Out of Commission

Usually I'm not in the habit of posting more than once a month but seeing as I have some sitting around time...why not? If you haven't read my last entry just scroll down a bit, lots of good picture links and stuff. It will also give you a bit of back story as to my current predicament.

I had decided to wait a day for the swelling to go down and it didn't. In fact it got a little worse, so on Friday (two days after the accident) I decided to go to the hospital. I phoned, Hiroko, my private student Koyuki's mother, to cancel my lesson for that day so I could go and see a doctor. She informed me that due to it being Golden Week, many hospitals would have altered hours, and she would make some calls and check for me. Well seeing as it took us forever to find a place when Colleen had to go to the hospital I accepted her offer. Twenty minutes later Hiroko called back to inform me that they found a place that was open and that her husband had the day off so they would come pick me up and take me there. Wow! Never underestimate the generosity of having native friends in Japan. Not only did they take me there but they waited with me, translated for the doctor, put he sock and shoe back on my good foot and took me home again after. The X-rays said that there were no broken bones but there was damaged ligament which would require healing time, a splint, crutches and "Please come back next week."

I went back to work the next day, my six minute walk to the station now being a twenty-five minute trek. Did I mention how much fun it is walking in the rain with two crutches when you can't hold an umbrella? And another thing... I thought I got stared at a lot before just for being a foreigner. You have no idea! Being a gaijin on crutches puts you into superstar celebrity status when it come to being stared at. Children, shopkeepers, housewives, dogs you name it, except when it comes to priority seating on the train. They have special seats on each car that are designated for expecting mothers (not me), people with children (not me), the elderly (mostly not me) and handicapped (me, both physically and sometimes mentally) with a little stick figure picture indicating each. Just like the Olympic event signs but these were for the ol'gimpics. Now don't get me wrong plenty of people have offered up their seats but just as many have not, in fact trying very hard to do the anti-stare while gazing fixedly at the floor. (this including a med student with his face buried in a medical book, studying joints and ligaments). Now don't really expect people to move, but it is difficult to maintain your balance on the wobbling trains when you can't bear down with both feet when the train lurches and you're holding two crutches and the train strap so you don't fall over. The best one I saw though while I was standing at the priority seats with a very old and shriveled lady standing beside me, the train stopped and a young business man got up from his seat. Before the old lady and I could even think of playing the politeness game of offering each other the seat repeatedly, another young business man jumped into the seat and immediately stared at his shoes so he wouldn't see everyone glaring at him. Believe me they were, but no one said anything. That would be rude.

Well now it's Tuesday here and the swelling was still huge when I woke up this morning and the bruising had spread to my toes over the weekend, so I opted for another trip to the hospital. Hiroko offered to join us again (this time by bicycle) and met us there where we waited much longer than last time. I finally got in, and the doctor who could speak some English looked at my foot and said that there was a lot of internal bleeding because the ligament was more damaged than they originally thought so in order to prevent it from taking months to heal I would have to be put in a cast for three weeks. WHAT? A cast for sprained ankle? Man do I know how to do it good! After the casting Hiroko had to leave immediately because her daughter's teacher was coming over to the house for a parent teacher interview at 1:30 in the afternoon. Eh? (Guess they don't do parent/teacher interview nights here.) Not feeling like walking anymore we decided to hop in cab, which can be daunting when you tell the driver where to take you, and then have to give him directions (in Japanese) how to even get to a major area (local train station) near the apartment. On more than a few occasions drivers have refused the trip because they didn't know the area we wanted to go. (they won't pull out a map) But out driver was determined and shut off the meter halfway through the trip, because he didn't have clue. We finally got home having exhausted a good portion of our Japanese speaking ability (migi=right hidari=left), and now after a long nap I am sitting here writing and feeling a tad sorry for my crippled self (Colleen left at 7pm for her 8pm-8am shift). Good thing there are vending machines everywhere.

Before I sign off, just a few more pictures to share. In the food and drink section of our photos I have included Fruit Parfait Kit Kat, Mild Bitter Kit Kat, an unusually named soft drink, and three beer related products. Count them...one...two...three. Also while walking by a children's clothing store recently I looked in the window and saw some little girls clothing with some rather foul English on it. I'm sure the owners have no idea of the meaning. In fact I'm not so sure that I do, considering the grammar.

Cheers to you all, take care, get well soon, Carl.

Missions Accomplished!

Well it's time I wrote another entry. Every time I write another blog I always mention how long it's been since the last one and laziness usually figures in somewhere. Recently I have been working a lot of overtime and (believe it or not) exercising in the evenings when I have free time. So what has forced me to finally sit down and share some stories and photos? Massive ankle injury! Might be broken or torn, still to stubborn at the moment to go see the doctor, but I imagine a trip will soon be warranted. I was running and went to jump onto a curb when all of a sudden gravity decided to shift. Anyhow, alive and medicated I give to you....something.

When we came to Japan, we had some goals we wanted to achieve. Most of them involved traveling to certain places in Japan like Hiroshima, Okinawa, Kyoto and Mt. Fuji. If you have read our previous blogs you know we have checked those ones off of our list. Since our last blog we have accomplished a few more goals. We have paid off our credit cards (a feat unto itself), went on a trip to Tokyo (including the Disney resorts) and I have done acting in Japan. I teased with it at the end my last blog and at long last here is the story.

