3か⽉ – 3 Months

Well, I have made it to the half way point. Today is twelve weeks since I came to Japan. Three months down, three to go. I don't think the enormity of being half-way through my placement has hit me yet.

Over the past few weeks in particular, May and I have really bonded. She is remarkably similar to me, which does mean however, that she occasionally annoys me. Most of the time though, we spend laughing together. Yeah, we get a lot of stares from people at work, let me tell you. She has become a very dear friend to me and one I will always think of fondly when I remember my time in Japan. We have already made loose plans for me to visit her in Vancouver and for her to visit me in England at some point in the future. Man, I'm going to miss her. Although I am excited about finishing my placement and going home, it makes me sad thinking about leaving May-chan. Her nickname among her friends back in Canada is 'Amazing', as in Amazing May; on the same theme, she gave me the nickname Wonder Lily. We could totally fight crime.

*

This week is the last of my current work schedule, the one May and I have followed for the past three months. We still don't know which new departments we will start working in next week (some of our bosses are having a meeting today, I think, to decide) but we are feeling quite optimistic about the change. Of course, I will let you all know where we end up.

*

Tonight is Fugu Night. I am so excited! I'm going to try fugu at last. I remember seeing that Simpsons episode as a child, you know, the one where Homer demands fugu at a Japanese restaurant and then thinks he's going to die after eating it, but then doesn't. That episode has stuck with me all these years, so I am really determined to go ahead and seize this opportunity. Also, I promised my cousin that I would try it. This is for you, Greg!

I miss rain. I was lying in bed last night, all snug under my duvet and electric blanket and I realised something was missing: the sound of rain against the window. I have been here three months and in that time is has rained four, maybe five times. I am English; I need more rain than that! November brought the cold weather finally. I say cold, I mean by Nagasaki standards, with highs in the mid-teens. But we still have crisp, blue sky almost every day. Wait, why am I complaining again? Oh right, yes, I want night rain. Yes, that would be good, blue sky during the day and rain at night. Oooh, or snow. Mmm, snow would be good. I am told it usually snows here once or twice a year. Fingers crossed, eh?

たべもの と かいもの - Food and Shopping

May and I have become suddenly very popular indeed. I think maybe it was our joining the sports teams in Kumamoto and our pathetic attempt at playing volleyball last week that has brought us closer to certain members of the hospital staff. They just seem a little more comfortable around us and, apparently, more open to inviting us out. I am writing this on Saturday morning (24th November) and yesterday we had lunch out with Oka-san, the assistant nurse on 5W, and her daughter. We had this (it's a type of bento):

Today, we are meeting Kumiko-san again for lunch, and on Wednesday we are having – drum roll, please - fugu(!) with Nakashima-sensei and another of the senior doctors, who's name I don't know yet.

I'll just quickly explain about the Japanese naming system, since I have now mentioned three different addresses in this blog. Putting -sanafter the name is the equivalent of calling somebody Mr, Mrs, or Miss. You generally use the surname only; first names are only used by very close friends or between members of the same family. Also, I have noticed at work that if more than one person has the same surname, people might call them by their first name. If you called out for Yamaguchi-san about ten nurses and three doctors would answer. -Chan, as I think I have mentioned previously, is less formal than '-san' and is usually used when referring to children. Children, and me. Finally, -sensei means teacher as a word on it's own, but after a name it means doctor. So Nakashima-sensei is Dr Nakashima. Oh, actually, like in English, you could just say 'Sensei' when speaking to a doctor, as in, “Tell me the truth, Doctor” or “Thank you, Doctor”.

Back to all the dinner engagements. So yeah, I am having fugu on Wednesday! You all will know what fugu is, even if you don't recognise the word. Fugu is that infamous Japanese fish that can kill you if you eat certain parts of it. It looks like this:

If I am not mistaken, it is the toxins in it's liver that can turn your dinner into your funeral. It is usually served as sashimi (thin slices of the raw fish) or boiled in a soup, I believe. It is a winter delicacy and an expensive one at that, so May and I are very lucky that Nakashima-sensei offered to treat us to some. I understand that a good fugu chef can prepare the fish so that there is still enough toxin in it that it makes your lips go numb – that is the optimum fugu experience. If there's a little bit more of the poison present than that, you will end up in a coma, and a little more on top of that and you'll end up six feet under. I read somewhere that back in the olden days, to distinguish between coma and death in someone who had eaten fugu, they would leave the body next to the coffin for three days before they buried it: A comatose body won't rot. So that is all for me to look forward to on Wednesday. If you don't hear from me after that, you will know what happened.

