The Thermometer

If you've never been to a Japanese hospital, but think you might have to go someday, then this information is for you.

I walk into the hospital on Tuesday morning, having had a high fever (103.2 F) the night before, as well as having a stomachache. I do the initial paperwork (in Japanese):

What's your date of birth? January 22nd, in the 47th year of Showa.

Is this your first visit to this hospital? Yes.

What is the nature of your problem? Fever, stomachache.

Etc…

I am then directed to the waiting area in front of 内科 (naika = internal medicine). While waiting with a few other patients, the internal medicine nurse comes out with more paperwork, a pencil and a thermometer. She tells me to take my temperature, and that it should take five minutes for an accurate reading, and walks away.

Ok. I shake the thermometer, pop it in my mouth and begin deciphering the kanji on the paperwork.

Circle where it hurts – ok.

Circle any symptoms you have- ok. So far so good.

When I get to some sentences that I don’t understand at all and am relying on my trusty electronic dictionary (Canon Wordtank V80), a nice, student-looking guy walks over and offers to help. Thankfully, he reads some of the obscure kanji aloud for me, as I mumble appreciation around the thermometer. After helping me with the paperwork, he then says, “by the way, the thermometer doesn’t go in your mouth; it goes here, under your arm.”

Great! So I’ve just been sitting in the waiting room with an arm-pit thermometer in my mouth for the last five minutes! Well – it’s good to know that I’m not done learning yet!


PS – if you’re interested, it turns out that I had a kidney infection, which laid me low for a few days – but that’s gone now!

Too Much...

Whew.

After the disheartening beginning of the long weekend, Brian and I actually did manage to get away to Nagano for some DH biking after all. We left Susono early Sunday morning as, according to the weather forecast, we would be in for some sunny skies. We got to ride Sunday AND Monday, and we did get lucky with the weather.

Sunday, the sky was overcast and somewhat threatening, but the temperature was comfortable and the trail conditions dry. Also, Fujimi Panorama was so uncrowded, without the usual DH fanatics blasting down the advanced courses, that I could get in a few practice runs on the A-Course (advanced) as well as brush up on the B-Course.

We camped on Sunday night under a clear sky and enjoyed continued good weather on Monday. Susono, our home city, was not so lucky - turns out it rained here all day!


Yatsugatake in Nagano:


As the weather clears, the frogs come out around our apartment:




PS - stay tuned for the next post when I give some tips on where not to put your thermometer when in a Japanese hospital!

Not quite Katrina

or Rita, but we get our share of Tropical Storms here too. The power of the storms might be similar, but the Japanese have been toughing these out for thousands of years, so even direct hits are just an inconvenience and a few hours of live news reporting from a beach.

We had everything in place for a long weekend of DH riding in the Nagano: bikes repaired and tuned just right, the rack system on the truck repaired and reinforced, all camping/riding/cooking gear packed, etc. The forecast began looking worse as the holiday (the Autumnal equinox) grew nearer...

Finally we decided to abandon the plans and stay around home in Susono. It turns out that Typhoon #18 is heading this way, and should reach here by 6 tomorrow morning. Here is a multi-spectral image of that storm:

Blogs I Read

So actually, I've been a member of Blogger since about 1999 or so, under one guise or another. One of my first blogs was a team blog called "Letting the Thunder Pass". Way back then, I didn't maintain the blog, only a post once a month or so. Oh, how little was I aware of the fervent popularity blogging would gain. Ah, well. I guess that's why I never invested in Microsoft, either:-)

Of late, I have been reading many blogs regularly. Some are people I know, some are just very popular blogs that everybody reads, and others are "friends" whom I've met through blogging.

The blogging friends whose blogs I read:

• Life's Little Things, which is about, well, life's little things - a career woman, mother, wife, mom-of-kittens. And I think I'm busy.
• Neilans chronicles the activities, insights and activism of an active woman (who just happens to be Brian's mom!)
• Once Again With Feeling - one of my very very best friends, who talks about his challenges and successes, both in his marathons and his life; inspiring and intelligent.
• Alyssa in Japan speaks for itself, and her photos really are worth a thousand words.

Bloggers I've met through blogging:

• Mr. Hassle's Underpants, by Doc Shazam - the blog of a heroically hectic medical intern (female, I might add!) who also does some awesome mountain biking around Colorado.
• Street Philosopher - A university student (19 years old), who, I think, thinks more and more often than I ever did. And, yes, he enjoys mountain biking. More power to him.

Popular blogs:

• Boing Boing (hey, everybody reads that!)
• Random Acts of Reality - an ambulance attendant in London - intelligent and brief posts about the joys and miseries of saving the lives of drunks, heroin addicts and little old ladies. Sensitive and life affirming.
• Small Dead Animals -An opinionated Canadian. Finally! I knew there was another one!!

Well - that's it for now. Tune in tomorrow when I list the poets I read:-)

ANOTHER Long Weekend!

Today, Friday, is a national holiday in honor of the official beginning of autumn, and as we kick off yet another three-day weekend, I want to take a moment to appreciate the little things in life.

First - two long weekends in a row. What can be better than that?
Second - today, I am lazing around. I am not riding, not running, not working out. Not working. I instead lie abed until nearly 6 this morning, and now am sipping tea and eating some toast and peanut butter, enjoying the not having to do anything, and not having anything to do.

