Ward 5E.

I need to stop leaving it so long to write my blogs because now i have too much to write!
Well i finished up on ward 6E two weeks ago, they were lovely but i was glad to move on. I met a really lovely patient, Matsumoto san, on that ward who i took to the shop sometimes. She told me how she loved Nicholas Cage and that she loved the song Pretty Woman. She spoke a little bit of English and liked to ask questions about the UK as she is scared of flying and has never visited. Whenever i cleaned her room she would put sweets in my pocket, she was cute. There was one nurse on this ward who whenever she seen me just giggled and i have no idea why but she was nice all the same.
Last week i was back on ward 5E which is the first ward i worked on in the hospital as we have now made a full rotation of all the wards. This ward is definately my favourite although it isn't all that busy either. A new healthcare worked started and she didnt know i was a volunteer and thought i just worked there. I cant quite remember her name but she was nice and very shy!. She kept coming up to me and asking for things to do, asking for my permission to do things an most of the time i had absolutely no idea what she was saying to me. I had to explain to her i was a volunteer and that she should ask Shioya san but she still continued to follow me around everywhere. On Monday i will be back on Ward 6W but i will spend my last week in the hospital on 5E which is good.
Whilst i was working in the nursery last week it was really hot so the teachers decided to take the kids outside to play in their paddling pool. We all went out to play with them and i was looking forward to having a chance to cool down until when i dipped my feet in the water to discover it was HOT! 30 degrees outside and they are playing in a hot paddling pool, honestly Japanese people seem to love being hot.

Ward 6E and this weeks activites.

Iam officially half way through my time here in Japan and also probably about 3 stone heavier! For some reason i thought i would come to Japan and magically eat healthily and love vegetables and exercising. Unfortunately none of this has happened, i still love mcdonalds , crisps and chocolate and i still hate vegetables and exercising!  However i am trying some new foods, for instance last night i was ever so adventurous and healthy and instead of pasta and cheese for dinner i ate a chicken salad, followed by an ice cream ooppsss. Ill get there eventually!

 So unfortunately June is rainy season in Nagasaki, it is roughly 27degrees most days but about 85/90% humidity so it is soo hot in the hospital. For some reason there is never any air conditioning on in the patients rooms only in the nurses station so i try hang about in there as much as i can! This ward which i started last week is the only ward i have not yet worked on and everyone is really lovely here. Every ward i have been on so far has a team briefing in the mornings at which point i normally stand and day dream because i have no idea what is going on and it doesnt really include me as i just follow people around who give me jobs. On my first day on 6E, last monday, they began their team briefing in the morning and i went off into my usual day dream, probably thinking about food and next thing i know all the nurses were staring at me and i was pushed into the middle of them all. I had no idea what was going on and for some reason i waved at them all and day hey and at that point the head nurse said ' Good morning...' and then i realised i was supposed to have introduced myself. oops. Unfortunately there isn't much to do on this ward and on more than one occassion i have been told to go and sit in the linen cupboard and learn Japanese. I wouldn't mind this so much if it wasn't like sitting in a sauna!!
The patients on this ward keep trying to speak to me which is nice and some even try in English but  all they really manage is where are you from but it is lovely that they try! Ive had two seperate patients draw me a map of Britain, one knew where Scotland was which was a first! However he thought Glasgow was inbetween Liverpool and Manchester... The other patient could not grasp the concept of Scotland being a separate country from England and kept asking if people in Scotland spoke English. It is rather hard trying to explain when my Japanese isnt very good so in the end i gave up!
On Wednesday we were back at Tai-chi for the first time in two weeks so it was a little bit tough getting back into it, my legs were very sore in the morning. Not quite sure if that was from Tai-chi or my spontaneous jog down by the river which was not a good idea in the heat! After work on Thursday we went off to Ikebana and normally we have some food there. On the past two occassions they have made us chicken as they know it is basically all i like! However this week there was a huge bowl of prawns, mashed potatoes with fish eggs mixed in and various salads and vegetables. This was my worst nightmare, i tried to be polite and try the mash which was not to my taste but when Konaka-san offered the prawns i could not face it! Somehow i dont think i will ever like any kind of food which comes from the sea.