While walking through a shopping mall near work one day I was stopped by a large Australian man in bright clothing to ask if I wanted to see a comedy show in Kobe. He said he was an entertainer by the name of Butch Read (which he says sounds like a lesbian book club) who does some improvisation work here in Japan. I mentioned that I had done some improv work in my younger days, including my brief stint at the Loose Moose theatre. He told me that he had trained there as well, and it turned out that we knew a lot of the same people. He got my number and a few weeks later invited me to join an improv group he was assembling here in Osaka. He explained that we would train for a couple of months and then do a show in Kobe where we would square off against a team from Kobe. We began our rehearsals in, The Wild Bunch, a Japanese book shop that specializes in movie related books. It was also the name that we decided to call our intrepid bunch of Osakan improvisers. Butch would be our leader and teacher but not actually be on either team. The rest of the group consisted of Curtis, an ex-Hollywood stuntman from Albuquerque who got to call Charlise Theron a very bad word in her recent movie North Country. Kat, a young lady from Calgary who had no acting experience but did some highland dancing in her younger days. Genevieve a feisty redhead (is there any other kind) from New York who has studied in several countries around the world. And Jun a Japanese man with a decent grasp of the English language and a good sense of humor. We practiced and finally it came to show time, Jun had suddenly gone AWOL (nerves I imagine) and the four members of The Wild Bunch went to Kobe to compete. We were a little worried at first but once we saw the other team we were pretty confident of a victory (winning wasn't actually the aim of the night, the competition was just the format of the entertainment) as the other team was even less experienced and hadn't quite grasped the idea that they should at least look excited if they wanted the audience to do the same. Any how we played some games until we ran out of games that the other team knew how to play and then the audience declared The Wild Bunch as the evenings winners. YAY! We are now practicing for another show at the end of May this time our troupe seems to be rotating every rehearsal so no idea who will actually be performing. If you would like to see a video clip of some of the improv, send me an E-mail and I will pass it on to you.

In other news if you have read my lovely wife's blog (or the second paragraph of this entry)you have seen that we have been to Tokyo recently. She mostly talks about the awesome hotel we stayed in and at the end mentions some places we went with photo links. Allow me to give a little more detail on some of some of my favorite spots while trekking through Tokyo.

Akihabara: An area famous for being a technogeek heaven. Full of technology stores, adult toy shops (no not that kind you pervert, I'm talking about collectables that are meant to be looked at not played with)(mostly), and maid cafes where girls dressed like maids serve you drinks and food in the most subservient manner they can muster.

Roppongi: Party central, where you can find bars and restaurants to fit your every whim. We went to an English pub, a Chinese restaurant and a sports/celebrity bar.

Tsukiji Fish Market: We were up at 5:00am just to get there on time to see all of the action. It's amazing that there's any fish left in the ocean after seeing the amount of seafood that gets processed there daily. After wandering for a while we decided to have sushi for breakfast. Best I've ever eaten. It was so fresh you could almost feel it moving (I kid) and I even enjoyed the free appetizer (a small bowl of tiny raw fish with the heads still attached and a raw egg yolk poured on top)

Yebisu Beer Museum: We first tried to go on my birthday with Joe but arrived too late and ended up having drinks at a beer hall nearby. We were however not giving up, so on our last day we went back to the museum, saw the sights and then proceeded to sample several delicious beers.

Harajuku: Near the Meiji Shrine is an area where all of the hip, fashionable and just plain strange teenagers like to hang out. And Sunday is the best day to go because this is when they put on their best weirdest outfits and show off for each other and the hundreds of tourists who swarm the area to get pictures.

and last but not least...

Disneyland: I have been to Disney World in Florida but never Disneyland. From what I hear it's quite similar to California's version (except that C3PO speaks Japanese at StarTours) but I'm not sure if the crowds are the same. I like that you can get the advance passes now to go on rides without a huge line-up, but you can only get one every two hours which means at some point a one or two hour line for a ride is inevitable.

and...

DisneySea: This was amazing! Picture Disneyland but with an aquatic theme with lakes and rivers, much less children and they serve beer and cocktails in the restaurants. The whole entryway was designed to look like an Italian villa. There was the American Waterfront where we saw a Broadway review and an outdoor stage where people were lined up at 11:00am for the 7:30pm show (I have to hand it to Japanese people, they will tolerate lines for far longer than their North American counterpart). The Mermaid Lagoon which features Triton's Kingdom with lots of small rides for children and an amazing Little Mermaid stage show, done with lots of performers and wires. The Mysterious Island where we went on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Lost River Delta featured the rollercoaster Raging Spirits and the adventure ride Indiana Jones: Temple of the Crystal Skull. There was also the Arabian Coast which had some Aladdin themed shows, a two story carousel and an awesome restaurant where we ate many kinds of curry. In the evening, instead of a parade like Disneyland they do this huge water and fire show on the lake where a water spirit meets a fire spirit and they fall in love even though their relationship can never be (too sappy?).

We've posted a bunch of pics of everything, I didn't mention all of it because this blog is already an entire evening of reading but not to fear, almost all of the pictures have some sort of description to tell you the place or situation. Alas, however we got no pictures from when we were racially profiled at a train station and had to show passports and alien registration cards to the police (true story).

For all of the improv pics click here.
For the complete Tokyo collection click here.
For Disney click here.
and to see some new pics of funny signs click here and scan forward.

Now go rest your eyes, Carl.