Eye Yai Yai

 Food, Foreign Languages, Japan, Japanese Language, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on Eye Yai Yai
Sep 282011
 

I had the hotel’s breakfast again, then went straight to the front desk to take care of two things:

  1. my eyes, which now hurt like hell
  2. and finding someone who can do something about the stink in the bathroom. Seriously, what is that? It’s not me. It was like that when I got there.

A nice young woman at the desk told me to go to the JR Hospital down the street a block from the hotel, and she helped me write a short paragraph in Japanese, explaining just what the heck is wrong with my eyes.

Yeah, I know, I’m lame. But I haven’t studied medical Japanese at all. I did learn the word 眼科 がんか ganka, which means ophthalmology.

Anyway, I had to hustle, because they stopped seeing patients at 11 a.m., and it was already 10. So I rushed over there, and started working my way through the Japanese Health Care Delivery System. And it IS a system.

A Hospital Is Approaching, Please Stand Behind the Yellow Line

First things first– it is the JR Hosptial. Yes, that JR, as in Japan Rail. Well, I’ve seen stranger things, I guess. But I can’t complain. The treatment I got was first-rate, just like pretty much everything Japan Rail does. (Except maybe some of the train station bathrooms… some of those can be kind of on the icky side.)

First I had to ask around to find the non-emergency clinics. Clinics found, I got handed around by a bunch of nice women, some of whom spoke English, some of whom did not. Eventually, they found a medical translator, and she helped me get through most of the forms, and helped me get my hospital card… which had my name spelled wrong in both English *and* in Japanese. Quite a feat, but not surprising. My last name isn’t easy for native English speakers, either. They always screw it up. Can’t say I was surprised.

The translator led me to the ophthalmology clinic, then I got a number, and got down to some serious waiting. And waiting. About 40 minutes of waiting.

I finally saw an ophthalmologist who spoke near perfect English, and she told me that my eyes were inflamed. (Which I kind of knew.) She gave me some prescriptions for some medication, answered my questions, and sent me on my merry way.

Then it was off to the cashier to pay, and then to the pharmacy department to pick up my meds. And I was done.

From “I’m coming to your hospital with my sick eyes,” to “Here are your eye drops, now get out,” it took about 2 hours, and cost about 11,000 yen.

That’s pretty good, considering that it usually takes me anywhere from 7-10 days to see my eye doctor in the US. By then, my eyeballs are trying to explode in my head. Maybe they can fit me in that day, maybe they can see me next week, or the week after. It’s not a sure thing.

To be honest, I like the Japanese system of coming in early, taking a number, and seeing the doctor that way, but I don’t think it would work in the US. It would be a mess. The doctors would just get totally swamped.

Oh wait, we already have that sort of thing, it’s called the Emergency Room. But it’s ridiculously expensive.

From the Eyes to the Nose

After I got my eyes fixed, I went back to the hotel to see what was up with my room. They were cleaning it.

So I goofed off in the lobby for a while.

I went back to check, and they couldn’t fix the bathroom, so they offered another room.

Hmm. I’m leaving in the morning. Is it really worth it to move all of my crap?

Yes. Yes, it is. The bathroom smells funky. It’s as if someone has peed on the ceiling, walls, and places I don’t even know about, with a musky kind of pee that is just awful.

Yes, I will take your new room!

So I moved to a room on the 6th floor, 639, away from room 1326. (I didn’t like being on the 13th floor anyway.)

Senso-ji, I Have Returned!

After a short break, it was time to head to Asakusa, to Senso-ji, for a little photography break, and to see the Kakminarimon again, among other things.

If you want more information or to see the photos from the first trip, they’re here.

The Kaminarimon is always interesting:

Senso-ji Kaminarimon

Nakamise Dori is still busy:

Nakamise Dori

No lanterns at the Houzoumon this time:

Houzoumon

Back side of the Houzoumon:

Houzoumon

The Chouchin is still impressive, although the paint is starting to crack:

Houzoumon -- Chouchin

Chouchin supporters!

Houzoumon -- Chouchin

The Tokyo Sky Tree dominates the scenery:

Tokyo Sky Tree

Tokyo Sky Tree

Houzoumon and Sky Tree, Combine!

Houzoumon and Sky Tree

The Honden is still busy:

Senso-ji Honden

Senso-ji Honden

Heading out–Nakimise Dori:

Nakamise Dori -- On the Way Out

Kaminarimon on the way out:

Kaminarimon -- Nakamise Dori side

I like Asakusa a lot. It’s a neat neighborhood, and I really like the temple there. Granted, it’s usually choked with tourists, but it’s still fun.

I wandered around there for about an hour or so, and took all sorts of pictures. I thought about heading to the new Tokyo Sky Tree under construction, but it was too close to closing time and… to be honest, it was too much of a pain to get there.

Ameyoko

So I headed to Ueno, with no particular destination in mind, and wound up in Ameyoko-cho. (I think that’s right… could be wrong about that.)

Ameyoko-cho is in all of the guide books as someplace to see “great street life” or whatever. It’s interesting, and kind of useful, if you want to buy fish or $10 watches, or maybe a T-Shirt with some weird English on it, or maybe a random piece of luggage.