*

After lunch with Kumiko-san today, May and I are going shopping. Yay! We have been very good and have resisted doing this until now since our last spree in September. But believe me, my urges to buy things are so pent up, there will be no resistance this afternoon. There will be no holding me back. Ha ha ha ha! There is a decent excuse for shopping today though. Firstly, it is a long-weekend so there are a few sales on. Secondly, May and I have a party to go to and therefore, a new outfit to buy. More on this later, hee hee.

わたし の しゅうまつ- My Weekend

I had a really great weekend, maybe the best so far since coming to Japan. It started off with lunch at Ezoesan's house with May. Ezoesan is a now-retired nurse who used to work at the Genbaku Hospital and who befriended May and me back in September. It was possibly the best Japanese meal I have had. It was really wonderful. Exquisite, even. Also, she showed us how to do the tea ceremony. For the first time I felt I was getting quite deep into Japanese culture, which was a nice feeling.

The opera on Saturday evening was fantastic too. It wasn't a performance of the entire Madame Butterfly opera, but kind of an ensemble. There were three main vocalists, two soprano's and a tenor (the tenor and one of the soprano's were Korean and the other soprano was Chinese), as well as three pianists, an violinist/violist, a clarinet player and a group of chorus singers. The show opened with 18 kimono-clad women on stage singing the chorus. It was truly amazing. The clarinet player was the best I have ever seen. I was glad to see his talents were being rewarded with an excellent solo. Of the two soprano's, the Chinese woman was the most skilled, but the the Korean woman, wow. Her voice... her voice just melted into you. Her name is Chun Sonmi, if any of you want to look her up. My favourite performance of the evening was the tenor's rendition of a traditional Korean folk song. He was clearly enjoying singing it, which makes all the difference.
Sunday started bright and early with an inter-departmental volleyball competition at the hospital. May and I went with the intention of just watching and cheering on our friends but, well, one thing lead to another and we ended up playing in a match. I had never played volleyball before in my life and there I was is a tournament game. Naturally, I was appalling. Fortunately, the game didn't last long and May and I didn't let ourselves get dragged into another one for the rest of the day. We enjoyed the cheering part, and a lot of the hospital staff brought their kids along so we got to play with them too.

After much hilarity during an MSN conversation with my friend online and after running 10km 2 minutes faster than my previous time (woo!), I had my monthly phone call home. Although one of my brothers and my Mum couldn't be there, I still had a lot of fun talking to two of my siblings and my Dad. There was lots of laughing, initially at the huge time delay between each person finishing a sentence and the other hearing it. Speaking to them made me realise something: I am happy here. Before I was fine, but now I am happy.

I only have a four day week at work this week since it is a national holiday in Japan on Friday. May and I have plans for pretty much every minute of the three-day weekend. I'll talk more about that later though. Oh, one last thing. May informs me that today marks 100 days of our placement remaining here in Nagasaki. That doesn't sound like a lot does it? That's all for now; Got to get back to work.

Hamanosan, my supervisor on Friday afternoons, just handed me and May tickets to see Madame Butterfly tomorrow night. Awesome. I am going to the opera tomorrow, woo! And where better to see Madame Butterfly than in Nagasaki?

We love Hamanosan. She`s become like a mother to us. If we ever have a problem she will be the first person we go to.

Kumamoto

Before I went on the sports trip to Kumamoto, I thought most of my work colleges were caring but serious people. They are hard and committed workers, and the kind of people you would trust with your medical care. Now... let's just say I am looking at them in a different light. Okay, I'll put it this way: They started drinking beer before the bus started moving. Yeah.

May and I were told to meet everyone at the hospital at 12 noon on Saturday and that we would be leaving around one. We were some of the first people to arrive, but by 12:30 all 64 of the other Kumamoto-Goers had also shown up. May and I had been designated to travel on the second bus (of 2) with the baseball and volleyball teams. You have to take into account then, that everything I am about to describe may have been unique to the second bus but I doubt it. I doubt everyone on the first bus was just sitting there reading books while all those on the second... oh, boy. There was lots of beer – as I said, they started that at around ten to one in the afternoon – then they moved onto the wine, and with this, they started the karaoke. It was great, and very funny watching all these people I know as nurses, doctors, surgeons(!) getting tipsy on a coach. Even though May and I weren't drinking, we really soaked up the good atmosphere. It was kind of difficult not to. The Japanese have been stereotyped as scrupulous workers, but I can testify that they are also party maniacs!

The one thing that best sums up the journey I think, is when one of the senior members of staff (who was the main organizer of the trip) stood up and yelled above all the commotion to say that we wouldn't be making any more stops unless someone needed to use the toilet. Then she asked if anyone needed to go and half the bus eagerly raised their hands, shouting, "Me!" in unison. It was such an odd, amusing moment. It felt just like being on a school trip: thirty kids on a bus getting over-excited and needing to use the bathroom every hour.

We arrived in Kumamoto at about 4:30 and it took us another 30 minutes to get to the hotel. We would be staying at the Toyoko Inn and May and I were very pleased to discover that everyone would have their own individual room. We weren't worried about the two of us sharing, but the prospect of sharing with one or more drunk Japanese girls didn't really appeal to us non-drinkers, who just wanted a good nights' sleep. The rooms were small but very nice indeed. We didn't get to spend much time in them though; at 5:30 all of us left and made our way to the ANA Hotel for the opening ceremony, along with all the other teams from around Kyushu.

The opening ceremony was great. There was lots of food, lots of alcohol (and a very happy atmosphere for the sober people to enjoy) and each hospital team did a little performance for the total 850 spectators. There was a recurrent theme in most of these performances: semi-nudity. It was surprising how willing all these committed health care professionals were to make fools of themselves. My hospitals' performance consisted of a well-built pharmacist in a short dress and pink wig, dancing and miming to music with the volleyball team dancing in the background. I laughed the whole way through. I will never look at that pharmacist in the same way ever again.

There are two other Gappers currently on placement in Kyushu, Lucy and Lee-Anna, who are living in Kumamoto, as it happens. We met up with them at the opening ceremony and got to compare notes on our placements and life in Japan in general. We hadn't seen them since we were in Tokyo together back in September. They actually performed in their hospital's dance and were superb. They didn't get naked though, just for the record.

The ceremony wrapped up around 9pm. We headed back to the Toyoko Inn and I went straight to bed, having set my alarm for 5:40. I had to be up so early on Sunday because at 6am everyone was to eat a bento breakfast in their rooms (although I ate mine with May in hers). We all got back on the buses then made our way to the sports complex. It was only then that I remembered, oh yeah we're here for a sports event. (With all the drinking and dancing going on around me I had forgotten). This was an annual sports competition between all the Red Cross hospitals in Kyushu, of which there are many. There are two in Nagasaki alone, mine being the Nagasaki Genbaku and the other being Isahaya. On arrival, May and I tagged on to our relay marathon team because we thought they were heading somewhere where everyone was meeting but they turned out to be walking over the marathon route. We didn't mind though; It was really cold so all the walking kept us warm. We had a good time just chatting with them too. Here they are:

The marathon was due to start at 1pm so the team decided to watch some softball until then. Softball is like baseball, but the balls are bigger and yes, a little softer. Also, girls can play. I think that's the only difference between the two. Isahaya were playing first, so the Genbaku team were all there cheering on their friends. I had never watched a softball game before but I really enjoyed it. It helped having Imamurasan, one of the marathon team (far right in the above photo), there to explain the rules to us. Isahaya won 17 to 8. May thinks it was her cheering that made them win, and I think maybe she is right. You should have seen her, she was yelling like a madwoman. It was her first softball game too but she took to it like a duck to water.

