Tuesday, 21 March 2006

I guess I'm an alchoholic

I've been thinking whether to write this on this blog. Despite me having a blog in the public domain, I do keep quite a bit more of my personal thoughts and experiences more private than most other blogs out there, but this was something I decided may benefit people so here I go:

On Sunday night I went to a friends farewell party, had a few beers and crashed at another friends place. Pretty standard stuff. The next morning I was a "little" hung over (seriously only a little) but naturally threw up a few times here and there. On the third time however I noticed that I had started to cough up blood.

I got a bit concerned and spoke to one of the flatmates who was up early. He gave me the name and address of an English speaking doctor in Tokyo (about an hour train trip from where I was). I headed out straight away on the walk to the train station which took me about 20 minutes. On the way I started to feel a lot more weeker and basically felt like falling asleep, but I forced myself to keep walking to the station.

By the time I got there I knew that there was no way I was going to last an hour train trip and then some more walking so I walked to the nearest taxi and asked the driver to take me to the nearest doctor or hospital and that I was "very, very sick". He basically told me to get out and go ask the police for help. Apparently he doesn't do "ambulence" for people in need, even if they are obviously going to pay him in the end.

Feeling weeker I stumbled over to the police box and told them (in Japanese) that I was sick and asked them where the hospital is. They were very kind and drew me a map and told me it would be a 15minute walk. Not wanting to put them out by asking for a lift, I headed off but collapsed 8 metres away and started throwing up. Two policemen ran over and helped me walk back to the police box and they called an ambulence for me which arrived rather quickly.

All of this was happening in Japanese though they did get an interpreter on the phone to confirm with me that, yes, I was sick.

The ambulence arrived and they immediately hooked me up with some vital machines and took my blood pressure. While none of these guys spoke English either, they had a book with all the phrases written in English that we would each point to to get our point across if my Japanese failed (though I think I did pretty well).

While it took me over and hour and a half to get to the hospital (I'm not sure why I had to give everyone I met that day my phone number and address) but once there, I got taken immediately to the ER and was introduced to a pretty good doctor who was near fluent in English.

Long story short, it turns out my body is pretty screwed from all the heavy drinking I've done (even though the last drinking session I had was months ago) has really made my insides... sensitive. Though the blood was diagnosed as coming from a nasal passage and not a major organ, this was still caused by heavy drinking. But because I only had had 5 beers, it's reason for worry.

I'd known for a while that I've had a drinking problem, but I thought I also had it under control after succesfuly going cold turkey before and then gradually reintroducing it back into my diet. Obviously I don't so I'm going cold turkey again, for my own health. Most likely for good.

The bright side is, I got to see a part of Japan that not many visitors get to see and despite the circumstances, it was a pretty good experience.

Sorry if this was a downer. I don't think I'm in any immediate danger, but I'm still not feeling 100% 30 hours later. I'm sure I'll be fine though.

So, I guess I'm an alchoholic and in posting this I hope I encourage other people out there who are embarrased or thinking they don't have a problem to step up and realise there's no shame in becoming a healthier person.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-alchohol. It's just obviously not for me any more.

Monday, 13 March 2006

I made a friend!!!

Had a really shit day with the immigration today (waited 3 hours and was told to wait another 4!!! I left.) but I made a great friend at the flower shop near my station last night. Stray cats here are so polite!

Check out my video clip via keitai!

Friday, 10 March 2006

My first pay day!

It was my first pay day at MLS today, but there seemed to be a problem so they called me into the office (where I was heading anyway) and asked me if cash was okay instead of a bank deposit. Way to go MLS! Seriously this is great to see that even though there was a computer glitch they still wanted me to get paid!

Unlike NOVA who gave me (and everyone else at my branch) a 4 day delay on my lats pay and their reason being "We didn't have enough time to prepare". Yeah. Only a WHOLE MONTH!

I'm in such a better place now.

Tuesday, 7 March 2006

Fingerprinting us now...

Great. This has been in discussion for a while now and it's been decided. The Japanese government will now start fingerprinting all non-Japanese coming into Japan. Brilliant. The reason? The identify terrorists and reduce crime.

I don't have a problem giving out my fingerprints. I've got nothing to hide, but the fact that they're getting all the non Japanese to do it is just racist. What? Japanese people don't commit crimes? The biggest terrorist attack in this country was by Japanese people for crying out loud!?!!?