Nursery!!

This week at the nursery i taught the children head, shoulders, knees and toes in English! Although the younger ones couldn't quite get the hang of it the older ones were doing okay and everyone, including the teachers, were up singing and doing the actions. It was a lot of fun. The kids at the nursery just seem to get cuter everytime i go! They are forever climbing all over me, once one kid is sitting on my knees the rest have to be sitting there too and it normally ends up in a fight and someone crying, not cool. The teachers were doing a class photo this week which was a disaster. All the kids were all lined up sat on their chairs, the teachers lined up behind them as one of the teachers set the timer on her camera. As she would run to join everyone the kids would all turn around to see what she was doing so the pictures weren't turning out too great as they weren't facing the camera! Eventually one came up with the idea of throwing one of their teddy's infront of the camera to make them all look, it worked... kind of!

After being served two cups of green tea everytime we go to the nursery i think i am finally getting used to it after three months. I still do not enjoy drinking it but it no longer makes me feel sick,result. When lunchtime comes around the kids eat everything on their plates, they are definately much better eaters than myself! Even the babies who we feed eat everything, fish, vegetables, miso soup, rice they are so good! The Japanese are just so healthy and it is good that the kids are given healthy food from such a young age, unfortunately it is too late for me to change.. i love junk food way to much!! 

This month we were also given the great news that on July 21st we are heading to Hokkaido- the most southern island of Japan to volunteer at a kids summer camp with the red cross. I am super excited, i am not quite sure what it will entail yet but when i do i shall write an update! yay. 

3 Operations

So this month i have been lucky enough to watch three operations all of which were pretty gruesome! The first one we watched was at the start of the month and included a man having a tracheostomy and his entire voice box removed. It was not very pleasant to watch, the surgeon cut a hole where his adams apple was and started prodding around which made me feel slightly queasy. The surgeon told us it was a complicated procedure and they had to ensure they did not damage anything surrounding his voice box. The operation took almost four hours in total with the majority of it being the removal of the voice box which took a long time. Once it was removed they showed us it and pointed out his vocal cords which was interesting but also very sad as the man would no longer be able to speak or breathe without a machine assisting him. 

The second operation we have watched this month was the removal of a cancerous tumour from the lung. The hole they made inbetween the patients ribs was rather huge and everytime the surgeon stuck his fingers or hand inside it made me feel rather sick. There was a further two holes cut in the mans chest area for cameras to be inserted. I really have no idea how the surgeons knew which part to take away because in all honesty all of the lung looked the same but after the had removed the tumour, which was rather big, he cut into it and showed us the tumour. So the tumour was  more visible from the inside rather than the outside of it which looked like the rest of the lung. After the removal of the tumour the surgeon poured pints of water into the large hole in the mans chest which i assume was to clean the lung and to get rid of excess blood as afterwards they used a suction tool to remove it all. We did not see the end of this operation as we were whisked off to watch another. 

I have honestly no idea what was going on in the third operation, it had something to do with the large intestine and the gall bladder. Not to sound too gross but the large intestine really does look like linked up sausages, good job i dont like them!! This woman had several holes in her stomach with many instruments inserted doing different things as the surgeon cut away at what i think may have been fat around her intestines but i am not sure. This operation wasn't as interesting as i had no idea what was going on.
We are really lucky to be able to watch in on all these different types of operations, i wonder what next month has in store for us!!

looking hot in our surgery clothes!!

Weekend in Kyoto!

