Coming of age day

I’ve come to look forward to the Coming of Age day or what the Japanese call as Seijin no Hi (ๆˆไบบๅผ) – that second Monday of January holiday wherein the young 20 year olds of Japan are celebrated and encouraged as they cross the threshold into adulthood. I look forward to it not because I can participate in the festivities but because it is such to sight to behold the streets of Japan teeming with young adults garbed in their best kimonos, kimonos so impressive in design you’d wonder how much it costs.

I was on my way to the office when I saw these young women whose pictures were being taken by their parents. I asked if they can indulge me to take their picture and they happily gave their consent.
Pretty aren’t they?

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Look how elaborate their obis are.

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Here’s one up close.

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The men wear their kimono too but really it’s the women whom I look forward to see because of how elaborate their kimonos are. Makes one wish for a girl in the family. ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚

my (first) seitai experience

I’m used to carrying my luggages in all my travels back when I was still single; heaving almost 40kg luggages down three flights of stairs. Having had lived alone in Manila, I was independent in that kind of thing. Having had the experience, I insisted yesterday morning that I carry my ~10kg luggage down the station stairs because I was really guilty that Atsushi carry my luggage as well since his luggage was already heavy.

I must have had the wrong bending or something in the two minutes that Atsushi allowed me to carry my luggage because come evening, my lower back sent a searing, racking pain that rendered me impossible to walk. With every movement comes a pain so incredible I was thinking my back must be breaking. ๐Ÿ™

I was thinking of the work that was waiting for me and how I need to finish some outputs before the HAZOP sessions so I was really looking forward to today’s first day at work. But shoganai, I have to be absent from work as I can’t walk straight, much less not utter a cry of pain with every step.

Come 6pm, 24 hours after the first shot of pain, I was able to walk myself to the seitai place (Japanese physical therapy place), albeit slowly and looking like a duck waddling.

Hubs who has to be in the office called the seitai place in advance and instructed them of my condition and history so by the time I showed up, they ushered me immediately to the therapy bed.

I was able to sleep comfortably last night thanks to the kairo or the heating pad. What the therapist did though was put an ice pack on my back. Four spots were treated to some sort of electric massage – he tested my hand before he put the pads on my back and when he turned on the current, I felt the shock of the electric current.

After ten minutes or so of the ice pack and the electric current pads (which was scary I tell you), the therapist then proceeded to massaging my lower back. He must have realised the pain I was in while he was massaging my lower back in that his face showed the concern. And with the little Japanese I know, I understood what he said to the other therapist who put the ice pack on me – that I was in an intense pain. He tenderly told me “yukuri” or slowly, as he instructed me to change positions in the therapy bed. As he was prepping my back for the therapeutic massage, the preps massage reminded me of the massages mama used to give me when I was little. With the tears of pain, along came the tears of missing mama.

After the massage, they taped something on my back to help reduce the pain. And then they put this on me which I’ll be wearing for the next 3 days at least.

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Yep, that’s my tummy in there.

I was planning to work overtime tomorrow to make up for the work I missed today. But apparently I can’t since I have to go back to seitai for follow up therapy.

Being only 31, having
this kind of discomfort certainly is embarrassing.

Anyways, take care of your body guys. Remember, health is wealth. ๐Ÿ™‚
——-
One of my bosses/colleague commented in Facebook that I may have what in Japanese is known as gikkuri goshi. I researched a bit about this and found that you could have this either by lifting heavy things, lack of exercise, and had kept your body cold. I was guilty of all three things: lifted something heavy, NO exercise, and that it’s been days since I immersed my body in the bath tub and that we travelled the whole night – on a wintry night – in a bus.
On top of loosing weight, there’s another reason alright to enrol in a hot yoga class.
——
I said I walk like a duck waddling. Hubs said I walk like a penguin. Well, at least a penguin’s cuter. ๐Ÿ˜›

Oh. One thing to be thankful for. Despite being bedridden, it has been a productive day indeed. ๐Ÿ™‚ ๐Ÿ™‚

honesty and the Japanese

The first time we got assigned here in Japan nine years back, we were so amazed at how honest the japanese are. Some examples: when you choose to buy an item and the sales person knows that that particular item has a defect, they’d point out the defect and ask you if you’re ok to buy the product considering the defect. When you left behind an item on your seat in the train station, you’re sure to find your stuff either in the same exact location where you left your stuff or in the Lost and Found section.

Even in the office, the honesty system prevails. We don’t have a time card or anything of the sort where we log our time in and our time outs. Our bosses approve our time sheets with the trust that the number of working hours we’ve inputted, including our overtimes, are really the hours that we have rendered our work. With a policy as trustful as that, the person that would beef up his/her work hours on paper even when they’ve actually worked less hours is probably a very untrustworthy person through and through.

I was again reminded of the honesty system in this country when we (me together with Atsushi and family) dropped by Osaki no Hana on our way to Yoshima.
Whilst enjoying the view,

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one of us noticed these mandarins, or mikan as they are known in Japanese, for sale.

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But no one was around looking out for the sale of their produce. There was however a note to just drop the payment on this bamboo pole.20120104-220540.jpg

 

Thrilled with the concept, one of us dropped 200yen into the bamboo pole and took one pack. We tasted the oranges right there and then and was so surprised to learn how sweet and juicy the oranges were. I’m not an orange fan as I usually find them sour and difficult to peel. But this one wasn’t just very sweet and juicy, the skin was so thin it’s so easy to peel. We ended up buying five packs (or was it six?). ~big grin~
Grandparents enjoyed its juiciness and sweetness as well when we got home.

Now if only we’d see more of this honesty system, it’d probably be a better world (and a more efficient one at that).

cholesterol talk

Want to lower down your cholesterol level? Here’s one drink to help you with your feat. Soybean milk otherwise known in Japanese as tonyu.

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Those red characters on the left actually advertises that this drink can help lower down cholesterol level.
Before we left Yokohama last week, hubs has started to try and lower down his cholesterol level. He has been drinking tonyu almost everyday this week. Let’s see his cholesterol level on his next medical check come end of the month.