The hosptial Visits.

The experience of my roommate's stomach ache.
It was a usual morning and my room mate had a stomach ache and diahorrea so he wanted to go to the doctor. As usual he went to the hospital got the hospital membership card and got a check up done. He got medicated with some powder. Even after taking the medicine for two days the stomach ache had not mitigated at all.

So I and my roomy went again to the same hospital, since his history was already there with the hospital. This time the doctor was a different guy.... Lucky that he could speak good English. Not all doctors are comfortable in English. So my roomy and told him the problem and he asked us to get the Ultra sound to be done. After all the analysis. He gave the same medicine

My roomy had the same problem and he went with a different colleague. This time he got an X-ray done. We were surprised. He is having a stomach ache and in the end got the same medicine.

Still his stomach ache had not stopped. This time again I and he went to the doctor who was a gastro. He analysed and told him to get the CT Scan and blood test which was the heights of it. So we had to go the next day get the CT scan done and then wait for the reports. The doctor saw the reports and found that there were no abnormalities. In blood test report some WBC count was high. This was due to some bacteria. So we ourselves told him that when he had come for the first time, the anitbiotics which was given was working fine. If he prescribed the same once again for a longer duration he will be ok. In the end he prescribed the same medicine. My roomy was feeling better after a week or so.

Thus was the story of my roomy who spent around 30000 on the medicine, consultation and travel. It was really a nice experience. Luckily he had the national health insurance so he paid around 30% of the bill only. Else he would have spent around 100,000yens...

The Tremor

As strong as the title so was my experience last night. The last nights tremor was awesome. I am a weird guy who enjoys the dangerous things to the core and this was one of such kind.

Let me tell you my first experience of the Tremor in Japan. It was early in the morning around 7.00 or so... Now dont tell me it is not early, I only come out of my bed at around 9.00 on weekdays. The house started shaking and just opened my eyes. I could see the hanging lamp above my head just swaying and the house also shaking. My room mate also got woke due to the erratic movement of the house. He started scolding me "hey why are you jumping around" thinking that I was doing some excercise. The first tremor was a nice experience.

Last night was much more aweful. I hardly wake up in the middle of the night. I am a sound sleeper not that I snore but I usually never get woken up by voices. Last night it was different. All of a sudden I woke up around 3.30 am and saw that the whole house was swaying. I could also hear the other apartment also shaking. That was really frightening. First I thought it was the air and I was imagining things or it was my late night nightmares. Fortuantely or unfortunately I was really experiencing the tremors. The lamp shade which hangs down the ceiling was swaying and to add to this experience the air outside was also blowing hard. It was making all kinds of sound which was good for the bollywood movies.

Today I woke up and saw the papers. The tremors were around 5.2 richter scale and it was awesome experience. The best part is all over the Japan you need not bother much about the tremors. As all the houses have to meet the mandatory Japanese standard of withstanding the tremors of rictor scale of 6-7 .... Which is too high back in India. I think very soon I will get accustomed to tremors and it would be as though it is raining.

Experience at Nagoya airport

I was suppose to board the flight at Nagoya airport. I reached there early in the morning as it is quite far from my place around 5 hours journey. At airport I had my breakfast and then checked in my baggage at the airport counter. The flight crew informed me that the flight has been delayed by an hour due to heavy snowing. I didnt mind it as I thought I will enjoy the snow.

So I started roaming in the airport and found a lounge where I could see the snow fall and also feel it. This was my first experience of the snow, as back India it never snows. So I started taking snaps and also looking at the aeroplanes which were delayed due to snowing. I roamed around the airport and then planned while returning back how I will come etc.

Later I went into the place where I had to board the airbus. I finished the security check and started waiting at the respective gate where I have to board the airbus.

At the waiting place I met an Indian from Delhi. We just started chatting about the usual stuffs and also the whether etc. Even after the scheduled time of departure the flight had not reached the airport. I asked the airways what is the status. They said that the flight are going to be canceled. Then I got really panicky about it since I was on leave for only 8 days and in that if I loose a day lots of my work would be posponed or cancelled. I tried my best whether I could board from different flight and unfortunately I couldnt do so as there would be longer wait time for the connecting flights. In the mean while I met two people from Laos one was a Pop singer and a violinist and her mother. The Indian from delhi, two from laos and me became really good friends by then.

The flight had been postponed by a day and was scheduled for the next day. We all had a major issue pending in front of us. We had no place to go. I couldnt go back home since it is quite far and returning to the airport was really difficult. For others they had come on a visit to Japan or come on the company visit. So they cant afford the hotel stay as it was really costly. So all four of us decided to stay at the airport and board the flight the next day. We all had lunch together and were really thing what would we do all night and it would be dam cold.

