Honest to blog

Well that took a while.

My laptop died a few weeks back and so I've been out of blogging action. Also I am in fact a lazy human being who can't even be bothered to type a few thoughts now and again!

I've found myself being very lazy in alot of aspects of my life recently. My Japanese studies have been neglected and I'm pretty shocked that even after a year my listening, reading and most of all speaking is rediculously bad. I admit it's better than it was when I first came here but still I would have liked to have seen myself doing a bit better by now. Hey

Ho though, some days I'm filled with the drive to learn and study hard but I had a period of being very dissinterested in language. Perhaps due to my job allowin

g me to speak only English I had no fear of communication. The only words I have to speak everyday is "Arigatou Gozaimasu" to the clerks at the 7Eleven.

Conclusion, I need the fear!

One of the highlights for December has been getting the FLU. I was knocked out for a week, and I do mean knocked out. Flopping around in bed like a fish, sweating and crying for my mum!

I visited the doctor 4 times and 4 times I was put on drips of vitamines and antibiotics.

Seeing as I'd never in my life been on a drip before this was somewhat of a novelty but by the 4th time of being sat for 2 hours with a pin in my arm I was ready to get the fuck better.

It's funny, in England I would visit the doctor maybe once or twice a year if that but since I've been in Japan I have been to the doctor/hospital a total of 6 times! SIX! WHY IS THIS? Does riding the Chou line everyday mean really mean I am just begging for sickness? Should I really start wearing those masks to keep peoples nasty germs away? Or is it the fact I work with a classroom of toddlers who lick their snot off their hands and cough in my face? These are mysteries of the universe but nevermind, Tokyo made me sick. Not that getting the flu is uncommon but I haven't had it for a few years and so I'd fogotten how truely crap it is. I sware I get man flu...

The attitudes towards illness are slightly different here too. Like being put on a drip was, for me, a fairly extreme thing to go through. In England, you are told to drink fluids and rest for a few days while taking painkillers. There was a point in my illness where the doctor told me he was going to refere me to a hospital if I didn't improve by my next appoinment (The next day)...LIKE WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY? But I understand why now....

I'm not complaining, but (ohh but) the medicine here sucks. The Japanese drugs seem to be a good few years behind most other places, the painkillers you get are expensive and weak and are pretty much a waste of everyones time. Cold medicines cost around Y1500, roughly GPB10 which is, quiet honestly TAKING THE PISS. But I haven't found the perscription to be any better. The doctor gave me Tamiflu, which was made notorious in England for making people worse when they had flu, and another tablet I got was just a B12 vitamin...but I trust these doctors medical knowledge is greater than my own so I took the pills and felt the same. The drips however did have an effect and after my second dose of the purple bag I found I could sit down, stand up and move my head without wishing I was dead. The drips may have seemed extreme at the time but I have I feeling they are the only thing that would do any good.

It was a quicky, however Christmas is fast approching and I'm interested to see how 2 Brits and a Sweedish girl (Namely me and my housemates) will fare this holiday season....having no oven to cook a roast dinner, no Christmas crackers and no SPROUTS. Drama is sure to happen, please watch out!