Saturday, August 27, 2011

Annual medical check 2011

Yeap, it is that time of the year again for the annual medical check up...
For the second year in a row, my sweeto haato joined me for the medical check...
Two days before the appointed day, we had to take samples of our stools...
And on the night before the appointed day, we had to stop eating before 9:00 pm...
Not an issue for us as we normally finish our dinner by about 8:00 pm every night...
On the morning of the appointed day, we woke up at about 5:00 am as we usually do...
We were allowed to consume only 200 cc of clear liquid that morning...
Warm water and tea would be ok, but not coffee...
At 7:00 am, my stomach emitted the first growl...
No no, no eating... and off we went to the hospital...
Arriving at 7:45 am, we were number 2 and number 3 on line...
After changing into light green pajamas, we watched television as we waited for the chime to come...
All in all, there were about 20 patients, mostly males...
At 8:00 am, the chime went off and the attendant nurse gave us a briefing...
I opted to have my blood samples taken first...
Any allergies? The nurse asked?
Unlike last year, the nurse was pretty skilled... or so I thought...
I felt no pain as she inserted a needle into the protruding vein in my left arm...
She took 4 tubes of blood and slowly withdrew the needle...
Eiiiich, I felt a little pain...
We weighed ourselves, took our heights, checked our eyesight and blood pressure...
At 8:25, a male attendant familiar to me, measured my waist...
72 centimeters it was...
'Lrong-san ha sumaato desu ne...' mumbled Tsutsui-san... (literally, 'Mr. Lrong, you have a smart physique'...)
He is a ten-year veteran at this hospital and he likes to chat with me whenever we see each at the hospital...
'Now let's see, you had a little polyp in your gall bladder...' he said as he instructed me to lie flat on the bed while getting ready to operate the machine...
'Oh, no problem... the size is very small... no change from last year...'
I felt relieved and thanked him...
At 8:40 am, I felt really sleepy and energy-less...
A nurse called out my name and I entered a room to have my eyes checked for 'hardness'...

'Now, look at that green light on the left'... flash! 
Bright stars seemed to come into view...

Next was the urine samples...
I always felt amused upon seeing the illustration posted in the toilet...
The man had two drops of sweat flying off from his face as he smiled...
'Let the first 30 cc of urine pass, then take the 'middle' portion of the urine and fill up one third of the cup'...
8:59 am... yawned... watched TV...
9:01 am... more yawns... watched more TV... waited... waited...
9:14 am... a nurse called out my name...
Inside the room, the doctor in a brown-colored uniform asked, 'any health issue bothering you?'...
He placed his stethoscope on my exposed chest...  
Silently, he repeated the procedure on my back and I was out of the room in seconds...
9:16 am... back to the main lounge, waiting...
9:26 am... time for the ECG...
The nurse clipped my four limbs with some kind of clamps and stuck some rubber suction cups on my body... 
9:40 am... underwent the lung capacity test which was introduced just about two years ago...
I asked what is the purpose of this test...
It was to check the 'smoothness' of the breathing...
She clipped my nose with a large peg, forcing me to breath through the mouth from a pipe...
I was to take a deep breath, and once I reached the maximum capacity of the inhalation, I was to suddenly exhale until I ran out of air...
I did it twice...
9:50 am... backed to the waiting room... I dreamed of spaghetti... tomato based with seafood...
My  stomach growled again...
The next procedure was the x-ray, which went by in a wink...
9:52 am... now, the most 'interesting' part of the check....
The staff was again, very professional... the explanation clear and concise...
The nurse handed over a small paper cup filled with just one third of liquid... which I quickly gulped down...
She had me lie down on a bed as she injected some liquid into my nostrils...
This was to prevent injury to the walls of my nose, she said...
Rested, relaxed... felt sleepy...
Then she asked, which nose breaths better?
I think I did it through the right nose last year, so this year, without really answering her question, I opted for the left nose...
She carefully injected morphine into my left nostril...

The numbness although slight, came almost instantly... 
You can swallow it, she said...

The taste was not bad, but not good either...
Minutes later, she returned to give a second shot...
A few more minutes passed and into the camera room they led me...
Now, lie down on your left, the doctor gestured...
He was the same guy from last year...
The attendant-nurse offered, 'let your saliva drip down on the paper towel... don't force yourself to wipe it...'
I closed my eyes as they switched off the lights...
Slowly, I sensed the optic camera piercing through my left nostril, wriggling its way down my throat...
'Swallow', the doctor suggested just as he did last year at exactly the same stage...
I swallowed, feeling the tube crawling through my esophagus...
Now, the hardest part is over... just relax... said the doctor as he maneuvered the camera into my stomach...

