Saving money

So the snow is really strong or something, because it’s even messing with the school’s internet. The connection kind of floats in and out so it’s been really difficult to do anything that requires internet; this blog included. However tomorrow the office people will be back at school and they will help us sign a contract for our own internet to have at home, so that will make things a lot easier and more convenient. So, I’ve been trying to save up as much of my money as I possibly could in order to buy my plane ticket to go back home. I’ve come to the realization that in the winter, you will probably, no matter how much you don’t want to, will spend ALL of your money. I figured I didn’t need to spend the money to heat my room because I can tough out the cold. While it’s true that I can tough out the cold, my pipes can’t, and so they completely froze over. I had them unfrozen which cost about $150, and then they froze again a couple of days later. That being said, you will either spend the money keeping your room heated, or spend the money to unfreeze your pipes.

Unless you’re me.

After the second time my pipes completely froze over, I decided not to pay to get them unfrozen. I also decided not to attempt to use my heater to keep my room warm in order to keep my pipes safe. So, my room is without heat or water. However that’s not a problem for me. The school has showers in the gym that I can use as well as heaters. I’ll just wait until it’s warm enough for my pipes to melt naturally.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Japan! At 11:30 me and some friends headed down to the shrine near our apartment as is customary in Japan on new years. At the stroke of midnight, we all lined up in front of the alter in the shrine. We threw 5 yen coins in a box for good luck. Then we rang a giant bell and prayed for a good year. We got to hit Japanese drums and we bought fortunes. My fortune said I would be very lucky this year, but on the way back home that fortune along with my earphones fell out of my pocket. I guess my luck was supposed to start on the next day.

Freezing pipes

Soooo my pipes froze. Luckily my friends in the apartment let me use their showers and such until someone came and unfroze my pipes but unfreezing your pipes is expensive. I was really disappointed seeing as how winter has just started and my pipes have already frozen. To make things worse, only about 6 hours after my pipes were unfrozen, two of them froze again! I was not about to call for them to be unfrozen because I figured it was a waste of money and they were pipes I could live without. As long as my hot water pipe in my shower works I'm good! Luckily a few days later (last night) they unfroze by themselves. Today is pretty warm. Warm to the point where it's raining rather than snowing. It's really odd.

I emailed the advising office to register for my classes next semester but they have yet to get back to me. I'm hoping it's because of the holiday season and that they will get back to me soon after New Years.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Japan! So last night I walked for about an hour and a half in -11C weather. It's an experience I think you'd all best be without. I have never felt so much pain in my life. Buy gloves everyone! Apparently, Christmas day isn't really much of a big deal here. Everyone is all about Christmas Eve. I have work tonight though so I'm missing a pretty big chunk of the Christmas party sadly, but it's fine cuz I like my job and I'll at least I can make the last bit of the party. I have no real plans other than that. Anyway Merry Christmas everyone!

Winter beak is coming!

Winter break is starting this week already! That means Christmas and New Years is almost here! I'm really excited to have a Japanese Christmas and New Years. Apparently, around this time, the Japanese have 3 different parties. The first one is a Christmas party, the second is a year end party and the last is a New Year party. The end of the year is a fun time in Japan! I can't wait!

Visit to the doctor

Sorry for the late post this week. It turns out that my self diagnosis was correct and I did indeed have Shingles. With that plus the cold and the workload from school I've been bedridden for the past week or so. When I went to the doctor, he gave me A LOT of medicine. I had to take 12 pills a day (4 with every meal) and apply a cream to the Shingles twice a day. I was freaking out because I thought what I had was really bad if I needed that much medicine. However, getting that much medicine is apparently the norm here in Japan. In fact, one of my friends who is studying abroad here from China said that they get even more medicine in China! The most medicine I've ever had to take was probably about 4 a day so you could imagine my surprise when I received all that medicine. And it was expensive! With all the visits and medicine, the fees were over $100 with the insurance! But I'm pretty good now so I guess it was worth it.

Getting sick

Here's a nice fact for you all:

The hospitals in Japan close on the weekends and have relatively short hours on the weekdays (close at 6pm)

I have some sort of weird rash on my head that kind of came out of no where. I did some Googling and self diagnosed myself with Shingles. I've had this rash for about a week now and it's progressivly gotten worse. I decided I should go yesterday, but that's when I found out the hospitals close. Mind you, nearly all the doctors seemingly work in the hospitals, so you go to the hospital here even for just a cold. Odd huh? Anyway the hospitals will be open tomorrow so I'm going to go tomorrow. I'm a little nervous for my hospital experience since I'm sure I won't be able to understand all of the medical terms and such. I'll try my best!