See, it’s really hard to pin down what you’d want there. It’s just stuff that people would buy if they live in Tokyo, not necessarily if they’re tourists.

“Hey, Mr. Tourist, I have a really big smelly fish for you! It just fell off of a truck! $5 okay?”

No, that just doesn’t work if you’re staying in a hotel as a tourist, you see?

Now, if you’re local, things change. “Oooo, just *how* smelly is it? Is it ‘peel the paint off the walls’ smelly, or ‘send me to the hosptial again’ smelly? Because I’m thinking sashimi if the worms aren’t too big!”

I wandered. I didn’t buy the fish, nor did buy the watches that were amazingly reduced from 10,000 yen to 1,000 yen for the next 10 minutes ONLY! What a coincidence!

Then it was back to the hotel for some dinner. But first, it was time to hit Takashimaya Times Square’s basement for dinner. Half-price basement food. Yum. Then back to the room to scarf it down.

After that, it was time for a trip to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, to check out some nighttime scenery.

Tokyo Metropolitan Building On the Way Out

The scenery is very pretty, but I forgot my circular polarizer again… doh.

The view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Building

I tried pressing the camera closer, but it still didn’t work:

The view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Building

One decent shot from pressing the lens right up against the glass, but I didn’t want to risk damaging anything (and you can still see reflections in the shot, even with the lens up against the glass!):

The view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Building

Then it was back to the hotel room.

Streets of Shinjuku

Tomorrow it’s off to Okazaki. I hope they have a bed for me instead of a futon plank. I never heard anything either way.

Paddington Bares All

 Great Britain, Technology, Travel  Comments Off on Paddington Bares All
Jun 302011
 

First a word about where I’m staying. It’s a hotel called Base2Stay in Kensington, about 5 minutes’ walk from the Earls Court Tube station. London hotels are ungodly expensive, and when researching a place to stay, I came upon horror story after horror story about cheap hotels that had terrible service, or no air conditioning, or smelled funny, or were in crummy locations, or whatever hotel horror you want to imagine.

All at a price I could not afford.

Base2Stay is pretty nice so far.

For £105 a night, I’m getting a clean room with a personal A/C / heater, a mini-kitchen, which few hotels can boast in the £100 range, and a nice bathroom with a towel heater, which is really handy for drying clothes. And the people here are nice in the “go way out of their way” sort of nice, plus they’ll shower you with restaurant coupons, should you so desire.

Room 114 is tiny. Microscopically so. It’s smaller than just about any hotel room I stayed in when I did my grand tour of Japan, and if you’ve read my Japan trip entries, you know I stayed in some tiny hotel rooms.

So I was a bit surprised when I saw what my £105 was getting me.

But in spite of that, it’s a nice little room with all the amenities I need– even a decent-sized shower. (But the shower head is too low, and the water can’t make up its mind if it wants to freeze or scald me on a regular basis.)

Is it perfect? No, but it’s a really good little place to crash that’s cheap for London, and expensive for most of America.

Like Elvis, Krispy Kreme is Everywhere

Anyway, on to the day’s activities… what excitement awaits? Well, today I got the phone straightened out. It wasn’t using the Internet properly, so I had to take it by Car Phone Warehouse to have them fiddle with it for a few minutes to get it to use the 3G properly.

Then I decided to head to Paddington Station to see about some lunch. Nothing really grabbed me inside the station as a lunch source, so I went outside and started wandering.

I found a nice little deli outside of the station, and had a chicken salad baguette and a coke for £3.50. Not bad for London. I went back to the station and did some grocery shopping at the Sainsbury’s there, and discovered that my U.S. credit card doesn’t work there.

I’m not even going to bother with it, I think. If I pay cash, it’s more painful, so I’ll spend less, and I will know when I’m spending money, because I will experience it in a more visceral fashion.

Spotted in Paddington Station, two things: 1. A statue of Paddington Bear. (Of course.) 2. A Krispy Kreme. (They really ARE everywhere.)

I went back to the room to study for the test after that.

Of course I bought doughnuts.

Okonomiyaki!

In the evening, I decided to go out for dinner for a break. First, I stopped by Boots’, the chemist’s shop, to pick up some liquid shower soap. Nivea for Men for £1. Inexpensive, and I’ll smell manly in a Euro way.

Then I headed on to Tokyo Spicy, a relatively new Japanese restaurant a few stores down from the Italian place I ate at the other day. The food was very good. I had okonomiyaki, which I haven’t had since I was in Osaka in 2007. I had it with pork this time. Yum. Wasn’t a big fan of the ginger beer, though. I prefer American ginger ale. The ginger beer was too sweet, and wasn’t very spicy. Give me Blenheim’s Ginger Ale any time. Mmmmm.

After that, I headed to Cafe del Coin, because the sign said they had crepes. They did not. They did have this chocolate caramel thing however, that was crunchy and went well with a cappuccino. Good enough for me. (I would have really liked a chocolate and whipped cream crepe, though.)

I haven’t had a good crepe since I was in Osaka in 2007.

Then back to the room to study. I love the room, but good lord, it’s tiny. It has just about everything I need, except a real desk and chair. It would be nice to sit on something besides the bed for a change of pace.

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