How do they cope?
mr.sumo
girls in Starbucks pronounce the drink names worse than their Japanese
counterparts, the soap operas are depressing and the showers don't
really get you clean.
Worst of all of course is the almost total absence of broadband - how
on earth does the country function? I've been trying to download the
'blaster' fix from Microsoft all day.
On the plus side. It was most amusing to browse the 28 different
varieties of rice at the local (and we're talking a moderately 'inaka'
town) 24-hour supermarket. The 'Britax' child seat, which took just 2
minutes to install, will be brought back to Japan as a second for my
car, and it cost less than 20000 yen. 'Junior' needed a trip to the
doctor's - bad flight (about 8 hours of crying!), bad stomach, and
teething - but great to have a doctor with a bedside manner. That
said - waiting in the reception area and overhearing several
conversations about waiting for two weeks for a blood test, three
months for a consultancy at the hospital et al - it made me grateful
for the Japanese health system - crap at people skills, but at least
you get the blood test within 10 minutes of seeing the doctor, the
x-ray about 15 minutes and an MRI perhaps by the end of the morning.
In the UK they probably wouldn't even have the bloody MRI machine!
--
jonathan
Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson
> Yeah, so like the UK is still the UK. People drive too damn fast,
At least the lanes are actually wider than the cars! Had to drive
again last weekend, and I always hate trying to keep an unfamiliar car
inside the lines with barely a mirror-width of clearance either side.
> the
> girls in Starbucks pronounce the drink names worse than their Japanese
> counterparts,
I can almost understand why UK people frequent Starbucks in Japan, but
why in the UK?
> the soap operas are depressing
You know you've been in Japan too long when you actually miss the "50
Z-list 'talents' joking about a badly-filmed gaigogu murder
reconstruction" shows.
> and the showers don't
> really get you clean.
Ahh, the joys of SE England's hard water, I presume.
> On the plus side. It was most amusing to browse the 28 different
> varieties of rice at the local (and we're talking a moderately 'inaka'
> town) 24-hour supermarket.
I wish I could occassionally find Basmatti rice just for a change.
> The 'Britax' child seat, which took just 2
> minutes to install, will be brought back to Japan as a second for my
> car, and it cost less than 20000 yen.
Howw much are they in Japan?
> 'Junior' needed a trip to the
> doctor's - bad flight (about 8 hours of crying!),
I bet you were popular with the other passengers - didn't you go
Business Class? One thing I always like about it is I've never
encountered infants in the cabin. Hope he's OK now, anyway.
> bad stomach, and
> teething - but great to have a doctor with a bedside manner. That
> said - waiting in the reception area and overhearing several
> conversations about waiting for two weeks for a blood test, three
> months for a consultancy at the hospital et al - it made me grateful
> for the Japanese health system - crap at people skills, but at least
> you get the blood test within 10 minutes of seeing the doctor, the
> x-ray about 15 minutes and an MRI perhaps by the end of the morning.
> In the UK they probably wouldn't even have the bloody MRI machine!
Think yourself lucky you didn't need to take him to the dentist! I was
reading about a new dentist in Wales who had over 600 people queueing
to join his NHS patient list.
If you get the "I don't miss Japan" feeling, jump on the nearest train
or tube, and you'll soon be wishing you were back "home".
Ken
Louise Bremner
> > and the showers don't
> > really get you clean.
>
> Ahh, the joys of SE England's hard water, I presume.
...or minimal water pressure from a fixed shower head (of course, the
minimal pressure might be due to the build-up of deposits in the piping,
come to think on it). And then there's shower enclosures that are too
small, with curtains that cling, built on floors that can't cope with
even minimal splashing....
>
> > On the plus side. It was most amusing to browse the 28 different
> > varieties of rice at the local (and we're talking a moderately 'inaka'
> > town) 24-hour supermarket.
>
> I wish I could occassionally find Basmatti rice just for a change.
<smug> Just been visited by someone who remembered I prefer Basmati and
Tahini as thanks-for-putting-me-up prezzies... </smug>
________________________________________________________________________
Louise Bremner (log at gol dot com)
If you want a reply by e-mail, don't write to my Yahoo address!