Brian, however, cannot bear to be indoors on a sunny holiday weekend; can't say I blame him, really. Today, as I do so little, Brian is working on projects like fixing the bike rack and adjusting his fork. Also, as even I can only enjoy one day of idelness, tomorrow we are going to Nagano to ride, packing even warmer sweaters this week!

So finally, as I chill like an icecube, I just have to say that Life Is Good.

Life is ...LIFE

Just a minor reflection on what IS...

Nothing is always perfect
Nobody is who you always want them to be
Everything can be worse than it is....

I am very content today, being as very ME as I can be; and yet I recognise that being ME is my destiny, and at the same time, I understand that you need some recognition...

Under the Clear Blue Sky

People often talk about "getting away from it all". While we embrace even the work aspects of life, we could only appreciate the beauty of a fine-weather three-day weekend which we spent, naturally, downhilling and camping in Nagano. The skies were cerulean blue, and we were able to get a couple of photos of other people who also like to rise above their day-to-day selves:

Not Another Weekend...

Yes, the weekend is here again, and it is a long weekend at that, as Monday is a national holiday. After last weekend's hectic time in Tokyo, we are packing up to go camping and riding in Nagano for this one. Sad to say, the evening temperatures have been dropping, and it promises to be chilly in the mountains, so we've had to pack sweaters.

Ah, well.

Ahhh, a day at the fights...

What a great weekend; busy busy busy! Saturday in Tokyo included shopping, eating, and walking especially around Shinjuku and Ebisu. Mexican for lunch at Rosita's and then dinner at My Thai (just like Bangkok!).

Everything that we bought we had shipped back to our apartment by deilivery service, so we could proceed hands-free for the rest of the time in the big city. Soooo convenient.

Sunday included a huge Mexican lunch (at Zest, also in Ebisu) and then on to the sumo tournament, with a quick stop in Akihabara, the 'electric city'on the way. Here's my ticket for the 'box' seats:



And here's an action shot:

All in all a great time, but exhausting enough to make me appreciate being home in the country!

Tokyo Weekend

Wow - though Tokyo is only about 150km away from where we live, Brian and I rarely venture into the big city. But this weekend we are going to enjoy exotic restaurants, shopping, sightseeing and sumo in the metropolis.

The Morning After

The best part about typhoons is the morning after, or simply the day after– when the rain has finished and the strong winds have cleared the sky of its habitual haziness.

I’m still trying to learn more about photography and how to take good pictures – to that end, I used the soft late-afternoon light and the clear sky to practice with my aperture values and shutter speed, just outside my apartment in Susono.

Here is yet another picture of the rice paddy – this time, with rice growing and ready for reaping:




Here is Mt. Fuji, seen over the neighborhood rooftops, swirling in post-typhoon trauma:

Recovery

Or not.

After Saturday's long-haul cross-country ride, Sunday brought a day of rest and intellectual pursuits and I actually did put in a lot of Japanese study time. Brian, meanwhile, worked on a few projects that had been piling up, such as taking the "step" off his truck and raising the front a little (the result: very cool).

I also went to the gym for the first time in months, discovering that there in fact are still muscles there somewhere!

This week has brought a run for me, a ride for Brian and another workout for both of us. The typhoon that is working its way up a long the coast has meant a bit more rain, but not enough to put a damper on things.

Joining the Blogosphere

The Blogosphere is a great community, and I am happy to welcome another Blogger to the sphere - Brian's mom has set up her own personal blog and has already posted some great photos.

www.neilans.blogspot.com

Biking around Motosuko

First, I love my Rig. I love it so much that this weekend I told Brian that I wanted to bring the Rig up to our downhill place instead of bringing my downhill bike. Luckily, he talked me out of it, and our friend Chris talked us into doing some SSing (singlespeeding) around Motosuko instead. How was it? In a word, awesome.

The three of us got a semi-late start on Saturday morning, but that was not a problem, as Motosuko is not nearly as far as our usual Nagano destination. We got there, traffic free, in about an hour and a half.

Motosuko is one of the Fuji Goko (Fuji Five Lakes - ko means lake). The other lakes are Shojiko, Saiko, Yamanakako and Kawaguchiko, with Kawaguchiko being the most popular of the five lakes. They are "volcanic lakes", formed over the years by Mt. Fuji's volcanic activity.

Fuji Goko:




Motosuko, being less well-known, hosted many windsurfers but few hikers, although the area is criss-crossed with great hiking trails, complete with ruggedly beautiful volcanic geology, which made for great riding.

The pink and the blue line below our the trails we rode:


The riding was so good - we spent about an hour and a half riding to and around Shojiko. After a brief rest at the trucks, we then hit the trail again, this time heading toward a small lake called Tanukiko. However, by 4:00, after climbing stairs and pedaling up hills, I thought there was no way I could pedal anymore; we turned around and headed back for base, which is a shame, really, as the trail was starting to look even more dreamy. I certainly need to improve my cross-country fitness - living in a valley, I can climb 10km straight up, but 31km (which is what we rode yesterday) of rolling hills nearly depleted my energy stores.

This is Chris posing with his K2 Big Train 800 - a 29er which he also converted into a SingleSpeed.


Here's my Rig posing along one of the trails:


Here I am crossing a swampy spot, as caught by Chris on his cellphone/camera: