Category Archives: Japan

Another Day and Another Confusion

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As I start gearing up for the start of classes next week, I find myself doing something resembling actual work on my “house arrest” days. Today, for example, I spruced up the spreadsheet I use for recording students’ marks.

However, because it has students’ names, I can’t actually send it in as evidence that I did something resembling work.

Instead, I filled out an online form that said I did it.

I’m operating with the depressing feeling that no one is actually paying attention to what is being submitted. I think this because I’ve been waiting for someone to contact me and tell me where to actually submit stuff and that hasn’t happened all year.

We got a video sometime earlier this year explaining how to submit one part of what we’re supposed to do but 1) I have to watch the entire video to find out what to do because no one thought to create a written version and 2) no one told us how to submit the things we will actually probably use in class.

I’m now in an odd waiting game to see what, if anything, ever comes of this.

All Fine Except the Retching

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I think I scared a doctor today, which is too bad because she was kind of cute.

The annual mandatory health check up went surprisingly quickly as I was rushed from station to station with surprisingly little delay. (I suspect this is because I brought a book anticipating some waiting.)

The funniest moment was the “doctor check” with the first of the cute young female doctors. She had my x-ray from a few years before on her computer screen but didn’t comment on it. She did a quick heart check and sent me on my way so fast I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly. She was like “get out” and I was like “but the old guys usually keep me around a minute and tell me nothing you’re only keeping me 45 seconds”.

That was followed by blood letting and other tests until I got to the endoscopy phase. A lot had improved. They had a comfy chair for the numbing medicine phase which was much better than two years before when I had to position myself. It was all very relaxing. Then I was taken to the endoscopy room (same as two years ago) and was surprised to see the doctor was young and cute rather than the old guy from two years before.

Then the doctor started the camera phase and I started the retching phase. She rattled off a bunch of stuff and let me watch the screen and was fine until she needed to adjust things and I felt the tube move and then the next retching phase started.

When it was all over she rattled off a bunch of stuff that sounded important (main point: no cancer) but I didn’t catch all the rest. I kept assuring her she did great and it was merely my natural aversion to choking on cameras that created all the drama. Also, it was better than barium.

I got home and took a nap, then it was finally time to eat breakfast.

Ready for Needles, Tubes, and Cameras

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Heading off to bed relatively early so that I can get up in time to drink some tea and some water. Won’t get to eat anything though. I’m already in a mandatory fast.

After that, though, all I’ll be doing is filling in forms and then traveling one station away for the annual health check.

This year I’m lucky that it’s been scheduled at a clinic near my house, which means I get to have a relaxing morning before needles, tubes, and cameras get involved. (Note: Japan has clinics that do nothing but annual physicals. Period. If your arm fell off during an exam they’d note the “arm related issue” on your physical but wouldn’t recommend another clinic.)

After a couple hours of exam I’ll get to come home and take a nap whilst some medication wears off. Then I’ll finally get to eat something.

Last Week Blues

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Not much to write about.

This is the last full week of fake work before my real work starts up again. I’ll enjoy it as much as I can, but even if I didn’t have fake work, I’d be feeling blue.

The last week of summer is always kind of blah. Even though actual work hasn’t started, and our girls aren’t attending actual school, our schedules get busy. Our oldest had club the entire summer, but even our youngest starts having activities. This means we don’t even get a chance to do a last minute Tokyo Disneyland Trip (which saves us the heart attack of the entry fee, so it’s not all bad).

I’ve got to start prepping for the coming term, which always makes me feel blah.

I do have a health check coming up on Wednesday; that may make for an interesting time, in the same way a Chinese curse encourages.

 

Back Where it Belongs

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I got my pen back and that pretty much shut down all other operations.

I’ve mentioned before how I sent my Nakaya Cigar Portable in for work and then got the wrong pen. After a long wait, I got the correct pen back.

It came with a complimentary pen case that whilst beautiful, is something I’ll probably never use except as storage. On the other hand, it was nice of them to send it. (Note: it’s a darker magenta than shown in the picture.)

Back home where it belongs. Got a free pen case for the delay. #nakaya #fountainpen #penaddict

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However, once I had the pen in hand, I had to start playing with it and writing random nonsense. I enjoyed having it back enough that it’s clear that it’s now a permanent part of the collection.

It’s also already back in my Sinclair Seven (Plus One).

Unfortunately, I didn’t write anything useful with it. It was just fun to have it back and fun to play with.

Once More the Intervention

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Life intervened again with She Who Must Be Obeyed coming down ill this evening.

This had me cooking and has me reminding our oldest she has to do dishes. This involves periodically chasing her off our living room sofa. There is something about the living room sofa that causes the two oldest women in  the house to immediately fall asleep as soon as they sit on it.

This something is so bad that I actually have to make our oldest get up off the sofa before I can leave the room. If I don’t, she will be asleep again in a few minutes and the process will start again. Even if she’s sitting up and playing on her phone when I leave the living room the something will cause her to fall asleep sideways with her phone somehow still gripped in her fingers.

This makes my job a bit more difficult as the sound of her phone hitting the floor was the Dad Signal calling me into action.

 

The Ending Cut Off

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Spent part of the day working on a project and then working on another project.

I’m making little progress with either, but the latter (notebook reviews) got cut off today as life intervened. Nothing major, just lots of little annoyances that ate up some time.

I’m also entering one of those phases where I rethink the components of my everyday carry system (because normal people totally worry about that kind of thing) especially what notebooks I’m carrying but not actually using. (That’s part of the review I’m working on.)

There are lots of steps to the process, with several of them being “No really, I’ll use it, I promise”.

More on that in a future post, though.

Rainy Days on Mondays

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An acquaintance of mine is off scuba diving somewhere this summer, but his last wish for those of us left in Japan was that we get pounded by rain whilst he was off somewhere else. (We had a dry “rainy season” following a dry “Season in which it rains”.)

Thus far, his wish has come true, but in an odd way.

We’ve had a mercifully cool summer. It’s been humid to the level of “breathing liquid” but the temperature has been in the high 70s/low 80s Fahrenheit (26-28 Celsius) which is a lot better than usual Tokyo metro area temperature of “scorched earth”.

The trade off has been lots of rain and a few migraines.

Today, for example, we kept the air conditioner off most of the day. However, about the time it got so humid we decided to turn on the air conditioner, we had an impressive cloud burst.

I hope this lasts. However, I suspect we’ll have a hot September. I have to be good and sweaty by the time I get to work, I guess.

The Busy Sabbath

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I’ve recently resolved to take Sunday off. If I do nothing work or writing or anything related, that’s okay.

I’m not feeling guilty about doing nothing, although I am a bit surprised at how easy it is to do nothing whilst seeming as if you’ve done something. (Note: play games and/or plan other things.)

This bit of blather is something to do  but I can control the length so I won’t count it as work.

The only interesting thing today is our youngest created a new version of the song Happy Birthday. It translates from Japanese to “Happy birthday is done; happy birthday is done” implying that life is back to normal.

Well, if you count doing nothing and liking it as normal.

Another Zombie Day

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I didn’t think we would be, but were zombies again.

I’ve written before about how the day after a trip to the in-laws turns everyone into zombies.

The girls are still in “grandparent amnesty” mode in which the intervention of grandparents staves off a plethora of punishments and it’s my job to remind them that, yes, the dishes really do have to be washed, and no, there is no one here who will save you.

This means not much was accomplished today. I did some writing and at least one daughter may have done homework but I was too much of a zombie to find out.

Tomorrow we’ll start settling back into normal life, but today was kind of a bye on normal life.