Michael Cash
Yasumoto-Nicolson) belched the alphabet and kept on going with:
>mr_...@hotmail.com (mr.sumo) wrote in message news:<8916a4b5.03082...@posting.google.com>...
>> Yeah, so like the UK is still the UK. People drive too damn fast,
>
>At least the lanes are actually wider than the cars! Had to drive
>again last weekend, and I always hate trying to keep an unfamiliar car
>inside the lines with barely a mirror-width of clearance either side.
Welcome to my world. At least you *have* a mirror-width of clearance.
http://tinyurl.com/ll74
http://tinyurl.com/ll6k
http://tinyurl.com/ll6p
>> and the showers don't
>> really get you clean.
>
>Ahh, the joys of SE England's hard water, I presume.
Oh, is that it? I thought maybe he had boarded a plane to France by
mistake.
mr.sumo
> Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson <ken_ni...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > and the showers don't
> > > really get you clean.
> >
> > Ahh, the joys of SE England's hard water, I presume.
>
> ...or minimal water pressure from a fixed shower head (of course, the
> minimal pressure might be due to the build-up of deposits in the piping,
> come to think on it). And then there's shower enclosures that are too
> small, with curtains that cling, built on floors that can't cope with
> even minimal splashing....
>
YES! That's it precisely - the damn water pressure AND the shower
units you have to almost squeeze yourself into - and getting out?
Forgetaboutit.
Nevertheless, I've nicely reacclimatized. 'Junior' gets baptized
today so the morning involved a fair bit of clearing up in the garden
for the after-event. It was nice to perform some manual labor outside
without being in danger of collapsing with heatstroke.
In the morning we're getting out from under grandparents feet (I've
just about reached my maximum 'gaman' time with my mother – 4 days.)
So it's a trip out to mid-Wales, Knighton in Powys to be precise, for
one night and then a pleasant drive down over the Brecon Beacons to
Swansea for a second night. I need to introduce ‘Junior' to the sea,
and there aren't many better places to do that than on the Gower
peninsular. It also keeps us out of Mothercare, Toys R Us and GAP –
dangerous places with a 6 month old in tow!
--
jonathan
mr.sumo
> Think yourself lucky you didn't need to take him to the dentist! I was
> reading about a new dentist in Wales who had over 600 people queueing
> to join his NHS patient list.
>
> If you get the "I don't miss Japan" feeling, jump on the nearest train
> or tube, and you'll soon be wishing you were back "home".
>
Ah! The joys of having grown up in Dudley in the West Midlands and
still being able to go to the same dentist that I first started
seeing, on the NHS of course, 28 years ago. He's only private these
days, but for his special patients - read patient aka ME - he gets his
receptionist to dig out an NHS form (takes about 10 minutes to find
them and dust the cobwebs off). To his or my credit, this time he
came within an um and an ah of saying my teeth were in no need of any
attention. A toss of a coin later and he'd decided to touch up a
small filling. I related more horror stories about Japanese dentists
for his amusement, and he told me about all the flying he's able to do
these days now he's gone private. I don't know what I'm going to do
when he retires!
--
jonathan
Michael Cash
the alphabet and kept on going with:
>dame_...@yahoo.com ( Louise Bremner) wrote in message news:<1g0g7qk.uil4r8z7lt2eN%dame_...@yahoo.com>...
>> Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson <ken_ni...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > > and the showers don't
>> > > really get you clean.
>> >
>> > Ahh, the joys of SE England's hard water, I presume.
>>
>> ...or minimal water pressure from a fixed shower head (of course, the
>> minimal pressure might be due to the build-up of deposits in the piping,
>> come to think on it). And then there's shower enclosures that are too
>> small, with curtains that cling, built on floors that can't cope with
>> even minimal splashing....
>>
>
>YES! That's it precisely - the damn water pressure AND the shower
>units you have to almost squeeze yourself into - and getting out?
>Forgetaboutit.
>
>Nevertheless, I've nicely reacclimatized. 'Junior' gets baptized
>today so the morning involved a fair bit of clearing up in the garden
>for the after-event. It was nice to perform some manual labor outside
>without being in danger of collapsing with heatstroke.
Please refrain from using "manual" and "stroke" together in the same
post. Bryan skips work for weeks afterwards.