happylife

The Backache is Back

I don't remember how many times I have suffered this kind of pain in these five years. The pain has come back again to disturb my peaceful life. It never goes away whether I lie down, sit, stand or whatever position I take. It's literally a continuous pain. The Chinese character which implies "back" is composed of two parts; one has the meaning of "body" and the other has the meaning of "important." Yes, the back where I have the terrible pain right now is really an important part of our body. It was only one month ago when the last pain came. The frequency of its visit is clearly increasing. It's so often that I now know what I should do in this case -- to take a rest, to change the posture as often as possible and not to eat too much. I also know the benefit of this pain -- it's really effective for dieting. I'm going to take this pain as the warning from my body that my weight is too much.

Hay fever

The other day, I heard an interesting story about hay fever on a radio program. As you know, quite a few people in Japan are suffering from hay fever and are obliged to wear masks. There are so many people wearing masks that you can't distinguish a bank robber in a crowd. Hay is not actually the criminal in Japan's case and everyone knows that the real culprit is cedar pollen. Where did it come from then? About two thirds of Japan's land is forest and almost half of it is artificial, cedar forest. Originally, cedar is not a strong tree and less than 20% is the natural ratio of cedar trees against other trees including maple, beech and so on. It was the government official who started to plant cedar after The World War II. It was not a bad decision in the beginning because cedar was useful as a building material, but the problem, which can be called as their crime, was that they kept planting cedar trees over and over again after they found that too many cedar causes a lot of problems -- unnaturally increased cedar trees produce much pollen every year causing hay fever. As they are originally weak trees with short roots, mountains of ceder forests can easily cause landslides and floods. Also, Japanese cedar trees as building materials are out-pushed by foreign, reasonable trees.

Dentists in Japan

I'm sorry to show you such a grotesque picture. It is the inside of my mouth; the purple, damp object on the right side is my tongue and the ivory-white objects on the left side are my back teeth. As you can see in the picture, I have a lot of decayed teeth most of which have been treated except the one in the center. It has been under treatment since last year and I have to go see my dentist every Sunday. He killed my nerves under the tooth last year and since then, he picks up the white gum covering the toot, changes the medicine to treat the inflammation, checks whether the nerves are perfectly killed and recover the white gum every week. He says it will take a few more months to finish this treatment. Fortunately, the treatment itself is not painful because my nerves have already been killed, but I don't like the sound and the smell in the dentist's. Plus, I can't now use the right teeth. It is more or less inconvenient especially when I eat something hot. I miss the quick treatment in the dentist in Vancouver.

Blood donation

I went to donate blood after lunch today. It was almost eleven years ago when I donated my blood last. I had two reasons for the donation; one is of course to contribute to someone who needs blood and the other is to check my blood. My everyday life has been more or less lazy, especially after coming back to Tokyo and I was afraid of my health conditions. Fortunately, my blood had no problem and I gave 400ml of blood. I feel better because of the weight loss after the injection. One thing I was surprised at was that there were a lot of young people waiting for the blood donation in the center. I think that is because they can enjoy free drink and a fast-food hamburger there. This blood donation card, which is given to all the donor, has a point system in which we can get a present by gathering the points. It seems to be working to increase the popularity of blood donation.

An electric toothbrush

It was more than seven years ago when I started using an electric toothbrush for the first time in my life and since then my teeth have been in good conditions. I would see a dentist almost every year not to check my bad teeth but to treat them, however, thanks to this high-tech brush, I don't have to visit the scary, painful and unlucky place any more. The brush head vibrates and generates sound waves or ultra sound waves which remove the plaque on and between teeth. It's so effective that we can realize that our tooth surface becomes smooth after only one brushing. If you are not using this wonderful tool, I strongly recommend to use it. It costs around 100 bucks but it's economical in the long term.

