a laundry hamper or a wok. We can make a washing line out of 490 yen rope). I've enjoyed it. Our little apartment has become very livable in a minimalist kind of way. I refuse to regret buying the wonderful sausage stamps and smiley face seaweed punch, even if Chris's hospital has 500 yen lunches, rendering my 'making him Bentos' an obsolete pipe-dream.

His orientation day has gone swimmingly; I'm sure he'll tell you all about it.

My day has been very chilled. I located and bought some white polo shirts to fit a tall frame (and then Chris told me t-shirts were better.) Found a charger for my Mac, (the slower charging from 100v means we can't share one, and this 2012 battery has the retention ability of an overly hydrated Jack Russel). The geriatric machine also required an SD to USB adaptor, as the port has given up the ghost.

We may have spent the week shopping - for unexciting, mundane things that kind of make your soul feel good. I bought laundry detergent pods that felt like jello candy and understood the Tidepod 'forbidden candy' phenomenon. We spent half an hour looking for cooking oil in a supermarket - dissecting the consistency of many bottles of vinegar in a growing concern that we were going mad, before spotting the telltale 'oilo' on a row of bottles which made us feel a bit daft.

However, I should start when we arrived.

It was Tuesday, after a reasonably uneventful flight (one dude was fairly crook, pale as a sheet and very desperate to use the bathroom in front of us, but the staff had that out of control. /foreboding), we landed in the beautiful Tokyo. Well, Narita. It's kinda like landing in Hamilton because it's an hour and a bit by commuter train to Tokyo proper (we didn't want to spend 3000 yen, so the cheapskates we were, we bundled ourselves onto the 1300 yen route.).

Our hotel was every bit like I remembered, although the 3814 was closed when we were mulling a highball or ten /in-joke.  The all-male groupies for the singing-dancing video game promo girls were there too! It's like I never left.

We had fried chicken from family mart for dinner, delicious and easy, with sweet dango for dessert. Then crashed to sleep watching Starwars - The Last Jedi, as Luke Skywalker spoke fluent Japanese.

Wednesday woke rainy, but our spirits could not be dampened! We ventured out to scope what would be our home for 8 weeks, in the Kamushakujidaii area, via Shinjuku and Tokyo Medical University Hospital. The Japanese train system is legendary, and rightfully so. A complete novice can navigate it and I'd had a whole week experience, so I was clearly a pro.

One thing that will be impossible to master is this heat. I understand it is a concern for the Olympics, and any activity in it should probably be an extreme sport of its own. I felt like we deserved to medal after slogging the 15-minute walk at midday.

The cicadas here are loud, louder than home where we live next to the bush. Crossing the bridge passed our neighbourhood graveyard (oh man, we live right next door to the cemetery - the puns are itching in my fingertips), we found our spot and tested the onigiri from the local Lawsons. They were cheap and tasty.

The first time.

Crash cut to the return and Chris was in the hotel room in gastrointestinal agony. Did you know you can't buy pain killers at Japanese convenience stores? I did not. I eventually found some by walking around and stuttering 'Paracetamol?' at a store which I'm pretty sure was a pharmacy, thanks to the universal language of boxes featuring pictures of runny noses.

It was 36 hours of unpleasantness, of which I will spare you the details. My Taco Bell followed Chris's onigiri the morning after, and we really made the most of the extra-large bed (not in any way that was fun though).

Friday arrived and we steeled our stomachs to move our luggage to our new apartment. In the midday heat, with our vulnerable constitutions, it was a mission. We made it, moved in and promptly went to buy toilet paper, towels, soap, and other immediate necessities to enable us to get clean, and sleep.

Then the weekend of shopping commenced. Muji is a store where my desire to appear classy is soothed and appeased, while Daiso offers fun and joy and smiling wooden spoons, so it really is an experience that hit all the boxes. Supermarkets are confusing and cooking ramen is easy. Now we've sped forward to where we are today.

I haven't been filming as much as I should. Editing to date I've noted shakiness, and a lot of park nonsense. Greenery isn't as exciting as the tall buildings and lights - but I keep going wow and not going 'wow - let me get my camera'. I'll get better at that.

For now, this blog is long enough, and I've to go fry up our leftover ramen to make some form of dinner.

And we'll eat it with our lunchbox chopsticks from our towel on the floor, watching season two of Dark. Well, Chris will watch that. I'll probably get distracted and browse houses on TradeMe.

Auckland Airport - the awkward first post.

 Chris and I thought for about ten minutes trying to think up a fun pun that combined international travel, medical study and the voice of the adjacent experience of the holidaying tagalong. Something that captured our expectations of observation, and overwhelming newness. 

Unfortunately, we came up with nothing (please feel free to point out any we missed).

When was a kid I read the (now ancient) book 'What Katy Did' which was a charming, observational slice of life. I figured that would be a hopefully unpretentious name for a blog. So, welcome to 'What Chris and Holly Did (in Japan).

We are sitting in the super wide seats in the waiting space that overlooks the tarmac. The sky is blue with a plume of grey cloud that is slowly creeping across the sky.  You can see the heavy rain across the Manukau Harbour and  I'm glad the lightning from last night has not followed us.

The sky chefs are loading a black plane ahead of us. I'm super keen to get onboard, plug in some headphones and watch some movies. Chris wants to sleep - it's probably as a result of the two bagels he ate as we consoled ourselves after being three minutes too late for my e-vouchers to work at the Koru Lounge. Clearly we don't travel enough.

This trip is our honeymoon, OE and Chris's elective rolled into one awesome adventure. It feels like the culmination of a lot of hard work, overwhelming  generosity and and time spent gritting our teeth and pushing forward. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. We hope to bring you on the journey with us as much as we can.

I'll  add some photos and videos on to this later. Next stop, Royal Park Hotel Shiodome - nostalgia and family mart highballs await!