Genbaku weren't playing softball until a little later so May and I had a wonder around. We bumped into Lucy and Lee-Anna, who were working on the staff, and chatted with them for a while. Then we watched a little tennis and some volleyball. We caught the second half of the softball game between Nagasaki Genbaku and Kumamoto. May was cheering like crazy again but we got thrashed. We lost 22 to 0. Yeah, our softball team sucked. It was still fun to watch and we still cheered even when we were clearly going to lose the game. One of the radiologists was watching with us and he kept shouting, "Ii yo!" to our team. It means 'no problem' or 'don't worry about it'. LOL. At this point we were at 20 to 0 and this was the last innings. There's no way we can win and he's shouting, 'no problem'. Now that's a committed fan.

Everyone had bento for lunch, courtesy of the Kumamoto organizers. I can't even imagine how much 850 bento boxes costs. By then it was almost time for the marathon so May and I headed for the track, where it would start and where all the exchanges would take place. We stopped off at the volleyball courts on the way and watched Nagasaki Genbaku win their quarter-final. Woo! During the marathon May and I came up with the chant, Go Genbaku, Go! which we were very proud of but too shy to use, since we would actually be saying "Go atomic bomb, go!" which we thought may be a little insensitive. Our team did well in the marathon even without our chant, coming 12th out of over twenty.

The closing ceremony started at 3pm after all the games had finished. Nagasaki Genbaku came third in the volleyball competition, but apart from that most events were won by Kumamoto or Fukuoka - two of the largest cities in Kyushu. We finished off with Manzai, where everyone raises their hands and cheers "Manzai!" together. It is kind of like the Japanese version of The Wave, or Mexican Wave as we call it in England. Back to the bus we went, and back to Nagasaki. The return journey was less chaotic than the one on the way. Everyone was so tired. There was plenty of drinking again though :-)

It was so wonderful to see Nagasaki again. I was home! Visiting Kumamoto made me realise how beautiful Nagasaki is. It was great sleeping in my own bed again. At work the following day I was looking at the staff differently. I now know that no matter how serious they are about their jobs, they will party like their is no tomorrow if given the chance.

May trying to keep warm:

げか - Surgery

Phew! What a week it has been. My first surgery was awesome, as was the Kumamoto trip, although for drastically different reasons. I'll talk about Kumamoto in a later post, I promise.

So there I was, last Wednesday, the day of my first surgery. I was met by one of the female surgeons who took me into the changing room to get into my surgical scrubs, cap and mask. Even that part was exciting. She then took me through the surgical floor to O.T. 5, where I had a few minutes to just look around in awe at all the cool equipment and medical stuff. Nakashimasan (the vice-president of the hospital, who took May and me to the Viking restaurant back in October) arrived and he told me a bit about the patient: 6 year-old male; blood type AB+; suffering from sleep apnea, difficulties eating/gaining weight, a concave chest and heart problems as a result of this; will undergo tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Basically, his tonsils and adenoids were so big that he couldn't swallow, that's where most of his medical problems were coming from. This tiny little boy was brought in, obviously pretty scared, but the anaesthetists were great and soon calmed him down. It took quite a long time for him to fully fall asleep though. Nakashimasan explained that they were being particularly careful with the anaesthetic because he was a child.

With the patient under general anaesthetic, the surgeons got to work. The main thing they were worried about was bleeding. They don't use sutures for a tonsillectomy so they have to be certain that they have stopped all the bleeding (using what is essentially a soldering iron) before they wake the patient up. I was a little surprised at how rough they had to be to get the tonsils out. They used a 'snare' (wire loop) and pretty much just pulled them out. From start to finish, it was about 1 hour 30 minutes. That's 90 minutes of pure enthralment from my perspective.

After the little boy was moved out and taken back to his Mum, Nakashimasan gave me a proper tour of the surgical floor. I got to peek inside the other four operating rooms, all of which had surgeries going on in them. I also spent a few minutes observing a skin tumour being removed from a woman's scalp, which was very cool. I wondered how something like that gets noticed though. I mean I could only see it because her head had been shaved. Ordinarily her hair would have covered it, right?