In about 15 minutes, it was over... 
My missus was waiting for me...
I quickly changed into my clothes, looking forward to the lunch box provided...
This is the 'reward' for the 'troubles' we go through in this exercise...

I am not sure if other hospitals offer this lunch box service but the one I went to in Nagoya did not...
The hospital said it is complimentary...

We slowly ate and chewed on the goodies... 
The 'bento' lunch box was delightfully laid out, and I counted over 20 different types of food...
There was fish, meat, egg, tofu, beans, carrot, yam, plum, grape, orange, fishcake, burdock,  seaweed, miso soup, among others...

Hmmm... delicious... 

Next, stay tuned for the endoscope test on the colon which had to be conducted on a different day... 



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Fishing in mid-summer in Japan...

Am enjoying the second last day of a week's holiday from work...
Had planned to work in the potager...
But the weather was simply too much to bear...
After working for an hour or so under the summer heat, I'd be all drenched up in sweat...
My body then tells me...
'Go to the sea!!' 
I was too feeble to fight this 'order'...
So, for the past few days, I was sea-bound...

I snorkled, I swam, I fished...
And can you believe that yours truly pulled out this colorful fish from the Japan Inland Sea?


The fish is called 'kyusen' in Japanese, and 'multicolorfin rainbowfish' in English...
I think the above specimen is the female version of the colorful male in the previous picture...

Near to the rocks I poked the fishing rod...
And woah... rockfish ('kasago' in Japanese) came a-biting...
Their big mouths mean that they normally swallow the hook wholesale...


And the rockfish turned into boiled fish during dinnertime...
Absolutely lovely with home-made loquat liqueur...

While not snorkeling or fishing, yours truly went hunting for shellfish...
Harvested twenty one mussels on one of those days...
I regretted taking too much as our self-imposed 'quota' is five mussels per person...

My partner casts her magic wand onto the shells, turning them into exquisite pasta...

We 'lengthened' the eating pleasure by spreading the meal out into two dinners...
Why... as we did not want to 'hurry' by over-consuming all the mussels in just one meal... 
Our quota: five mussels per person per meal...

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The drums almost always make me cry...

It is not just the rains...
But I really don't know what spell this 'wadaiko' (Japanese drums) thing has on me...
Each time I witness a live wadaiko performance...
I'm almost always moved me to tears...
By tears, I mean, tears that continue to flow and flow throughout the course of the performance...

For the past 13 years, I have had the good fortune of being requested by the Japanese folks at a neighboring town to bring a handful of international students for a cooking event...
This year, I brought seven students from five countries...
They cooked up four lovely dishes while the Japanese folks presented us with some delicious local noodles and mixed sushi, all cooked from scratch...
After consuming the sumptuous meals, the town folks usually invite some group to provide entertainment...
This is third time I think, that the wadaiko troupe 'Man Ten' was invited...
Now, 'Man' does not mean 'man' as in you and me, but 'Full'...
And 'Ten' has got nothing to do with that number of fingers you may have...
Rather, 'Ten' refers to either the 'Heavens' or the 'Sky' depending on the context...
My preferred interpretation, however, of this amazing wadaiko troupe name would be 'Heaven Full' of Stars...

For 'stars' the drummers all are...
Throughout the one hour performance, they bang and slam...
They smile, they yell...
They swing, and they fly... 
Man Ten started off as a family outfit...
There was just mum, dad, and two cute little daughters...
Years down the road, the membership ballooned...
That day, I think about twenty drummers performed... 

I stood as I snapped...
The faster the tempo, the more rapid the snaps...
All the while, tears flowed on...
Look at the expression of the drummer second from left...
The smile, the features... rather clear...
Now, look at the other three drummers in flight...
The stage literally shook, blurring almost all images except the smiling drummer's...
In the final act, as in previous occasions, the leader of Man Ten invited the seven international students to come forward...
Mere minutes later, he had the students gleefully banging in unison on a 3-3-7 rhythm...
As he spruced the routine up... dancing, Japanese fan in hand...
Exhilarating just to watch... I must say... 
Oh yes, the food...
This is the mixed sushi with compliments from the town folks...

There is always so much food there that I normally choose to bring this home to be consumed the following day... 
Cambodian style stir fry vegetables with beef slices...
I couldn't control myself as I headed for multiple helpings...
 
The mabo-tofu, Szechuan style...
Was too engrossed with eating that I forgot taking shots of the Tomyam soup and the Vietnamese curry...
I certainly looked forward to being part of the event again next summer...