Thermal Scanners & Holter Monitors


What can I say? The land of the Rising Sun has instituted some really neat methods for the detection of and prevention of entry of the H1N1. It is both weird and super cool.

I've started calling the Japanese Embassy in D.C. & American Airlines to check on the status of our flight. I've also gotten a hold of the Japanese Health Ministry. Apparently they set up a hotline specifically for Swine Flu questions. I do not know if they will be able to answer my English questions, but maybe they'll make a funny blog post.

Also, Brian was a robot-for-a-day. My hubby, the cutest man in the world, got his chest shaved by a no nonsense Eastern European nurse weilding a pink disposable razor yesterday evening in order to have 5 electrodes attached to him in order to transmit every single heart beat to a nifty Holter Heart monitor. He is a cyborg and I love him. But he wouldn't let me snap a pic for this blog. If I ever get one, I'll take a pic & post it. Promise.

8:33 PM | Category: | 0 comments

ni shu!






Tomorrow marks my two week countdown.

I currently have sticky notes attached to most items in the house in an attempt to commit as much vocabulary to memory as possible. I also read Asahi.com every day to be all current on Japanese events.

My goal is to get as much Kanji learned as possible now. I can basically identify any Hiragana letter on site and am getting much, much better with Katakana. Plus, I am only two lessons away from my DSi going completely Japanese and am more than half way through my Human Japanese lessons. Poor Brian has to give me access to his computer for at least an hour every night. And has been tasked with testing me with flashcards. And has to hear me talk about Tokyo obsessively. And has to read all of the links, emails and articles I keep finding on the 30 million shops I want to visit, izakaya I want to eat in and places I want to day trip to.
So, my little list of tasks for this week includes scheduling the online payments for all of the bills that will need to get paid while we are away (ie: school loans, mortgage, etc.) get the travelers checques, buy traveler's pillows and start to look into packing. Oh! And prescriptions - we need a few of those to make that plane ride bearable!
Gotta post more regularly to get used to posting regularly. . .
8:08 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Hajimaru!


Between My Japanese Coach on the DSi & Japanese Human on Brian's computer, I believe that I will be almost completely capable of finding a bathroom, buying a cup of coffee & telling someone my name. I am really excited!

Today turned out to be an awesome 'Planning Stuff for our Tokyo Trip' day. Horizaru got back in touch & we're both set to go for out tattoos. I learned the entire Hiragana and am ten characters into Katakana. Plus, there are like 2 pages worth of super basic vocabulary that I am just waiting to use. I even bought a phone card to call the beautiful hotel we'll be staying at to find out how the heck to get there from Narita airport & whether we'll need power adapters or not.

I've so many lists compiled for this little adventure of ours. I have a 'Food to Try' list, a "Stuff to See' list, a "Things to Buy' list - in fact, I see future blog posts on each of these. And more. Basically, I think I'm just going to add anything 'Japan Trip' related. Yippee!
11:44 PM | Category: | 1 comments