On 23rd May i set off on a flight to Osaka with my family where we would then catch the train to Kyoto for the weekend. One thing i have learned is that train stations are not designed for big suitcases or for people who have too many suitcases, stress central!! We arrived in Kyoto at about 8pm to our hotel ANA Crowne Plaza straight across the road from Nijo-jo which was the Shogun's castle. The hotel had a really lovely waterfull with huge colourful koi carp! As we were all tired from travelling all day we ate some dinner in the hotel then headed to bed and i think i had possibly the best nights sleep ever!!

the view of Nijo-jo from our hotel room!!











The next day was 30 degrees and we couldn't quite bare the heat! We headed down to the area by the station and on the way stumbled across a temple - Nishihonganji temple. It was huge, inside people were praying. The structure of the temple was really beautiful and made from wood with gold carvings. Somehow we ended up in an electrical department store with hundreds of cameras and laptops etc and managed to spend almost 2 hours inside wandering about! That night we took the subway to Gion, which is the Geisha district in the hope of catching a glimpse of one but unfortunately we did not. However there were many women wearing beautiful kimono's about. We ate dinner in a shabu shabu restuarant which is another cook it yourself style. You have a pot of boiling water in the middle of the table and you cook your own beef, pork and vegetables. It was also delicious! おいしい!! If i had to choose between shabu shabu and yakiniku i think id choose shabu shabu although it is rather expensive :( Gion is full of life at night time and it was interesting to walk through however the sun rather tired us out and we headed back to the hotel.

The next day we were all taking a guided tour of Kyoto which was split into two tours, one morning and one afternoon broken up by lunch. In the morning we had a Japanese man called Kasey as our tour guide and he was possibly the funniest, most entertaining person i have ever met!   He was really good at his job and made it very fun. We firstly visited Higashihonganji temple which is the eastern temple of the one we had previously visited the day before. Kasey told us about this huge tree which was planted in the courtyard outside of the temple, that hundreds of years ago when the temple caught fire the tree spurted water from it and put the fire out. Not sure how much of that is true but it is a lovely story to tell! Inside was just as beautiful as the western temple however this time we were allowed to take pictures.

Next stop was Nijo-jo castle across from our hotel. Inside we werent allowed to take pictures but it was pretty big and each room was significant. It was built for the shogun to live in and to prevent intruders in the castle, nightingale flooring was put in. When many people walk on nightingale flooring the sound is similar to being inside an aviary. The floor boards made a high pitched squeaking sound to alert the people in the castle that there is someone walking around. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside but outside in the gardens we were and it was also beautiful there! 

Next stop was the Golden Pavilion also known as Kinkaku-ji. It was extremely busy here, i think it is possibly one of the most popular sights in Kyoto and it is understandable why. The pavilon sits at a far side of a pond which is surrounded by lovely gardens. the Golden Pavilion is a Zen Buddhist temple but unfortunately it was burned down by a Buddhist Monk in the 1950's, it has now been fully restored to its original form but it is not as old as many of the other temples in Kyoto. 

 After the Golden pavillion we headed to a hotel a little bit away from the Center of Kyoto for a buffet lunch. After we had stuffed our faces with pasta, rolls and ice cream we headed for the second half of the tour. This time out tour guide changed to a lovely little woman but unfortunately i cant remember her name. She wasn't as funny as Kasey but she was nice all the same. The next temple we headed to, Heian Jingu Shrine, i cant remember much about unfortunately. There were girls on their way to a wedding dressed in beautiful kimono's. My dad and i managed to catch a glimpse of the bride and groom dressed in traditional Japanese wedding clothing. It is very different to what we have in the UK.
All temples in Japan seem to  be surrounded by beautiful gardens and ponds, this temple was no exception. There was turtles swimming in the pond as well as huge carp. It was really peaceful and nice to walk around and enjoy the sun although not for too long as i didnt want to risk getting burnt again!!

The next place we headed to was probably one of the most impressive and again we were not allowed to take pictures but i managed to find a couple on the internet to show. The temple is called Sangusangen-do and is another Buddhist Temple. This one is unique as it houses 10001 wooden statues of the temple's deity- the thousand armed Kannon who is the goddess of Mercy. There is 500 human sized statues to the right of the temple and 500 human sized on the left separated by a huge statue of the deity in the middle.

