Escavation II

Another finding while consolidating my old stuff in Kobe.


This dates back in:

Excavation

The date of relocation to Tokyo approaching, I have been consolidating stuffs in my room. Anything that was written in English, my mother kept it. Because she had no idea how important/unimportant they were.

Then I found tainted old Globe.

And it was dated :

I must have picked this up at Logan right before flying back.

Izushi - the city of Soba noodle.

Less than one week remaining with my life in Kobe, my parents and I decided to take a trip. Since my parents love Onsen(Hot spring, that is). They planned a trip to a small town called Kinosaki where is famous for their onsen. But there is also another favorite town of ours called Izushi on its way. It's a town developed under a warlord back in 1500's. And this place is very famous for their superb buckwheat soba.

The town is located roughly 2.5 hours away from Kobe by car. Half of the way was highway and the other half was country road. It's very secluded area surrounded with mountains. Usually, this kind of area quickly dies out especially in this decade. But this small town keep itself like a time capsule. Some part modernized but there are also lot other elements that haven't really changed. Not only the castle ruin, but also like these narrow streets have a hint of some Samurai movies.

The best part of this town is their famous noodle. If you come here, you shall not skip it.

And needless to say, I ate a lot of it.

I am unemployed and went to doctor's office.

I got cold since Monday. No fever, thankfully. But the cough. It was just getting worse 'n worse. I bought cough syrup. I bought the most expensive one on the shelf, figuring it would work the best. Aaaaand... it sucked. It didn't improve a bit.

So went back to my orthodox American remedy of chicken (miso)soup. My parents were like "What are you doing? Go to doctor's office!". "I know, Mom! But I am not employed!" Then... "Wait a minute... I'm not in the US, am I?" Yep. We have national health care.

Then I hit the doctor's office. He checked it out and prescribed me some medicine. Co-pay for the visit? $4 for initial fee + $4 for the visit = $8 total(it would be $4 next time). Then I went to the pharmacy and the meds were $5. whatabahgain. And amazingly, cough stopped that night.

Monthly payment for national health insurance is determined by previous year's income. This part, republicans won't like this. Richer you are, more you have to pay. I told the city workers that I was making income in the US year before and they didn't take that as consideration. So, they put me as a dependent to my dad. How embarrassing. So monthly payment end up like $100 a month.

This national insurance kicks ass. It doesn't require you to have primary care physician. If you are injured in sports, you can immediately go to sports doctor. But the co-pay isn't necessarily reasonable always. You are to pay 30% of whole cost. So this time, it ended up not being that expensive. Seeing the doctor this day was roughly $12 without insurance. Hence, even the lowest plan of BCBS, that is HMO Blue wins this one. If I had ACL repair surgery(like the one I had at MGH) in Japan, it would've cost $2100(whole thing cost $7000) while I only paid $10 with the plan from BCBS.

Also I have to note that, today, I signed a contract with the company I am gonna work for next month. In the paper, it stated that they will provide me their insurance. So as soon as that takes effect, I'll ditch the public one.

So far, our government hasn't built any gas chambers to kill us or doesn't have so-called "death panel" to euthanize our grand parents.

You Shall Not Pass

I failed the driving test again. I stayed on the left side entirely, I checked the both side mirror and the back mirror whenever I made turns, I used the turn signal everywhere I was supposed to(this was really mortifying as a Masshole because I think it is a sign of weakness).

Why did I fail? Although I remained within the lane, this old fuck told me that I was staying too much on the right side. I think these old sad fucks are fuckin' prejudice. They think I am trying to duck the Japanese system where kids have to pay nearly $2000 for driving school. Each test costs $25. So far, I've spent $75. And I think they are going to fail me til my US license expires. What happens after that? I have to start all over by enrolling myself in driving school that costs "boned-in-the-ass" $2000. They have nothing better to do except nitpick the shit out of Japs who returned from abroad.

Assholes....

Oh.. DiceK, DiceK, DiceK....

On boston.com's "Extra Bases", it writes:

Daisuke Matsuzaka refused to speak to American reporters today, which is a fairly consistent mode for him.

Com'on, D... You got to reach out to US media. Of course, not very many in US are not fond of you. But you can't just stay away from them. Also D, this is your forth year and you really need to adapt the US culture. I'm sure you learned it hard way last year, but that, not-mentioning-the-injuries-cuz-I'm-tough, can be treated as tough 'n brave in Samurai cultures, but it is not in the US. Keep yourself being open about it.

So as a first step, talk to US media. If you couldn't understand what they were saying, just tell them: "I'm still working on the disc 1 of Rosetta Stone. Hopefully I will be able to answer that when I finish that disc."

Failed again.

I took another driving test at the Japanese RMV. This time, I never mistakenly turned the wind shield wipers on instead of blinkers. I stayed on left side of the road ENTIRELY. I finished the lap. And I felt good and succeeded.

But the examiner said "You failed". I screamed inside "WTF!?!?!?". He told me that I didn't look at the left side mirror at all whenever I turned left. I was very cautious whenever I turned left. I carefully looked both side before I proceeded. But it wasn't enough. In Japan, motor cycle and scooter line up to the side of the car at the corner. So whenever I make left turn, apparently I have to make sure that there is no oncoming motor cycle/scooter/bicycle.

Fuckin' a... I hate Japan....

Reference Points

I hate Tokyo. Especially Subway. Subway station is fuckin' maze. Now I have big respect to foreigners who reside here. I get lost. I get stressed. I can't breath. I just want to get the fuck out of this enormous city. Even above ground, I get lost. I hate when I don't have descent sense of orientation. I always have keen sense of orientation in Boston and Kobe or any coastal region such as New England or CA. For example, Boston has reference points - Pru, John Hancock and Citgo sign. Kobe has the mountain line that runs from east to west. In Tokyo? it's an enormous jungle of buildings and skyscrapers. It's overwhelming.