We sat at the waiting lounge where the seats were put and thought we could sleep on the chairs at the night. We also heard that the heaters would be switched off after 12 as it is a system out there. We were really terrified with the cold at the night and it was snowing really hard. Mean while we met two more Indians, one was Shraddanjali ji from Orissa a state in India and the other was her son who is studying in tenth. We start chatting and then I asked casually where do they stay. They said, they were staying very near to the airport. Around one and half hour away from the airport. I was really surprised with this and asked why are they not going home. They told it would be a problem coming early in the morning the next day. I told them if I was in their place I would have really went home and slept on the cozy bed. To my horror they offered me and the delhi guy to come over to their place and we could come early in the morning to the airport.

We just could say no to the offer and we were about go with them. We realized that we are leaving back the friends from Laos just because we got an offer. So our conscience didnt allow and we dropped the idea and told no. When we told the Lady and the boy also said they would stay back with us. The boy, me and the Indian guy thought we better check if any rooms would be available at the airport atleast and we went on a walk. Unfortunately, we didnt find any.

When we went back to our seats we saw that Laos people had got acquainted with Shraddanjali ji . Again she offered all of us to go over to her place and come the next day. This time since all of us were offered we all said yes and then we went over to her place. We all spent really a good time there, had our dinner and slept on the warm bed. The next day we came back to the airport and boarded our flights. Now we all have become really good friends.

If I just call back that day I just imagine what would have been my state if she had not called me to her place. This particular incident I would be remembering for my life time. We were total strangers and this particular incident made us really good friends and we had a nice. I was really happy I am healthy without any sickness due to cold. Thanks to that Shraddanjali ji once again.

My First Contact

It was long since I have blogged. As soon as I came over to Japan I thought, I will put my experiences in Japan. As the saying goes, Chaitanya Proposes and God Disposes. That is what is happening with me. As soon as I landed at the office (Toshiba) I was loaded with tons of issues. These issues should be resolved and I was working almost 12hours to 18hrs, sometimes I was leaving early in the morning. Today is one such days where I am able to spend some time for myself.

I thought to begin with let me put My First Contact with Japanese in their world itself. Well it is a first contact because this is my first foreign country and everthing I see here is different. I started observing a lot of things. The difference in people, the facility which is provided to the citizens etc. I had only heard humbleness of Japanese and also known through there language. It is so humble you just cant imagine. I will put across some of my experiences and some of my friends.

To start with let me tell about the airport. At the airport (mars for me) everything was new and I had to reach Mishima a small town in Shizouka ken(prefecture). I was not able to reach my friends numbers and then I had to reach their else it will be too late. So I went over to the Shinkansen(bullet train) counter. There I had no clear idea of what to do and I didn't know their language very well. I new so called Japanese language as much as a 4year old kid could talk or something I think. The lady asked me where do I need to go and then I then she gave me the ticket to Mishima. I was confused where to go how to go etc. On my way to the station I asked a person by showing the ticket. The person accompanied me and took me to the bullet train told me where to stand also. That was one of examples of Japanese humbleness.

The next example was of my friend. He had come to Japan for the first and didnt know a word of Japanese. He was suppose to return to hotel from his office. He called the taxi but after calling he realized he had only 1200 Yens. It costs around 1350 yens to his hotel from the office. When the cab came over he tried to explain the same to the cab driver in English. In Japan almost all cab drivers dont know English. So when he explained the same, the driver didnt understand. In the end the driver asked him to sit in the cab and then he took him. When the meter showed around 1150 yens or so the cab driver switched off the meter and then took him to the hotel. He took 1150 from him and went. This was really surprising.

The other example was with me and friends. We usually go to Mini Stop a combini stores nearby our office during our lunch or for snacks. It was quite cloudy that day and it was about to rain. We reached there and it started raining. The rain had not stopped even after our lunch and we had to come to the office. In Japan if it rains it is just like standing beneath the shower with full speed. We were just thinking how to return, then the lady in the shop came over and asked us how are you people going. She enquired do we have an umbrella and unfortunately we had not taken the umbrella. So she gave us two umbrella to me and my friend. I was really surprised. The humbleness doesnt end here. We reached office and then we saw two of our collegues not drenched to our surprise!! We asked them where are you coming from. They said they had gone Aspen a small restaurant and the lady out there had dropped them by car. That was one of the most surprising thing.

This way I keep listening different stories about the helping attitude, humbleness etc about Japanese. This is the softer side of the Japanese. Sometimes have also seen effrontery shown by them also. This is very less compared to the softer side. I would always say it is good place to stay provided you know the language. You will find it really difficult starting from food to travel. At least travel you can some how manage since the train managers or ticket collector are all really helpful and also most of them can understand English .

Yes, I remembered one more incident about the train station which my friend had experienced. As usual he didnt know Japanese. He wanted to go to some place in Japan and so he approached the train manager or ticket collector. Unfortunately, the ticket collector didnt know Japanese. My friend tried to explain him what exactly he wanted to do in English and the collector couldn't understand. So the collector called up his daughter who new English and asked my friend to explain her the same. She translated the same. At last my friend got the correct tickets and reached his destination.

This is for all for today. I will be updating my blog as and when I find time. I will be telling about other places like disneyland, Fuji-Q highland etc etc. Keep watching this blog. Also I will be putting some photos so that you can enjoy as I describe them.