Next stop was up on the hills , Kiyomizudera Temple which provided a brilliant view of the city. It houses an impressive Pagoda as well as many verandas where you can enjoy the view from the hilltops of Kyoto. There was many girls dressed in kimono's here posing for pictures! The hill up to the temple was lined with souvenir shops selling Japanese style ornaments, purses , kimono's, japanese food you name it they had it. Unfortunately i am a sucker for a souvenir shop and ended up buying a black kimono decorated with sakura and cranes! 


 

That was our last stop on the tour so we headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and hopped on the train back to Osaka Kansai airport where we were staying the night. We ate dinner at yet another Italian, i think my family's favourite food is probably Italian we should live in Italy! In the morning i said goodbye to my parents and sisters as there flight back home was just after 10am. I hung around the airport for a couple of hours where i found a subway, the first one i have came across in Japan. I was so happy, i had my usual ham and cheese covered in mayonnaise and sat and read my book and completed a few sudoku puzzles before my flight at 2:30pm. My flight back to Nagasaki had some serious turbulence and i thought when we were coming into landing that we were going to be landing in the sea, luckily the runway came into view just as we touched down. I had never noticed before that Nagasaki airport was a man made island, scary stuff! So now im back to my usual routine of work and eating toast for dinner , it was lovely having my family over to visit and the next time i see them will be back at home!! Crazy stuff, i am now half way through my placement,how time flies!!

Again all of my pictures have been uploaded to my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/chloe.aaa/photos

Look Who Came to Visit Nagasaki...

I haven't managed to write a blog for a while as ive been rather busy, my parents and sisters came out to Japan on the 13th of May! They stayed in Tokyo for a couple days before flying down to Nagasaki on the 16th to stay for a week. With them they brought two goodie bags of food and sweets for me made up by my auntie and one of my bestfriends Anna. I was in desperate need of doritos and galaxy but unfortunately it did not last long!!

Whilst they were here i had real food every night and not toast/scrambled eggs for dinner!!! Besides going out for dinner we visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on their first day. I wont write too much about it as i have already a blog dedicated to it but seeing it for a second time didn't make it any less horrible. Before hand we took a picnic to the peace park and enjoyed the lovely weather! That night we ate dinner at a yakiniku restuarant which is basically an indoor bbq which you cook yourself. There is a grill in the middle of the table and you can order beef , pork , chicken, many vegetables and rice of course. No Japanese meal is complete without rice! It was absolutely delicious and rather fun!
The next day was another scorcher so we spent it relaxing at the seaside park by the little stream where all the kids were cooling down. One day on our way to the seaside park, dad was eating a pastry roll of some form and the biggest bird you have ever seen in your life came down and took the thing in its mouth right out of his fingers. It was hilarious but i am now very wary of eating things outside incase they attack me, they are huge!! At night time we took the cable car up to Mt.Inasa to watch the sunset and enjoy the view of Nagasaki, which is really beautiful at nighttime. A couple of times whilst my family were here we went to the baseball range which is a lot of fun but also super hard! My 7 year old sister was ten times better than me, i think i only managed to hit one or two balls. You can choose how fast they come out at you, it ranges from the slowest being 60mph to 130 mph. I tried 100 and then settled for 60mph.
The rest of the week was spent relaxing at the seaside park, by the harbour or taking a wander round the shopping malls. On the thursday we set off for a weekend in Kyoto but that shall be revealed in a new blog!!

OKINAWA- Golden Week.