A private pool

I used to enjoy swimming in this pool before I went to Vancouver four years ago. It is located on the top floor of a hotel and we can enjoy the panorama view of Tokyo as well as swimming itself. It is a little bit expensive even after the membership discount, but I loved it because I could occupy the pool almost by myself. I would often swim there for an hour and then enjoy taking a nap in the luxurious atmosphere. A few days ago, I went to the hotel after a long break and found that some of the facilities were upgraded. A wooden deck was added around the pool side and all the reclining chairs were new. What I felt most convenient was the key-less lockers. We don't have to carry the locker key any more by setting a four digit code as a key. This pool is mainly for the hotel guests and it is busy after the check-in time, therefore we have to visit there between the check-out and check-in time to occupy it. Unfortunately, most businessmen cannot do that because they are working in that time. However, I can do that. I have to say I am very lucky.

Detained at a hotel watching TV news

As soon as I checked in the hotel last night, I went to bed without taking a bath or even changing my clothes. It was before 6:00 o'clock when I waked up in this morning and I felt better with my stomach still sleeping then. However, when my stomach waked up after several minutes the yellowish fluid came out again. I decided to stay in the hotel room all day long. Fortunately, it was clean and cozy with a garden view full of green. I stayed there working on the Internet with my PC, listening to music, lying on the bed enjoying the green leaves and the blue sky out of the window and sometimes watching Japanese TV. As I have no TV set in my home room, it was almost after three years that I watched Japanese TV programs on purpose and I felt a strange feeling especially with news programs. Why do they repeat the same news reports again and again? After the system failure of an airline was reported hundred times in the morning, the self suicide of the current Minister was reported thousand times in the afternoon. There must be other important news articles which was hidden behind them. I think it's dangerous to depend on TV too much because they can easily control the viewers by limiting and altering information. Anyway, what is more important for me now is to get back my healthy and strong stomach to enjoy fresh seafood in this island. It's not the time for me to watch TV in the room!

A drip

It was the day when I was going to leave for Hokkaido, the north part of Japan. Everything had been set up; airlines, hotels and rent-a-car. It seemed perfect, but there is nothing perfect in the world, at least around me. I was suffered from a sudden and terrible diarrhea. I got a fever as high as 38.6 degrees too. It was Sunday and most hospitals are closed in Japan, but I fortunately found a hospital open on Sundays on the Internet. My mother drove me there and I got a drip injection. Thanks to the injection and medicine, my fever dropped down soon and I became to feel better except for the diarrhea. It comes unexpectedly with yellowish fluid wherever I am. I feel as if I was carrying a time bomb. Anyway, I could somehow got on the airplane and arrived at the hotel in Chitose. The weather is cool and beautiful just like in Vancouver and the forecast says this weather keeps on for a week. All I have to do now is to recover. I hope to enjoy fresh seafood as soon as possible.

Multi-Purpose Solution

I had been using contact lenses of continuous wearing type for more than ten years. I loved them because they were so convenient that I almost forgot I was nearsighted. Unfortunately most of that type of lenses went out of production and it is getting harder to purchase them. The reason for the production stoppage is obscure but I guess they were dangerous or they didn't sell well. I read a news article about a stupid patient who wore them so long that he couldn't take them off and had to go into surgery of peeling the lenses off his eye balls. What a painful story! Anyway, I'm now mainly wearing so-called monthly type lenses. They are wearable for a month but they have to be removed and cleaned every night. I didn't like this work of cleaning the contact lenses because I would have to boil them to kill bacterias, use a couple of different solutions to resolve protein and oil. However, we don't have to bothered such a troublesome job anymore thanks to this Multi-Purpose Solution. It can clean, rinse, disinfect, lubricate, store and remove protein at one time. Sure, it is not so easy as the continuously wearing type, but it's easy enough even for me to use. It might be the best trade-off between safety and convenience.

Unhealthy days

I was startled to see my face in the mirror this morning. It was so pale and aged. I had been unshaven for days and it was for the first time after a long break that I looked into the mirror under the sun. Face color looks warm and good under an incandescent lamp. I know that is the main reason for my pale face, but that's not all. My life had actually been unhealthy for the past few weeks, especially after the new year started. I spent most of my time in front of the PC or in the bed without going out and seeing other people. I had been in a state of social dropout. What was I doing in my room facing towards the PC? I had been doing a programming work and could complete a small version-up for my system. It is true but not completely true. I lost most of my time in front of the PC watching Japanese soap operas and movies on the Internet. It was such a waste of time and I can't regret enough. I have decided to recover my life by getting up early in the morning and going to bed early at night.