Anyway, we headed back to OT5. A second patient was brought in. Two surgeries in one day – I couldn't believe my luck! This patient was a middle-aged man with a visible tumour in his neck: a tumour of the lymph gland. As you probably would have guessed, he was in surgery to have it removed. The doctors didn't know if it was malignant or not, but regardless, nobody wants a lump the size of a golf ball sticking out of they neck. This second procedure was way cooler than the first. The point at which I realised this was when the surgeons were in the process of cutting out the tumour, tying off blood vessels as they went – something that looked very satisfying to do indeed – and a wonderful gloop of lymph oozed out of it. Imagine really thick cream, but more yellow, and you've got lymph. It was disgusting but so, so interesting. Apparently, this tumour was actually contained within a lymph-filled sack, hence the seepage. Cooool.

The second surgery only took about an hour and after that, alas, I had to leave. I was really tired though, after standing up concentrating for three hours straight. My body was tired, but my mind was buzzing. It really was amazing. It all felt so natural, you know, like it was natural for me to be there. This wasn't just some once-in-a-lifetime experience; I could see myself doing this every day as my job. Ah, I am still so excited about it a week on. I might being going into surgery again this afternoon but Nakashimasan is at a conference so I need to find the female surgeon from last time. I'll let you know as and when I make it back in!

おどろき- Surprises

Surprise Number One: Today, in approximately twenty-five minutes, I will be watching my first ever surgery!

Surprise Number Two: Over the next four months I will be watching many surgeries, perhaps as many as one per week, and of all different types. My hospital doesn't have a cardiology or neurology department - yes, I did ask! - but it does have an excellent orthopedic department. Do you know how cool an orthopedic surgery is going to be?!

Surprise Number Three: I am going to Kumamoto this weekend, my first trip outside of Nagasaki. There's a Kyushu-wide Red Cross Sports Competition being held there on Sunday, so the hospital is arranging for May and me to travel down there, as well as putting us up in a hotel and providing us with meals. We have to pay ¥5000 for this but, believe me, this is a bargain. Although we're only going to watch, it will be great cheering for the Nagasaki team, as well as getting to know some of the other hospital staff better. Oh, and Lucy and LeeAnna, two of the other Gapper's we met in Tokyo are placed in Kumamoto, so May and I will get to see them again too.

Surprise Number Four: I can't tell anybody this one yet, but for those it will affect - hee hee - it's going to be great.

*

Feeling good.

やっきょく- Pharmacy

At the end of November my timetable at work is due change. I will still spend half of every day in a nurses station, but the departments in which I work for the other half will change for the latter three months of my placement. This means I will no longer go to the beloved Pharmacy on Thursday afternoons or Radiology on Friday afternoons. I feel a little sad about this because I have made some good friends in these departments and I enjoy the work there. On the plus side, I won't have to go to the Medical Matters section first thing on a Monday anymore. No more lugging patient's files the size of encyclopedias for three and a half hours at a time, yay.

When I first discovered that my whole working week was to be transformed so drastically, my instinct was to worry. (What a surprise, *eye roll*). Now though, I am getting quite excited about it. I have various sources of information in the hospital, and in terms of which new departments I can expect to spend half of my week in, overall things look good. I don't want to say too much on this now because I kinda sorta have a few surprises up my sleeve that I don't want to let slip yet. Hee hee. I know something you don't know!

Anyway, I know I have mentioned the Pharmacy a few times as being my favourite department, but I haven't really explained why. Now that I only have four more afternoons there - yikes, is it only four? - it seems about time that I list a few reasons why I like it so much:
1. I'm together with May, so we can chat and I don't have to worry as much about understanding Japanese because she is essentially my interpreter.
2. We get to sit down for the entire time. Believe me, this is a God-send after a hard morning on the nurses stations.
3. Most of what we do involves packaging medications, like this...

...folding leaflets, and occasionally mixing pre-measured medicine. None of this is particularly difficult work, but is occupying enough that we don't get too bored and not too distracting so we can still talk.
4. The staff in the Pharmacy are really friendly and very appreciative of our work. They even make us origami.

5. The staff in the Pharmacy bring us tea and cakes once we have finished all the work.
6. We are allowed to leave early if we finish all the work set. We do this every single week.

So there you go, my work in the Pharmacy in a nutshell.