Finally the time came for our holiday to Okinawa. Golden week is an annual holiday in Japan which almost everyone has, its either a very long weekend of its during the week. We decided to make the most of Golden week and venture out of Nagasaki to the Japanese Island, Okinawa, which is quite far south near Taiwan, it is here that Karate was originated. I packed my bags after work on tuesday, basically every item i had in my wardrobe i packed because i couldn't decide what to take and what to leave! I had treated myself to lots of summer clothes, crop tops, skirts etc for our trip so i was excited to wear them all!! We set off on wednesday morning on the bus to Fukuoka airport which was about 2 hours away and we arrived at the airport with just enough time to catch some breakfast! Our plane to Naha airport in Okinawa was painted like a shark it was rather cool!

The plane was just under two hours and it was a rather bumpy ride, it was quite a dull, drizzly day when we arrived. By the time we had arrived at our hostel, Hamby Resort, in a town called Chatan-cho, two hours away from the capital Naha it was almost 5pm. The hostel we were staying in was actually really good, it provided free rice, eggs and cooking spices. There was free shampoo and accessories in the bathrooms as well as free bicycle hire and it was only around about £60 for 4 nights! We settled into our room which was rather cute with bunkbeds and we also had another woman staying in our room. She was called Vanessa from Spain and was really lovely. Nearby there was an American village as there is a US military base in the town near. It had lots of good shops and many restuarants, western ones as well as Japanese. The first night we all went out for dinner to this small place which had the most beautiful view of the beach and ocean. It was a good start to the holiday. 

The next day, was warm but rather cloudy but he headed to the beach to sunbathe. The beach is absolutely gorgeous and the water is soo blue! Lucy and i went on a large inflatable sofa which was pulled around by a jet-ski, it was incredibly fun and rather scary at the same time! The sun looking incredibly strange this day, it had a rainbow ring around it, ive never seen it before. Me being silly, thought i wouldnt get burnt because it was rather cloudy and i didnt appear to be in the sun at all- big mistake. As the day went on my sunburn slowly started developing even though we left the beach after an hour. I think it was probably the worst i have ever been burnt, i was in soo much pain i couldnt sleep that night. When i had been lying on the beach my phone was on my stomach, so i had a phone shape on my stomach.. not cool. Unfortunately i could wear any of my lovely crop tops i had bought! Alot of suncream was purchased the next day along with a huge tub of moisturiser( or so i was to discover a week later, it is actually make up remover). 

The next day we headed to the beach this time i was fully clothed and sat with towels covering me, not a good look in 27degree heat. We looked around the american village alot at all the shops and i treated myself to some new leggings and rather ridiculously sized high heels, they are gorgeous though! Lucy and i went on a rubber ring each pulled by a jet-ski , it was even more terrifying than the inflatable sofa. The minute we started i got salt water in my eyes and couldnt open them so i spent the next 15 minutes of the ride absolutely terrified with no idea what was going on just being thrown about covered in water. Later on in the day, the guys who ran the water sports came to find us and asked if we wanted a free ride on the banana boat, mainly because they were bored i think and they wanted to take it out. They told us the aim was to make us fall off into the water and unfortunately it worked. More salt water in the eyes and a large mouthful was consumed, not nice. 

For the next day we had booked para-sailing, i had never done anything like this before so i was pretty scared. We had decided even if we spent all of our money we were going to have a good time. It was incredibly scary, the guy didnt speak english so he just put the safety harness on us and the next thing i know we were half way up in the sky attached to a parachute. The view was absolutely gorgeous, we were up there for about 10 minutes and after a couple of minutes i started to worry about how we were getting down. I was slightly scared that they were just going to dunk us in the water, but we had a safe landing back on the boat without going in the water! It was a good experience. 

Okinawa is an absolutely beautiful island and i hope to visit it again one day too see more of it. By the time our trip had finished i was glad to be back to my own bed as i was extremely grumpy from the lack of sleep i had. The noise from the other people staying in the hostel, combined with my horrible sunburn meant i didnt get more than a couple hours sleep over the 5 days and i cannot deal with no sleep! I took alot more photos but i cannot upload them all to here, again they are all on my facebook page!  https://www.facebook.com/chloe.aaa/photos